Argonautica

Professional investors can review published thought leadership and market updates from the Argonaut Investment Team.

4 posts found for 2016

‘2016.... a look back at the worst year ever’

“F*ck You 2016…a look back on the worst year ever” is the title of a best-selling book, currently sold out on Amazon UK. These are sentiments with which many in the active fund management industry will share, unless you manage a commodity fund or a value strategy, in which case it was a welcome relief (perhaps vindication) after years of purgatory. 2016 has thrown up unique challenges for active managers operating different strategies often irrespective of views on market direction. Generally, the…

‘Politics, Protectionism and Posturing’

It was announced on Monday that the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy was reopening review proceedings for regulatory approval of the takeover of technology company Aixtron by Chinese investment fund Fujian Grand Chip. According to the bidder, the official reasoning stated that “information available to the German Federal Government indicates the knowhow of AIXTRON also compromises security-related technologies, in particular the defence sector, which could be revealed through…

‘Aixtron’s Beauty Parade’

German technology company Aixtron today received a cash bid at €6 per share from Chinese private equity company Fujian Grand Chip1. This transaction value of €670m represents a 50% premium to the average price over the last 3 months of €3.97 and a 20% premium to the average price over the last 12 months of €5.041. Argonaut funds and mandates currently own 9.7m shares (8.6% of the company) which to our knowledge makes us today the company’s largest shareholder. We believe it is in our unit-holders…

‘Shorting, Squeezing and Drawdowns’

We short to reduce market risk but in doing so take on a different kind of risk. Our short book is what gives our equity long/short Absolute Return product its non-correlation to risk assets: its ability to make (and lose) money in all market environments and the possibility of generating market beating returns with lower than market volatility. In periods of market drawdown the existence of the short book has protected the assets of the fund (see Figure 1. Argonaut Absolute Return drawdown analysis…