Austrian boutique handed €150m institutional mandate

Austrian boutique Ithuba Capital has almost doubled its assets under management after being awarded a €150 million mandate from German public insurance company Provinzial NordWest.

The Vienna-based company will oversee the money in a sovereign credit portfolio within the European periphery, which also covers Eastern Europe.

The award of the mandate marks the largest institutional mandate for Ithuba Capital to-date and takes its assets under management to €370 million.

In addition to overseeing the sovereign credit portfolio, Ithuba will also use its global macro expertise in an advisory capacity on Provinzial NordWest’s existing sovereign credit portfolios.

This is set to call upon Ithuba’s specialism which focuses on sovereign credit, interest rate and fixed income investing.

Commenting on the award, Ithuba Capital said the mandate will have a very strong reflection of its flagship strategy, the Ithuba Macro Opportunities fund.

This Luxembourg-domiciled fund was launched in October 2010 with €68 million in assets under management.

Over the two years to the end of October 2010 it has returned 5.4% in euro terms. This compares to the average manager in the Citywire Alternative Ucits Global Macro sector who has lost 1.04% over the same period.

The firm Ithuba Capital was founded in 2008 and has offices in Vienna, Munich and Dusseldorf.