QFS Asset Management announced Tuesday that it will return client assets by the end of January.
As of March 28, the fundamental global macro hedge fund manager managed $472 million on a discretionary basis and $550 million on a non-discretionary basis, according to its most recent ADV filing with the SEC.
Leo Murray, a spokesman, did not return a call seeking information about the percentage of QFS assets that are managed for institutional investors.
Karlheinz Muhr, QFS' CEO and chairman, said in a news release the firm concluded “the current market environment does not offer adequate risk-adjusted opportunities for fundamentally driven quant macro strategies and that is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. In the absence of opportunities, QFS has determined that it is in the best interests of its investors to return all capital.”
QFS will continue to research global macro and currency markets in a quest to “develop new and innovative sources of returns,” Mr. Muhr said in the release, noting the firm's executives are “confident” markets eventually will normalize, allowing fundamentally driven global macro strategies to generate risk-adjusted returns.
In February 2013, GAM US Holding Inc., a subsidiary of GAM Group AG, acquired a 30% minority stake in QFS.
“We support the decision. QFS has always had the investment flexibility and integrity to act in the best interest of investors which is exactly what they are doing now,” said Stacey Coglan, a GAM spokeswoman, in an e-mail.
