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| Investor appeal: Phylon's two partner-managers, Christophe Beauvilain (left) and Ralf Laier, bring experience and knowledge of core European and emerging markets |
LAUNCHING A ROADSHOW on September 11 2001 was not the luckiest start for Phylon Investment Advisors. "I took an easyJet flight to Geneva and when I got to the hotel I saw what had happened on TV," recalls the firm's founder, Ralf Laier.
Needless to say, the roadshow wasn't particularly successful.
But since that unpromising start, Phylon's flexible investment style, the experience of its two partners and decent performance has been attracting funds at a steady clip. It more than tripled assets under management between September 2003, when the fund had $8 million, and February 2004, when it closed its book at nearly $30 million.
Phylon's European multistrategy hedge fund was launched in October 2001 with a discounted management fee of 1% to help distinguish it from the competition and attract cost-conscious investors.
After two years of running the fund, in October last year Phylon introduced a new offer before the planned closing of its initial share class.