ABOUT
CZ CAPITAL

  • An alternative asset management firm, wholly owned by Partners active in the business
  • Founded in April 2006
  • One strategy: fundamental equity long/short with low net market exposure
  • Offered through both a Cayman based Fund and a UCITS Fund
  • Authorised and regulated by the FCA, and registered with the SEC

Investment Philosophy

Markets and share prices are driven by human actions and will therefore, from time to time, deviate from ‘fair value’. We believe that independent thinkers with good judgement can use fundamental analysis to look through these distortions, and identify opportunities to make money. Positive returns can be achieved irrespective of market direction, and ‘short alpha’ can be generated by the contrarian who is prepared to be early and patient.

Investment Objective

To perform well in all market conditions, targeting attractive risk-adjusted returns with medium volatility and a low correlation to equity markets.

Investment style / approach

  • Fundamental, research-driven investment in UK listed equities
  • Long and short books constructed from the bottom-up, to achieve high ‘unique’ risk content with limited market risk
  • Long-term investment horizon, complemented with the exploitation of short-term trading opportunities
  • Rigorous risk controls to limit drawdowns

Investment Team

Charles Curtis

Charles Curtis is a founding Partner and CEO of CZ Capital LLP.

Prior to this he was a Managing Director and senior portfolio manager at DB Absolute Return Strategies: London. Before starting DB Equilibria UK, he was responsible for the management of UK Performance Funds and Unit Trusts, including the top performing Deutsche UK Growth Trust, and was chairman of Deutsche Asset Management’s UK Investment Committee.

In 1991, Charles joined Deutsche Asset Management from Mercury Asset Management.

In 1985, Charles obtained his BA in English at Manchester College, Oxford.

Steven Evans

Steven Evans is a fund manager and founding Partner of CZ Capital LLP.

Prior to this he was a Managing Director and senior portfolio manager at Deutsche Asset Management for 14 years.

During his time at Deutsche, Steven managed up to £2.5bn of UK equities, achieving top-decile performance over 12 years and outperforming his benchmark in 10 of these years.

In 1988 Steven graduated from Exeter University with a Masters in Finance and Investment.

William Rushmer, CFA

William Rushmer is a fund manager and Partner of CZ Capital LLP.

Prior to this he was a portfolio manager at DB Absolute Return Strategies. Before joining the absolute return team William was an analyst for the Deutsche Asset Management UK equities team, specialising in the financials sector.

In 2003 William graduated with a First Class degree in Economics from the University of Warwick, achieving the highest mark in his year for his dissertation on arbitrage pricing theory.

Marketing and Investor Relations Team

Antonia Brooks

Antonia is a partner of CZ Capital LLP and has responsibility for CZ’s investor relations and marketing.

Antonia was at Deutsche Asset Management with Charles and Steven but more recently has been working outside the financial sector.

While at Deutsche, in addition to managing Institutional global fixed income portfolios and emerging market debt funds, Antonia was responsible for marketing MGAM products to Australasia raising substantial assets for both equity and bond mandates.

Antonia joined Morgan Grenfell Asset Management’s Fixed Income team in 1989 having graduated from Durham University with a BA (Hons) in Economics.

James Bruce

James Bruce is responsible for CZ Capital’s marketing capability.

Prior to joining CZ Capital in August 2018, James was a Vice President within the Prime Brokerage Capital Introductions Team at Morgan Stanley where latterly he was specifically responsible for the distribution of Fundlogic Alternatives UCITS Funds within the UK and Ireland.

Before joining Morgan Stanley, James worked at Oakley Capital where he was responsible for capital raising across their venture capital funds.  His initial role in the City was at ABN AMRO/RBS as a UK mid and small cap equity sales trader where he spent four years following a six year career as a professional cricketer for Hampshire County Cricket Club.

James has a BA in Geography from Durham University.

Operational Team

Owain Lewis

Owain Lewis is a Partner and CFO of CZ Capital LLP.

He is a Chartered Management Accountant, with many years’ experience of accountancy in Asset Management, Investment Banking and Hedge Funds..

In March 2008 Owain became a founding Partner of Samena Capital Management LLP, putting in place and running the Trading, Finance, Operations and Compliance infrastructure. Prior to this he was CFO/COO at Invicta Investment Management LLP.

He began his industry career at HSBC Investment Bank before moving to UBS as a Equity Business Unit Controller.

In 2000, Owain graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a BA (Hons) in Financial Services.

Kevin Mandy

Kevin is the Head of Operations and IT with over 19 years operations and finance experience in the Asset Management and Investment Banking sector.

Kevin is a Chartered Management Accountant having qualified in 2015.

Prior to joining CZ Capital, Kevin worked as Head of Operations at Sloane Robinson Investment Management, managing the Operations team including the Settlements and Fund Administration functions for 13 investment funds focussed on Emerging and Frontier markets.

Before joining Sloane Robinson, Kevin gained experience at Aperios Partners Investment Management, Samena Capital and Citi Alternative Investments, with responsibilities including operations, finance, compliance and IT.

Matthew Wright

Matt Wright is a Partner and Head of Projects of CZ Capital LLP.

Prior to joining CZ, Matt worked for JPMorgan Hedge Fund Services in the new client on-boarding team. Prior to this he worked for Henderson Global Investors, as a Business Analyst in the IT department before joining the Hedge Fund Administration team.

After leaving university Matt joined Tradar Ltd, working on all aspects of their Hedge Fund software offering.

In 2001, Matt graduated from Bournemouth University with a BA (Hons) in Marketing.

James Gore

James is Financial and Fund Controller.

He is a Chartered Certified Accountant with 20 years financial services experience of operations, finance, compliance and accountancy covering investment banks, asset management and hedge funds.

He began his career at HSBC Investment Bank and Morgan Stanley in various operations and accounting roles and gained experience at Marathon Asset Management, Gandhara Capital, Insparo Asset Management and Argenta Asset Management.

James holds a BSc. in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University and an MSc. in Finance from London Business School.

Susan Askew

Susan is the Compliance Manager.  She is a Chartered Banker with over 35 years’ experience in financial services working in compliance, either in-house or as a consultant, since 1987.

Prior to joining CZ Capital in August 2018, Susan worked for a compliance consultancy firm for eight years, Close Brothers Group plc for three years, KPMG for nine years in the Regulatory Services department and for Mercury Asset Management plc for 17 years.

Austin Burda

Austin is the Operations Manager.  He is an Operations professional with experience working in the hedge fund industry since 2001.

Prior to joining CZ Capital in April 2018, Austin worked for Onslow Capital Management  where he worked for seven years supporting the CFO.  Before that, Austin worked at Stark Investments and Zelengora Capital Management.

Austin graduated for the City of London CASS Business School in 2001 with a First Class Honours degree in Banking & International Finance.

Contact

CZ Capital

CZ Capital LLP

53-54 Grosvenor Street, London, W1K 3HU
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7667 6590
Email: investor@czcapital.co.uk