ZUG, Switzerland/EWORLDWIRE/Oct. 30, 2008 --- Gardner Finance AG (Gardner) has announced the availability to its Mezzanine Finance Program which provides access to the Structured Finance carve-out of the GEMI Fund Ltd., tracking the broader Gardner Energy MacroIndex (GEMI).The GEMI Fund Ltd Structure Finance portfolio includes primary reserve-based mezzanine debt investments into oil and gas exploration and production companies in North America while diversification is achieved through selective investments into the renewable energy sector, mining, pipelines, midstream and energy service companies. Many of these companies are not directly exposed to the price of the underlying commodities providing investors with both attractive yields and the potential for growth over time.
"Mezzanine Finance is closing the gap between debt and equity," said Mr. Michael Laznicka, president of Gardner. "This strategy provides investors with an important diversification opportunity as the correlation with traditional equity and bond markets has been relatively low over the years. Gardner's focus with the structured finance portfolio is to emphasize stability, liquidity and exceptional risk/return parametric and contrary to many other funds in this sector the portfolio is not using leverage."
In times where existing credit lines are being reduced and loans from traditional lenders are harder to obtain, the typical middle-market company increasingly turns to the mezzanine finance market to raise capital and margins on new deals are becoming highly attractive in this environment.
The new share class (D) is offered through Macrobridge Ltd., Cayman Islands, and features a minimum $500,000 investment, with monthly subscriptions and redemptions. The notice period is 90-days and provides upmost liquidity compared to peers. The annualized rate of return since April 1, 2005 is 9.07 percent with a YTD return (as of September, 2008) of 5.18 percent.
"The Structured Finance portion of the GEMI Fund Ltd. portfolio has outperformed other asset classes and energy investments; it offers an attractive exposure and diversification. Risk adjusted returns with a high level of oversight on the portfolio and attractive liquidity terms without any gate or lock-up are a core need for institutional investors," said Laznicka.
About GEMI
Energy is the cornerstone of modern life and offers immense investment potential. For this reason, Gardner Finance has developed the Gardner Energy MacroIndex (GEMI). Its aim is to cover the entire value chain of energy generation. The GEMI Index is unique to the market place as no other active hedge fund performance index product has such a strategy or composition. Its objective is to provide investors with a macro view on global energy markets by looking at the performance of selected investment vehicles belonging to the investment class, Energy Hedge Funds. Objective criteria, arranged in a proprietary selection matrix, are applied in selecting the energy hedge funds to be included in the Index as components. The Index includes components representative of a careful hypothetical investment in the investment class, Energy Hedge Funds, to make it suitable for use as a benchmark by investors in international energy markets. More information on GEMI can be obtained at 'http://www.macroindex.com'.
About Gardner Finance AG
Gardner Finance has a strong history of providing its clients with innovative financial solution platforms that cover a wide range of financial industry products in the commodity trading, public/private equity and public/private debt markets. Gardner Finance AG focuses on and is a recognized specialist in the natural resources investment sector where it employs its extensive knowledge of commodity investment products in the energy, agriculture, metals and materials sub-sectors. Gardner's objective is to enable a comprehensive exposure to the commodity sector with its MacroIndex family of Indices while simultaneously smoothing out the inherent volatility and cyclical nature of these markets.
To learn more about Gardner Finance AG and its products, visit 'http://www.gardner.ch' and 'http://www.macroindex.com'.
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