Man Group Launches Onshore Version Of Giant Hedge Fund

Man Group PLC (EMG.LN) said Thursday it is launching an onshore version of its AHL product, one of the largest single hedge funds with some $20 billion assets under management, in a further sign of the company's confidence in boosting sales to private investors.

Man AHL Diversity is a managed-futures trading program, which means it follows and seeks to exploit persistent market trends. It will be managed by Man Investments, the asset management arm of Man Group, and marketed by hedge fund advisory company Dexion Capital Group.

The world's largest listed hedge fund aims to attract sophisticated investors who will be able to buy in with a minimum initial investment of just GBP100 from its launch in October.

"Historically, the performance of trend following managers has tended to be uncorrelated to traditional stock and bond markets," said Tim Wong, chief executive of AHL.

"We saw that with AHL's highly impressive performance last year when its best performing fund delivered 33% at the same time as some equity markets fell 40%," he added.

Man Group has successfully wooed private investors even as withdrawals by institutional investors have continued. In July the company reported strong sales to private individuals, posting a rebound to $3.4 billion in its first fiscal quarter to June 30.

The introduction of Man AHL Diversity onshore will give individuals exposure to more than 90 global markets and 29 international exchanges trading continuously which makes for a highly liquid product following trends in everything from currencies and interest rates to agricultural assets and metals.

-By Marietta Cauchi, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]