New York (HedgeCo.net) – ML Capital, a leading investment manager and promoted of UCITS funds, has recently published its first Quarterly UCITS Funds Barometer. The presentation follows a survey by ML Capital of active investors currently allocating to UCITS about their forthcoming strategy allocations and the data shows that most of the primary “UCITS-able” hedge fund strategies are to see large inflows in the coming months.

ML Capital polled a diverse range of active investors in alternative UCITS strategies and will be conducting the same research every quarter in order to track the distribution of asset flows between UCITS strategies.

The range of allocators surveyed is purposely diverse to reflect the widening of the UCITS investor base as hedge funds move increasingly from the offshore centres to onshore jurisdictions. Respondents range from insurance and pension funds to private banking organisations, with a significant proportion of retail advisers currently catering for the most active buyer of alternative UCITS, the mid-net-worth investor.

Key stats include:

• Global Macro Discretionary strategies are expected to experience the largest inflows of capital in the coming months, with 59 percent of respondents planning to increase their exposure to the asset class.
• Investors also see significant potential in the Event Driven sector with 56 percent of respondents planning to increase their Multi Strategy holdings, closely followed by Merger Arbitrage (53 percent) with expectations for rising M&A activity in 2011.
• Long/Short Equity funds also appear well positioned to experience inflows, with 97 percent of investors planning to either increase or maintain their US and Global Long/Short Equity allocations. The growing interest in and the existing undersupply of both strategies within the UCITS space is expected to lead to a number of new fund launches over the coming months.
• Quantitative strategies also appear to be an attractive option for investors with 44 percent looking to boost their allocations to CTAs and managed futures.

“The alternative UCITS industry is still in its infancy and the large demand indicated in our initial survey for most of the primary hedge fund strategies is a reflection, I believe, of the fact that the vast majority of proven hedge fund strategies have yet to arrive in the UCITS game.” John Lowry, Chairman of ML Capital said, “It is clear that there is growing investor preference for well regulated absolute return investment products that offer attractive returns. The movement towards investing in alternative Ucits is demonstrating that this is not just a knee jerk short term reaction but a real trend that has created significant asset raising opportunities for those managers who have spotted the UCITS market potential in this early yet exciting stage.”

Editing by Alex akesson