BH Macro (BHMG ), the £1.3bn Brevan Howard London-listed hedge fund, has raised £315m in the share issue it launched last month.

The news, which expands its assets by a quarter, is likely to further bolster sentiment in the investment company sector after a difficult 2022 for fundraising. 3i Infrastructure (3IN ) also cheered investors on Friday announcing it had raised £100m in an institutional share placing.

BHMG, which exploited volatile bond and interest rates to produce a 21.9% total investment return last year when markets slumped, will issue 72.4m sterling shares and 746,400 US dollar shares at 431.5p and $4.47 respectively.

The issue was mainly backed by institutional and professional investors, but private investors subscribed for £66m of sterling shares.

The total is less than the £950m maximum the company sought, but it has the authority to issue a further 147m shares in the next year.

In a statement, BHMG suggested it could have taken in more but decided to scale back investors’ applications, favouring existing shareholders in the allocation process.

The company will invest the money in Brevan Howard’s Master Fund in the Cayman Islands.

Numis Securities said this was ‘a strong outcome’ for BH Macro, reflecting investors’ enthusiasm for a fund that could deliver good returns in difficult markets, albeit one that is expensive with a ‘2 and 20’ annual management and performance fee structure.

The company raised £187m last year, including a £65m placing in May priced at a 10% premium.

‘The more modest premium of 2% for this raise may have generated more
interest,’ Numis analyst Gavin Trodd suggested. 

Stifel analyst Sachin Saggar agreed it was ‘a good result’ for BH Macro. ‘After a period of low global rates where many macro funds struggled, and some ultimately shut down, we are in a period where the backdrop for the strategy remains healthy, especially for a manager that that has preserved capital when markets have been difficult.’

BH Macro shares, which underwent a 10-for-1 share split last week, gained 8p, or 1.8%, to 442p. This is 2.4% above the issue price and a 4.5% premium to the last net asset value of 422.7p per share.

After recovering from a period of subdued performance, they have delivered a 107% total return over five years, helped by strong returns in 2020.