Equilibria scoop industry awards

Bermuda-based Equilibria headed up the list of winners of the Investors Choice European Hedge Fund Awards in London.

The company joined Chenavari and BCM as the night’s big winners.

The awards were announced by Sam Jones, the Financial Times Hedge Fund Correspondent, at the sold-out hedge fund industry gala dinner and awards ceremony held at The Dorchester Hotel.

Equilibria Capital Management’s EQC Global Opportunities Fund won The Emerging Fund of The Year award and the Emerging Discretionary Global Macro Fund of 2012.

Chenavari won the Fund of The Year award with its Toro Capital IA Fund, while BCM & Partners won the UCITS Fund of The Year award with its Duemme Sicav Euro Investments Plus fund.

Equilibria was launched in 2011 and is an alternative asset management company focused on absolute return strategies. EQC Global Opportunities, a global macro fund, delivered a net return to investors of +10.6 per cent in 2012, and has delivered annualized returns of 8.5 per cent since inception through December 31, 2012.

As well as its Bermuda office, the firm is also based in Geneva, Switzerland and is managed by former Morgan Stanley executives and portfolio managers Daniel Tafur and Fabio Lopez Cerón.  Tafur, the Chief Investment Officer of  Equilibria Capital, is the spouse of a Bermudian, while the Bermuda office has 100 per cent Bermudian/Spouse of Bermudian employees.

Uniquely, these Hedge Fund Awards had extensive input from investors. HedgePo consulted with some of the most respected institutional investors in the industry to develop a judging framework that reflects their own investment criteria.

Investors were directly involved in the judging of the awards and the judges, as well as many other investor members of the HedgePo research portal, attended the awards gala dinner and ceremony.

Participating judges included Aberdeen Asset Management, ABN AMRO Advisors, Ascension Health, Culross Global Management, DNB Asset Management, E.I.M., Feri Trust GmbH, Gems Advisors, Lyxor Asset Management, RPM, SEI Investments, Stenham Advisors, The Rock Creek Group and the TfL Pension Fund. Other investors presenting awards on the night included HFIM, the Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund, bfinance and The Wellcome Trust.