RWC's existing Global Innovation Absolute Alpha Fund will change its name to RWC Asia Absolute Alpha Fund, subject to regulatory approval, as the former's manager Priya Kodeeswaran leaves the firm. The rebranded fund will sit within the firm's Luxembourg SICAV UCITS range, replicating an Asia long/short equity strategy that RWC launched in April 2015.

Garret Mallal, who manages the Cayman-domiciled RWC Asia Opportunity Fund from Singapore, will manage the new fund. With 10 years' experience in investment management and research in the Asia-Pacific region, he joined RWC as portfolio manager within James Johnstone and John Malloy’s emerging markets team last year. The team manages over $1.6 billion in long-only and long/short emerging, frontier and Asia equity funds.

The $67.8 million Global Innovation Absolute Alpha Fund, which invests primarily in global equities through a long/short strategy, returned 4.9 per cent year-to-date, according to Morningstar data.

“Long/short equity strategies have seen a resurgence of demand over the last two years as investors look to UCITS as the preferred structure for these strategies,” said Dan Mannix, chief executive of RWC Partners.

“There remains a lack of high-quality Asia long/short funds and we feel Garret’s portfolio management approach is stand-out, so offering it to investors in a UCITS gives the opportunity for a broader range of investors to access the fund.”

RWC Partners, which was launched in 2000, invests over $11 billion as at 29 January 2016.