NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Liberty Street Advisors Inc. (“Liberty Street”), an experienced investment advisor committed to providing advisors and investors access to differentiated strategies through its selective multi-manager family of funds, today announced the launch of the Gramercy Emerging Markets Debt Fund (the “Fund”) (Tickers: GFEAX, GFEMX).
Gramercy Funds Management LLC (“Gramercy”), a dedicated emerging markets asset management firm headquartered in Greenwich, CT with approximately $6 billion in assets under management as of March 1, 2024 will serve as the sub-adviser for the Fund. The Fund’s A Class Shares (GFEAX) and Institutional Shares (GFEMX) became available on April 1.
Seeking long-term capital appreciation, the Fund will execute an emerging markets (EM) debt strategy focused on hard currency sovereign debt, local currency sovereign debt and hard currency corporate debt. Gramercy’s Philip Meier, Partner, Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Head of EM Debt, and Belinda Hill, Managing Director, will serve as Portfolio Managers of the Fund. Gramercy’s Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Robert Koenigsberger and Gramercy’s Chair, Mohamed A. El-Erian lead Gramercy’s thematic top-down assessment which will contribute to the generation of investment themes and directional market views for the Fund.
“We’re thrilled to launch this Fund with the Gramercy team and are looking forward to working closely with Philip and Belinda, who offer 20 years of average investment experience,” said Tim Reick, CEO of Liberty Street. “Gramercy is a global leader in the emerging markets space, and this is an asset class that is increasingly becoming part of a strategic investor’s toolkit. We look forward to integrating the expertise of the Gramercy investment team, aiming to deliver consistent performance and value to long-term investors.”
“We are excited to partner with Liberty Street to provide our investors additional access to emerging markets through this Fund launch,” said Robert Koenigsberger. “Over the years, Gramercy has garnered a strong track record of providing investors with a better approach to emerging markets. The Fund will further advance our position in emerging markets public credit and provide an opportunity for investment from a differentiated client base.”
“Emerging markets fixed income has matured and is now well placed to play a notable role in diversified investment portfolios, both as a potential driver of return and as a risk mitigator. With emerging economies now accounting for about half of the global economy, their evolution over the last decade offers interesting and quite diverse investment opportunities,” said Mohamed A. El-Erian. Philip Meier added, “We plan to utilize the combination of top-down themes and proprietary bottom-up research aiming to build an optimal portfolio for the Fund. We believe Gramercy’s expertise across the emerging market debt spectrum coupled with Liberty Street’s collaboration will help us to achieve quality risk adjusted results for our clients.”
“We continually strive for innovation in our offerings, and as investors increasingly adopt a global perspective, we believe this Fund will serve as a valuable portfolio building block,” said Belinda Hill.
ABOUT LIBERTY STREET ADVISORS
Liberty Street Advisors, Inc. (“Liberty Street”) is an SEC registered investment advisor. The firm is located in New York City and launched its first fund in 2007. Liberty Street provides access to valuable and timely investment strategies designed to help investors and financial advisors meet the challenges of today’s market environment. As of December 31, 2023, Liberty Street manages four open-end mutual funds and a closed-end interval fund with collective assets under management of approximately $1.39 billion.
For further information, visit https://libertystreetfunds.com/
About Gramercy Funds Management
Gramercy is a global emerging markets investment manager based in Greenwich, Connecticut with offices in London, Buenos Aires, Miami, West Palm Beach and Mexico City, and dedicated lending platforms in Mexico, Turkey, Peru, Pan-Africa, Brazil, and Colombia. The $6-plus billion firm, founded in 1998, seeks to provide investors with a better approach to emerging markets, delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns supported by a transparent and robust institutional platform. Gramercy offers alternative and long-only strategies across emerging markets asset classes, including multi-asset, private credit, public credit, and special situations. Gramercy’s mission is to positively impact the well-being of our clients, portfolio investments and team members. Gramercy is a Registered Investment Adviser with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a Signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), a Signatory to the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAMI) and a Supporter of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Gramercy Ltd, an affiliate, is registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
For further information, visit https://www.gramercy.com/
Before investing you should carefully consider the Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other information about the Fund is in the prospectus and summary prospectus, a copy of which may be obtained by calling 800-207-7108 or by visiting the Fund’s website at www.libertystreetfunds.com. Please read the Fund’s prospectus or summary prospectus carefully before investing.
An investment in the Gramercy Emerging Markets Debt Fund is subject to risk, including the possible loss of principal amount invested and including, but not limited to, the following risks: Market Risk: the market price of a security may decline, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to a particular issuer, company, or asset class. Fixed income/interest rate: generally, fixed income securities decrease in value if interest rates rise, and increase in value if interest rates fall. Foreign Investment: the prices of foreign securities may be more volatile than the prices of securities of U.S. issuers because of economic and social conditions abroad, political developments, changes in the regulatory environments of foreign countries, and changes in U.S. laws regarding such countries. Emerging Markets: many of the risks with respect to foreign investments are more pronounced for investments in issuers in developing or emerging market countries. Emerging market countries tend to have more government exchange controls, more volatile interest and currency exchange rates, less market regulation, and less developed and less stable economic, political and legal systems than those of more developed countries. High Yield (“Junk”) bond: involve greater risk of default, downgrade, or price declines, can be more volatile and less liquid than investment-grade securities. Credit: if an issuer or guarantor of a debt security held by the Fund or a counterparty to a financial contract with the Fund defaults or is downgraded or is perceived to be less creditworthy, the value of the Fund’s portfolio will typically decline. Convertible Securities: are subject to market and interest rate risk and credit risk. Contingent Convertible Securities: subject to the risk of a triggering event occurring which may result in the issuer converting the security to an equity interest, cancelling interest payments, or writing down the principal value of such securities, and are inherently risky because of the difficulty of predicting triggering events. Foreign Sovereign Debt: Foreign governments rely on taxes and other revenue sources to pay interest and principal on their debt obligations. The payment of principal and interest on these obligations may be adversely affected by a variety of factors. Currency Risk: the values of investments in securities denominated in foreign currencies increase or decrease as the rates of exchange between those currencies and the U.S. dollar change. Currency conversion costs and currency fluctuations could erase investment gains or add to investment losses. Prepayment or Call Risk: if interest rates fall, an issuer may exercise the right to prepay their securities, and the Fund will not benefit from the rise in market price that normally accompanies a decline in interest rates. The Fund may also lose any premium it paid on the security. ESG Criteria: the Fund’s consideration of ESG criteria in making its investment decisions may affect the Fund’s exposure to risks associated with certain issuers; the criteria can result in excluding securities of certain issuers; there are significant differences in interpretations of what it means for a company to have positive or negative ESG characteristics. Inflation: risk that as inflation increases, the real value of the Fund’s assets can decline. This risk is greater for fixed-income instruments with longer maturities. Derivatives: Using derivatives exposes the Fund to additional or heightened risks, including leverage risk, liquidity risk, valuation risk, market risk, counterparty risk, and credit risk. Liquidity: the Fund may not be able to sell some or all of the investments that it holds due to a lack of demand in the marketplace or it may only be able to sell those investments at a loss. Liquid investments may become illiquid or less liquid after purchase by the Fund, Illiquid investments may be harder to value, especially in changing markets. Valuation: the sales price the Fund could receive for any particular portfolio investment may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the investment, particularly for securities that trade in thin or volatile markets or that are valued by the Adviser using a fair value methodology. This may affect purchase price or redemption proceeds for investors who purchase or redeem Fund shares on days when the Fund is pricing or holding fair-valued securities. The value of foreign securities, certain fixed income securities, and currencies may be materially affected by events after the close of the market on which they are valued but before the Fund determines its net asset value. Portfolio Turnover Risk: active and frequent trading of the Fund’s portfolio securities may lead to higher transaction costs and could negatively affect the Fund’s performance. No Operating History. The Fund is recently organized and has no operating history. As a result, prospective investors have no track record or history on which to base their investment decisions. Management and Strategy Risk. the evaluation and selection of the Fund’s investments depend on the judgment of the Fund’s Sub-Adviser, which may prove to be incorrect. Recent Market Event: periods of market volatility may occur in response to market events and other economic, political, and global macro factors, and could adversely affect the value and liquidity of the Fund’s investments. The Gramercy Emerging Markets Debt Fund is distributed for Foreside Fund Services, LLC.
This press release is not intended to, and does not, constitute an offer to purchase or sell shares of the Fund. Shares of the Fund are sold only through their respective share class prospectus.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This release contains forward-looking statements that subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially. Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, words or phrases generally written in the future tense and/or preceded by words such as "will," "may," "could," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "seek," "estimate," "preliminary" or other similar words are forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results and outcomes to differ materially from any future results or outcomes expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made in this press release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.
