Montrusco Bolton Investments and Focus Group are partnering to launch of the Montrusco Bolton Focus Global Fund Ltd.

The new hedge fund, which is expected to raise $100 million in the current year will focus on providing investors with positive, absolute returns.

“We are extremely happy to quickly leverage our recently announced partnership with a leader in hedge funds, Focus Group, to offer this new product to our clients,” said Sylvain Boulé, president and CEO of Montrusco Bolton Investments.

Mazen Jabban, Co-CEO of Focus Group said, “Focus Group’s unique position as a specialized alternative investment leader is the ideal extension to Montrusco Bolton’s equally unique position as one of Canada’s leading asset management firms.”

Funds will be initially allocated to 15 outside specialized portfolio managers focusing on United States, Western Europe and Japanese markets. Some 50% of the capital will be allocated to long/short positions managers and the remaining half will be earmarked for Convertible Arbitrage, Event Driven and Merger Arbitrage managers.

All managers will focus on generating absolute, positive returns, rather than beating stock market indexes. The objectives of the fund are to maintain volatility below 50% of typical equity volatility, to provide protection in market downturns, as well as to provide investors significant diversification benefits and multi-level risk management.

Montrusco Bolton and Focus Group recently formed an exclusive partnership aimed at becoming leaders in Canada in absolute return portfolios. Both firms believe that Absolute Return Strategies are an essential asset class for any long-term portfolio. The two firms are also building a Web site, hedgefunds.ca, to offer Canadian investors the possibility of expanding their knowledge about hedge funds.