Andrew Switajewski, a former investment partner of billionaire investor George Soros, has established investment firm Swita Investment Management in Australia.
The firm is led by Switajewski. Four analysts will support the firm's investment processes with a chief operating officer and head of investor relations to run the day-to-day operations.
Switajewski was a founding partner of Soros Private Equity in London from 1999 to 2004, helping start Soros's private equity business in Europe. He has also worked for Morgan Stanley in Sydney and New York.
The firm plans to roll out an Australian and international equities fund.
The funds will be long focused but will adopt an investment approach that uses hedging strategies for capital protection in difficult economic and market conditions.
"Our key focus is to conserve and enhance capital by being flexible in our positioning," Switajewski said.
Whilst we are a long-focused fund, we act to protect investors' capital in difficult economic and market conditions by hedging market downside risk."
The portfolio of the funds will be developed through a three-stage process - a trend identifying screen, macroeconomic analysis and fundamental analysis.
"Rather than being categorised as growth or value investors, we are trend followers using sophisticated tools and screens to identify trends and sector themes that are beginning to attract capital and capitalising on them for investors," Switajewski said.
He said his background in private equity allowed him to understand companies in detail.
"The experience of sitting on boards of companies provides our business with the ability to understand and assess the strategy and inherent risks of portfolio companies," he said.
