Duet Group, a $5.5bn global alternative asset manager, has appointed Ulrik Fugmann and Edward Lees as senior managing directors and Co-Chief Investment Officers of Duet Natural Resources.

Fugmann and Lees, the founders of North Shore Partners, are integrating their strategy and business into Duet.

This will add to Duet Group's strong commodities and emerging market franchise.

Commenting on the appointment, Fugmann said: “It’s great to be part of the Duet team and an integral part of its award winning commodities offering through our long-short equity natural resources strategy. Duet’s focus on emerging markets and commodities offers information synergies that we believe will benefit our strategy and most importantly our investors."

Lees added: “This is a good point in the cycle to be launching our equities natural resources product. Recent price action and volatility has left the space under-penetrated by sector hedge funds and specialist managers. Our focus on risk management and absolute returns offers an alternative to the long only vehicles that still dominate the space, despite commodity volatility and dispersion. Duet's strong operational platform will help us take full advantage of this opportunity.”

Duet Natural Resources invests globally in equities across oil & gas, metals & mining and agriculture sectors, applying a thematic top down approach combined with fundamental equity analysis and due diligence.

The strategy is highly differentiated in its approach to portfolio construction and risk management with limited gross and net exposure to give investors attractive risk adjusted returns.

Philippe Laraison, CIO of the Duet Commodities Fund and Partner of Duet Group, said: "On behalf of Duet Group, we are excited to announce the integration of North Shore Partners. The timing for natural resources equity investments is optimal. The synergies on research and broader commodities expertise will benefit our investors.”

Fugmann was the CIO and co-founder of North Shore Partners, a global equity natural resources asset manager in London.

He spent 10 years in Goldman Sachs where he held several positions and ran the Goldman Sachs Events Trading group (GSET) from 2009 – 2012, investing in natural resources companies and special situations strategies across the capital structure.

Prior to GSET, from 2005, Fugmann was trading natural resources, macro and special situations in Goldman Sachs Principal Strategies (GSPS).

He began his career in the One Delta Trading group at Goldman Sachs in 2002 and ran the European natural resources equities trading desk.

Lees was the CEO and Co-Founder of North Shore Partners.

Prior to that he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs where he worked for nine years, founding and heading the European GSET.

Prior to that he developed quantitative trading strategies and risk management models for the firm and was an equity trader.

He also served at Morgan Stanley in investment banking and private equity.

Henry Gabay, co-founder and CEO of Duet Group, said: "Ulrik and Edward are talented individuals with distinguished credentials in the natural resources equity space. I welcome them to Duet, their strategy will be complementary and additive to our current offering in the commodities space”.