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 26 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. Kago Moeng fulfills the role of an investment analyst and focuses on fundamental analysis. Kago is a CFA level 2 candidate and has a Bcom Honours Degree in Investment Management.