Global announced today that the Global Distressed Fund was ranked second by Eurekahedge based on its annualized returns and Sharpe ratio, in recognition of the Fund’s performance over its eight-year history. BarclayHedge has also ranked the Global Distressed Fund 8th in the Fund of Funds – Distressed Securities/Event-Driven category for October 2009

Commenting on the funds’ performances, the Head of Hedge Funds at Global, Mr. Joseph Joseph said, “We are proud of the performance of the Global Distressed Fund, which is amongst the top performing funds globally in its space. The Global Distressed fund continues to outperform its peers and is recognized by such leading Alternative Investment databases.”

Mr. Joseph added that the excellent performance of the Global Distressed Fund, which had received performance recognitions from Barclays Capital and Eurekahedge previously, could be attributed to Global's extensive due diligence and rigorous research that allows it to identify the most attractive managers specializing in the Distressed/Credit strategy across the globe. The fund is currently up estimated 10.4% as of 31 October 2009, which is higher than its benchmarks within the distressed fund of funds strategy.

The government stimuli globally to inject liquidity and restart the credit markets have produced favourable results and returned some stability and optimism to the markets. The past months have witnessed bank debts and corporate spreads tighten, thus reflecting in on the fair value of assets.

Mr. Rajiv Nakani, Head of Alternatives at Global added that , “Although the economic and financial environment continues to be uncertain over the near future, these conditions provide an excellent environment for acquiring high quality distressed assets via fund of funds investments that would provide excellent risk adjusted returns. Diligent research and cautious approach to investing would provide the route to generating good returns in current times.” 

Global Hedge Funds group manages a wide range of funds ranging from regional specific to strategy focused fund of funds and hedge funds. The Global Distressed Hedge Fund, which received multiple awards in 2009 from Eurekahedge and BarclayHedge for superior performance in the distressed strategy category, also benefits from Global's dynamically evolving Hedge Funds team, which has invested across over 80 different hedge fund managers. The team is part of the investment committee that oversees the implementation of a thorough investment approach and adheres to strict risk management guidelines to generate superior absolute returns.

The Global Distressed Fund provides GCC investors a hedge against continued near-term market turbulence and an opportunity to profit from the very attractive distressed strategy space that has been amongst the top performing strategies in 2009

Mr. Rajiv concluded by saying that the Hedge Funds team at Global will continue its pursuit to bring valuable products and solutions to its clients and achieve capital growth while stressing on minimizing downside risk.