Hedge fund pair sail into the limelight

Kinsale Capital Managent, the Dublin hedge fund manager run by the low-key, high-
powered former Merrill Lynch bankers Gearoid Doyle and Seán Ó'Flannagáin, is basking in a warm glow after collecting a prestigious gong.

One of its funds, the
Kinsale Compass Fund, has won the Global Equity Fund
of the Year award at the EuroHedge awards.

Its not exactly the Oscars, but for European hedge funds, it’s not far off it. The awards were doled out recently at a bash at London’s Grosvenor House hotel. Not too shabby.

The Compass fund has apparently returned more than 37 per cent to investors, after fees, since it opened in November 2011. Its holdings have included Bulmers/ Magners maker C&C and Microsoft.

I hear the fund has closed
to new investors, however. Kinsale is planning to launch a new equity fund, the
Kinsale Navigator Fund, at
the end of March. It will be managed by Pierre Py, a former Goldman Sachs hotshot who now works
for LA-based First Pacific Advisors, which manages $28 billion of assets.

Kinsale also recently hooked up with former KPMG managing partner Terence O'Rourke, the Enterprise Ireland chairman who is also a director of The Irish Times. O'Rourke has taken over
as president of Kinsale's advisory board.

Kinsale, which used to be backed by Kelly Martin of Elan fame, might be making waves, but its principals like to keep below the surface.

Doyle was formerly head of international equities at Merrill Lynch, while Ó’Flannagáin spent nearly two decades at the bank.

Enjoy the limelight,
gentlemen.