Visium Asset Management Debuts First Mutual Fund

Visium Asset Management announced the launch of the Visium Event Driven Fund (VIDVX). This is the first mutual fund offering for the alternative asset management firm, which was founded in 2005.

The investment objective of this latest fund is to achieve capital growth while preserving a low correlation to the U.S. equity markets. A mix of two complementary strategies—Special Situations and Merger Arbitrage—target the securities of North American companies, which its portfolio managers feel will be impacted by upcoming corporate events.

The Special Situations Strategy is headed up by Francis X. Gallagher, a 29-year industry veteran. This strategy looks at opportunities where certain anticipated events in a firm’s life cycle could result in a significant increase in value over a specific period of time.

Peter A. Drippé oversees the Merger Arbitrage Strategy, which invests in securities where there may be a chance to capture the spread between the security price at the time it is first announced and the price upon the finalizing of the deal. Drippé has 28 years of industry experience. He and Gallagher were hired together in 2011.

“We are thrilled to offer our Event Driven strategy in a mutual fund format. The Fund allows investors of all sizes the opportunity to take advantage of a strategy that seeks to provide equity-like returns with low volatility comparable to that of a high-quality fixed income portfolio,” said Jacob Gottlieb, MD, CFA, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Visium Asset Management. “We believe the Fund is an excellent addition to an investor’s core portfolio,” he said in a statement.

“Visium continues to grow by strategically adding new products, services and talented investment professionals. Our new mutual fund initiative is a natural extension of our existing product offering,” Gottlieb added in the same statement. “We look forward to further expanding our mutual fund line-up over time and expanding our distribution footprint by working closely with the financial advisor channel.”

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