ALTIN, the alternative investment company owned by Swiss bank Syz & Co, said yesterday at its annual general meeting to shareholders that a ...

ALTIN, the alternative investment company owned by Swiss bank Syz & Co, said yesterday at its annual general meeting to shareholders that a “good investment performance” had been achieved in 2004, with its various hedge fund strategies achieving an average rise of 11.7 per cent.

Although the firm added that 2005 has been a much tougher year and its portfolio of hedge funds was down 1.87 per cent year-to-date.

The firm said in a statement: “Last year was globally positive for the hedge funds held by ALTIN, particularly in the Long/Short (+16.86 per cent) and relative value (+16.10 per cent) segments, which yielded higher results than Macro and CTA funds (+2.01 per cent). This resulted in a net overall performance for ALTIN of +11.73 per cent for 2004.”

The firm added: “By contrast, the beginning of 2005 proved rather challenging for hedge funds in general, particularly following General Motors' credit downgrade, which triggered a marked correction in the credit markets.”

ALTIN's current portfolio comprises: arbitrage and relative value funds, which represent nearly 36 per cent of the total investments, split between the "Distressed Securities", "Event Driven", "Fixed Income Arbitrage" and "Multi-Strategy" sub-styles. "Long/Short Equity" strategies constituted the second most important allocation with a weighting of nearly 35 per cent. "Macro Trading" funds represented 22 per cent of the portfolio while managed futures amounted to 4 per cent.