Toscafund Asset Management and ML Capital are pleased to announce the restructuring and rebranding of the Pegasus UCITS Fund, the inaugural fund of the MontLake UCITS Platform. Launched in September 2010, the fund is now re-launching as the Tosca Micro Cap UCITS Fund. MontLake is a leading independent platform for UCITS funds that provides investors with access to a range of liquid, transparent and regulated investment products domiciled in Ireland.
The Fund will invest primarily in UK listed «micro cap» companies (defined as companies with a market capitalisation of up to £250m) and will seek to exploit inefficiencies in this sector of the market. This is a large universe of companies, many of which receive little coverage and are poorly understood in the market. Toscafund has a proven track record over the long term in UK mid-cap and small-cap investing, and the Tosca Micro Cap UCITS Fund is a natural extension of this same fundamental, value-orientated strategy, applied to the opportunity-rich UK micro cap sector.
The Fund will be led and managed by Matthew Siebert and supported by analysts Daniel Cane and Jamie Taylor. They work with and are supported by the team of investment professionals within Toscafund, many with over 20 years of investment experience. The Fund will capitalise on Toscafund’s mid cap expertise, employing the same core skill sets and doing deep dive research into companies, markets, sectors and peers, and benefitting from the existing relationships with analysts, brokers and companies.
The Tosca Micro Cap UCITS Fund’s capacity will be set at £50m, and Toscafund partners intend to invest a minimum of 10% in the Fund. The revised investment policy will also allow for investment of up to 20% of the NAV in companies that have a larger capitalisation, of up to £1bn. The Fund will have a diversified portfolio of 30 to 40 holdings, with risk limits governing position sizing.
According to Cyril Delamare, CEO of ML Capital: «Pegasus was the first fund to launch on the MontLake Platform, and it is exciting for us to see it develop as the Tosca Micro Cap UCITS Fund. Toscafund are a best in class manager and are committed to growing the fund to its full potential – we look forward to its progress in the year ahead.»
Martin Hughes, Founder and CEO of Toscafund said: «I look forward to investing in the Tosca Micro Cap UCITS Fund as the fund managers will uncover hidden gems, companies with high growth prospects that are neglected by mainstream funds as the valuations are deemed too small. This will be a very profitable strategy and an area where you find the acorns that then turn into oak trees.»