Press Releases

21 May 2007
EEA Fund Management’s EPIC Select Opportunities Fund celebrates third birthday and three years of stellar performance.

Boutique house proves that big things come in small packages:

EEA Fund Management’s specialist hedge fund, EPIC Select Opportunities Fund, has consistently outperformed its benchmark since its launch three years ago, driven by its focus on under-researched companies.

EPIC Select Opportunities Investment Company plc is an open-ended experienced investor fund established in the Isle of Man. The fund’s objective is to invest in a focused portfolio of UK equities targeting absolute return. The fund holds long positions as well as having the ability to short.

The fund is jointly managed by Paul Goacher, Simon Shaw, Jonathan Fieldsend and Greg McNulty and since inception in May 2004 to 30th April 2007 has seen a substantial growth in returns of 118.05% compared to its benchmark, the RBS Base Rate + 1%, which has returned just 17.52%. In the four months to the 30th April 2007, the fund returned 9.61%.

The £6.5m EPIC Select Opportunities invests in companies that the team believes are materially undervalued by the stock market at large. The fund managers look for examples of companies that are either recovering from periods of underperformance or where past investment by the company is now beginning to pay off. Typical current investments would include Staffline, London Capital Group or Immunodiagnostic Sciences.

Paul Goacher, Fund Manager at EEA, said:

“We are passionate about investing and believe in our ability to discover value in small and mid-sized companies and achieve above-average returns for the fund over the medium term. More than 1,000 companies have been studied over this three-year period, by our team, incorporating trips to every part of the UK. The Select Fund is challenging and exciting as we search for both over and undervalued sectors or companies through global macro, local sector and micro analysis. Also having the ability to gear the portfolio if we are positive, or take a substantial cash or short position in overvalued or uncertain markets, is a great opportunity.”

“UK equities have shown strong performance in 2007 based on corporate and VC-backed takeover activity. Various cyclical industries such as property, retail or minerals and commodities are reaching new highs though global inflation and interest rate rises are more evident. Consequently, we are underweight these sectors and have been increasing our cash weighting and looking to increase our short positions. Most of our long holdings are cash generating companies at reasonable multiples with above-average growth and strong management ownership. Few new investments have been made recently, though we have taken some small positions in early stage industries such as in smart metering”

Simon Shaw, Managing Director and Fund Manager at EEA, added:

“These are very exciting times for EEA. Our two OEICs, the CF EPIC UK Equity Fund and CF EPIC Insurance & General Fund, both celebrated their three year anniversaries in late 2006 and we are anticipating this as the start of very good times for the Select Opportunities Fund, which the managers at EEA themselves are heavily invested in. The Life Settlement Fund has performed well too, investing in the relatively undiscovered investment field of life policies. We look forward to delivering continued good news!”

EEA, which completed an MBO from EPIC Specialist Investments Limited in 2005, was founded by Simon Shaw in 2003 and specialises in the management of high performance equity mandates. The company manages two top performing UK-based mutual funds and an offshore hedge fund, the EEA Life Settlements Fund as well as a closed-ended investment fund listed on AIM that specialises in the carbon markets.