Trafalgar Asset Managers co-founder Lee Robinson has launched a new investment management firm, Altana Wealth, and is opening the Altana Sovereign Diversity Fund to external investors.

The fund's objective is to deliver absolute real returns to investors and provide diversification benefits to a sovereign portfolio by offering an inflation hedge through the avoidance of weak currencies, the firm says. The venture has been funded with $25 million of Robinson's personal money, and all key management have equity participation in the new firm.

Prior to forming Altana Wealth, Robinson was co-founder of Trafalgar Asset and the portfolio manager of Trafalgar Catalyst Fund. He brings over 10 years of hedge fund industry experience to his new role. 

"The goal is to profit from the appreciation of currencies of stronger sovereign credits and to protect investors' wealth from the stealth defaults of debtor nations. This is a great opportunity for anyone who earns income from or holds wealth in any of the five main currencies," said Robinson in a media release. 

Other members of the Altana team include Ian Gunner as portfolio manager, Antony Lingard as chief operating officer and Neil Panchen as chief technology officer. Gunner previously held senior research and foreign exchange strategy roles at Chase Manhattan, SBC Warburg and ABN Amro; Lingard used to be a managing director at UBS' prime brokerage unit, while Panchen was the global head of commodities IT and global head of FX IT at Deutsche Bank.