Plenum Investments Closes Power Hedge Fund as Clients Seek Higher Risk

Date: Friday, June 4, 2010
Author: Bloomberg

Plenum Investments Ltd., a Zurich- based money manager, closed its Plenum Power Fund as of March 31 after customers opted to invest in the more risky Plenum Power Surge fund that achieved better returns.

The Plenum Power Surge fund, which holds assets of 80 million euros ($98 million) and trades in the Nordic electricity market, returned 15 percent this year through May, according to portfolio manager Jukka Virtala. The Plenum Power Fund grew 6.3 percent from January through March, according to Bloomberg data.

That’s still more than the average global hedge fund, which rose 3.8 percent this year through April, Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. said on May 7.

“The closure has nothing to do with the result,” Virtala said today in a telephone interview. “The customers wanted to invest in Power Surge instead so we closed it,” he said.

The risk in Plenum Power Surge is “a little bit higher and that’s what the customers asked for,” Virtala said.

The Plenum Power Fund started trading in November 2005 and Plenum Power Surge in November 2007, according to the data.

Hedge funds are mostly private pools of capital whose managers participate substantially in the profit from speculation on asset prices.