(February 26 – 11:30 ET) — A Vancouver-based hedge fund manager attributes the increased popularity of hedge funds to greater support from independent advisors and financial planners.

“Our growth has been pretty linear over the last few years, but there has been definitely a greater awareness these days for hedge funds among financial planners in Canada,” Vincent Grdina, president and co-founder of Vancouver-based Mondiale Asset Management tells HedgeWorld.com. Mondiale now has about $61.0 million in its two hedge funds. Mondiale’s management team also includes Neil Beattie and Allan Kelley.

“Canada has pretty much followed the U.S.’s lead in hedge funds and the industry has evolved more slowly, but hedge funds are gaining acceptance here. And, we’re really among the first wave to enter the market. When we started out, we had only $1 million under management,” says Grdina.

HedgeWorld reports that $46.0 million Horizons Mondiale Hedge Fund is actually sold as a mutual fund through third-party financial planners and brokers in Alberta and British Columbia. It has another $15 million in a managed account for the multistrategy Horizons Aggressive Hedge Fund. Grdina says registering the funds in Ontario is the next step for the firm.

“We’ve had good performance and people are paying more attention to hedge fund investments, so it’s a good time for our strategies,” Grdina said.

He reports that the core fund had a return of 28.4% for the 12 months ended January 31. It plays global equity markets, trading equities, stock futures and exchange-traded funds. It has had an average annualized return of 16.4% since its inception in September 1997. The aggressive fund was up 50.6% for the 12 months ended Jan. 31, and has produced average annualized returns of 30.8% since its inception in 1997.
-IE Staff