Exciting opportunity to leverage Axiom’s expertise in European financial stocks
Axiom Alternative Investments, the independent asset manager specialising in European financial stocks, is pleased to announce the launch of its new Axiom Long Short Equity Fund, as it extends its equity range.
This launch complements its Axiom European Banks Equity, a long-only fund specialising in European banking equities, which was launched 10 years ago and has been a strong performer.
Indeed, the Axiom European Banks Equity has outperformed the European Banks Stocks index (SX7R) by 52.08% since inception (2014) and by 150.23% since 31 December 2018. Axiom European Banks Equity has recently been named Best Equity Financials Sector Fund (over 3 and 5 years) by the 2024 LSEG Lipper Fund Awards for Europe and Switzerland.
The new fund, Axiom Long Short Equity, is designed as an investment solution with an absolute return objective, aiming to replicate the outperformance of Axiom European Banks Equity above the Stoxx 600 Banks index (SX7R) with lower volatility and downside risk than long-only management. Axiom Long Short Equity will be managed by Antonio Roman, who is the successful lead portfolio manager of Axiom European Banks Equity.
“The capitalisation of the European banking sector now exceeds €1,000 billion, with a wide variety of business models, as reflected in the sector's strong financial results for 2023. For us, this dispersion and market depth are key performance factors in fund management. It's an exceptional investment universe for a specialist like Axiom, providing an exciting opportunity for us to leverage our expertise in European financial stocks and extend our range of equity funds,” says David Benamou, CIO at Axiom Alternative Investments.
“As the European Banks sector turns the page on its 14-year transformation chapter with a record year in 2023, we believe that its improving performance, and the prospects from falling interest rates and economic recovery, create a very good context for the launch of Axiom Long Short Equity”, says Antonio Roman, Axiom’s manager of the new fund.