Eric Sturdza Investments aims to create profit-making opportunities for investors in a difficult market environment with a new fund

• Long-Short-Fund opens up opportunities for profit even when prices are falling
• Experienced management team at Crawford Fund Management contributes corresponding long-term expertise

Frankfurt, 01 November 2022 – The fund company Eric Sturdza Investments has launched a new equity fund – the Strategic Long Short Fund – which can enter into long and short positions. The fund is managed by the investment advisor Crawford Fund Management (“Crawford”) under the management of the experts Christopher L. Crawford, Scott L. Utzinger and Jonathan R. Saunders. The latter have been pursuing a long-short strategy for the past 13 years and have recorded successful performance over this period. Since the strategy was created, returns have averaged 11 % per year and have been positive in 12 out of 13 years (time period 01/02/2009 to 31/08/2022). The risk parameters are exceptionally low: Volatility is at 8.21 % and the maximum drawdown is -11.54 % (time period 01/02/2009 to 30/09/2022).

When selecting long positions, the portfolio management team focuses on owner-run companies in the small- and mid-cap sectors. The discretionary portfolio’s management team has a particular focus on durable business models, the management’s approach and an attractive valuation with future potential. In so doing, Crawford aims for a longer holding period, typically 2 to 4 years. “We clearly regard ourselves as being investors. For us, it is important for the companies to have proven, incentivized, ethical management and that they have either long-term growth opportunities backed by innovation or catalysts for positive change” commented Christopher Crawford, founder, managing partner and CIO at Crawford Fund Management.

The emerging paradigm shift in global interest rates and inflation, the continuing geopolitical shocks and the changes of the global economies resulting from the challenges posed by climate change has led to a fundamental transformation in the driving forces of capital markets. Higher costs for refinancing and growth strategies that are not yet profitable are placing many companies under pressure.

According to Crawford, these negative forces create select opportunities to participate in the downward adjustment of equity prices via option securities. Select young hyper-growth companies, which are inherently loss-making, in Crawford’s view, will likely undergo a rationalization. However public limited companies which do not have solid balance sheets and have a high level of debt are also on the target list for short candidates. As a rule, negative exposure is created using put options, in order to reduce the risks of traditional short-selling. 

When selecting equities, company and management characteristics are more important than industry, market capitalisation or country; however, the characteristics Crawford seeks have led to a portfolio that is typically 80 % invested in North America, and the majority of that in small- and mid-cap stocks.

“We are very pleased to have found a proven, professional and detail-oriented partner in Eric Sturdza Investments, to support us in making our successful strategy available to European investors,” Christopher Crawford went on to comment.

Andrew Fish, Managing Director with Eric Sturdza Investments commented: “We are experiencing inflation at levels that have not been seen in decades, with almost all asset classes being impacted. For this reason, we are fortunate to be working with an investment adviser that is equipped with the right skills and experience to navigate this new dynamic, a team we believe will be able to continue to deliver absolute and de-correlated returns. We are confident that the team at Crawford are well placed to find the opportunities and add value for our clients in this new market environment.”

The Strategic Long Short Fund is only authorised for sale in Ireland; however other registrations are being instigated. The fund has been classified as promoting environmental or social characteristics under Article 8 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (‘SFDR’).

The following share classes are offered and may each have specific characteristics reserved to certain categories of investors – details can be found in the Supplement of the Prospectus:

A EUR Class, ISIN IE000JRL4FH0

A CHF Class, ISIN IE0005YRKJ78

A USD Class, ISIN IE000SC1QCD8

A2 EUR Class, ISIN IE0005AD4Y75

A2 CHF Class, ISIN IE000MCNXM50

A2 USD Class, ISIN IE00074ZT5E0

B EUR Class, ISIN IE000195JL60

B CHF Class, ISIN IE000FDK99Y4

B USD Class, ISIN IE000WO9WAJ0

B GBP Class, ISIN IE000T9HWUB2

SI EUR Class, ISIN IE0003IMWY56

SI CHF Class, ISIN IE0007L3Q159

SI USD Class, ISIN IE0009O2NRD1

SI GBP Class, ISIN IE000IVZHYV5

About Crawford Fund Management

Crawford Fund Management was formed in 2009 and is managed by Chris Crawford, Scott Utzinger and Jonathan Saunders (“Crawford”) and is headquartered in Boston. The team pursues an investment strategy which is geared to superior risk-adjusted returns and preservation of capital. In so doing, Crawford uses both long and also short portfolios. Crawford does not focus on a specific sector, a specific geographic region, a specific market capitalisation or a specific investment style, but looks for specific investment characteristics, including a strong orientation to incentives for corporate management. This leads to a promising universe of long-ideas for equities that are typically underreported on Wall Street. An innovative, yet conservative approach, in which selling short takes place via single-name-put options, allows Crawford to benefit from opportunities for returns in areas of the market that are hard to access, and to often record returns even if prices fall.

About Eric Sturdza Investments
 
E.I. Sturdza Strategic Management Limited (“Eric Sturdza Investments”) was founded in November 1999 and is part of the Geneva-based Eric Sturdza Group, which incorporates private bank, family office, wealth manager and management company. Eric Sturdza Investments is responsible for the Group's fund distribution activities, currently relying on exclusive partnerships with selected portfolio managers, all of whom are leaders in their fields and have a solid and long-term track record. Eric Sturdza Investments provides its portfolio managers with a comprehensive infrastructure that allows them to focus on pure portfolio management. Since its foundation more than 20 years ago, the investment company has won numerous awards.

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Tel. +49 (69) 905 505-57

Disclaimer

The views and statements contained herein are those of Crawford Fund Management in its capacity as Investment Adviser to the E.I. Sturdza Strategic Long Short Fund as of 01/11/2022 and are based on internal research and modelling. This does not constitute independent research and under no circumstances should the information contained therein be used as a recommendation to buy or sell any security or financial instrument or service or to pursue any investment product or strategy or otherwise engage in any investment activity or as an expression of an opinion as to the present or future value of any security or financial instrument. Nothing contained in the views and statements by Crawford Fund Management are intended to constitute legal, tax, securities or investment advice. The views and statements contain “forward-looking statements”. All projections, forecasts or related statements or expressions of opinion are forward-looking statements. Although Crawford Fund Management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct, and such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a guarantee, prediction or definitive statement of fact or probability.

Investment involves risk. The value of investments, the funds and the income which may be generated from them can go down as well as up and therefore investors must be able to bear the risks of a substantial impairment or loss of their entire investments. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

This communication is issued by Eric Sturdza Management Company S.A (“ESMC”), a regulated Management Company approved by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier under registration ID S00001025 and appointed by the Fund, registered for distribution in the countries mentioned in this document. ESMC’s registered office address is 16, rue Robert Stumper, L-2557 Luxembourg. ESMC has appointed E.I. Sturdza Strategic Management Limited (“EISSML”), as investment manager and global distributor which is regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission and registered under Company Number 35985. EISSML’s registered office address is 3rd Floor, Maison Trinity, Rue du Pre, St Peter Port, Guernsey GY1 1LT. EISSML is part of the Eric Sturdza Group. E.I. Sturdza Funds plc and its sub-funds are Irish funds authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland. The information contained herein is estimated, unaudited and may be subject to change.