NITROGEN FUND MANAGERS

The Nitrogen Nitrogen RCIS Retail Hedge Fund is a low volatility long/short equity hedge fund, managed on a fundamental basis with a value bias. The fund consists of two books: a long-term risk arbitrage book and a short-term arbitrage book. The long-term book takes advantage of risk-arbitrage opportunities where the manager views stocks as mispriced on a fundamental basis. The short-term book takes advantage of arbitrage opportunities available due to mispricing in the market, using a range of trading strategies. The fund’s investment universe includes JSE-listed and global stocks and derivatives on these. The fund targets low volatility with a maximum 42% net market exposure. The fund has been in operation for 15 years and over that period has outperformed the JSE ALSI with less than a third of the volatility and 82% positive months.

Investment team

The fund is managed by Rowan Williams. Rowan holds an MPhil (Cantab) and is a CFA charterholder with 25 years’ investment experience in equity markets and private equity.  Petri du Plessis is operations manager, responsible for operational management including treasury and reporting. He has a BCom Honours in Accounting from the University of Pretoria and is a registered CA(SA) and a CFA Charterholder. David Oberholzer and Willem Oldewage and Kago Moeng fulfil the roles of analyst and focus on fundamental analysis. David holds an MCom Investment Management from the University of Johannesburg as well as being a CFA Charterholder. Willem holds a BCom Honours degree in Investment Management and is a CFA Charterholder. Kago is a CFA level 2 candidate and has a Bcom Honours Degree in Investment Management.