Derivatives specialist fund manager Reech AiM will today notify investors in its debut hedge fund of the continuing outperformance of Iceberg Alternative Real Estate (Iceberg) - its European real estate relative value fund; a joint venture partnership between CB Richard Ellis and Reech AiM.

Portfolio Manager, Stephen Ashworth will confirm the Fund delivered a positive return of +2.87% (net of fees) for December 2007, placing it amongst the stronger performing funds in all categories. Since the launch of Iceberg in May 2007, the Fund has delivered +24.51% (net of fees and expenses) whilst outperforming EPRA UK by 61% (EPRA UK: -36.8%). Mr. Ashworth will inform investors that all strategies within the Fund had delivered a positive return over the month.

Despite the challenging real estate investment market conditions towards the latter half of 2007, Iceberg has been well placed to capitalise on its position as a relative value, market neutral fund – capitalising on periods of uncertainty and volatility in the market with out-performance being driven primarily by value realisation towards the end of year.

Looking back at 2007, Christophe Reech, CEO of Reech AiM, told investors: “Despite the swings in the market over the year, 2007 provided great opportunity for an agile, maiden Fund such as Iceberg. 2008 will be far more technical from a market behaviour stand-point. The technical and technological sophistication developed through Reech AiM’s derivatives research modeling will give Iceberg a clear advantage in a difficult market and especially at a time when specialist financial institutions enter the growing property derivatives market.”

The strong out-performance delivered by Iceberg in 2007 should also be measured in the context of the real estate market itself, Stephen Ashworth added: “The UK and European real estate markets experienced a tough year in 2007. Iceberg rose above this and generated notable value.”

This announcement comes four months after Reech AiM announced strong figures in August 2007, at the outset of the credit squeeze, when the Fund delivered a positive return of 5.04%. Robust performance of the Fund to December 2007 was delivered in sharp contrast to a difficult period for hedge funds in general, with the average HFRX Relative Value Arbitrage Index at
-0.42% as well as the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index at -0.14% according to Hedge Fund Research.