Amundi and Machina Capital launch an equity market neutral UCITS fund

January 30, 2025 by Amundi

Amundi and Machina Capital SAS, (“Machina”) announce the launch of the Amundi Machina Systematic Equity Fund (the “Fund”), which marks the beginning of a new partnership.

Available on the Amundi Alternative UCITS^[1] Platform for eligible professional clients^[2], including institutional clients, family offices, private banks and wealth, and asset managers, the Fund employs a systematic equity market neutral strategy that seeks to identify trading opportunities over less than a month. The Fund’s ambition is to generate alpha^[3] with low correlation to equity markets and market conditions, monetizing signals^[4] that are aggregated using various techniques, including machine learning and a long track record of data in a variety of market environments.

The Fund leverages both Machina’s expertise in systematic investing and Amundi’s know-how in structuring Alternative UCITS funds. Investing in the Fund involves a substantial degree of risks such as the risk of capital loss.

Arnaud de Lasteyrie, Machina’s CEO and CIO, added: “The team is thrilled to partner with Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager, on this exciting new launch. As a technology-driven investment manager, Machina will harness advanced mathematical and statistical methods to deliver strong risk-adjusted returns within a UCITS format, capitalizing on Amundi’s robust operational platform and business development expertise. True to its innovation-focused DNA, Machina’s team aims to introduce a unique, uncorrelated source of alpha to the UCITS market.”

Nathanaël Benzaken, Global Head of Business Development, Alternative and Real Assets Division at Amundi, said: “We are excited to partner with Arnaud de Lasteyrie and his team, and bring their unique expertise in short term equity quantitative trading to our investors. This new addition to our UCITS range underscores our track record in carefully selecting relevant strategies and managers from the alternative investment universe. We are convinced the innovative technology deployed in the Amundi Machina Systematic Equity Fund will attract great interest from investors.”

Amundi has been investing in alternatives for decades and pioneered the managed account platform business, managing $4bn^[5] in client AUM. The Amundi Alternative UCITS Platform is well regarded by the hedge fund^[6] community as one of the largest allocators globally to offer high-conviction alternative funds, advisory mandates and fund of funds.

Machina is a Paris-based investment firm founded in 2017, established by seasoned equity derivatives traders and quantitative research professionals. With over $700 million of asset under management^[7], the firm specializes in mid-frequency quantitative strategies with a market-neutral approach while seeking to generate absolute and uncorrelated returns.

Footnotes

1. ^{^} [1] Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities.
2. ^{^} [2] The Fund is not for the benefit of any US persons –The Fund may not be available to all investors and may not be registered for public distribution with the relevant authorities in all countries.
3. ^{^} [3] Alpha refers to a measure of outperformance.
4. ^{^} [4] Due to active management, the Fund characteristics are subject to change.
5. ^{^} [5] Amundi data as at 30/09/24
6. ^{^} [6] Hedge funds are classed as alternative strategies. Their distinctive characteristic is the fact that they aim at an absolute performance, and not a relative performance compared to a benchmark index
7. ^{^} [7] Machina data as at 30/01/2025