By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - SVM Asset Management reckons the bear market triggered by the global credit crisis still has some way to go and has as many short positions on equities, particularly financials, as its various funds will allow.
Cash holdings are also high, with some funds holding as much as 20 percent.
"I think we're in the process of unwinding a bubble," Colin McLean, SVM's managing director, said at the Reuters Hedge Funds and Private Equity Summit in London on Tuesday. "There's a lot more still to be done."
The Edinburgh-based investment boutique has some 758 million pounds ($1.51 billion) in assets under management, divided among investment trusts, regular equity funds and two hedge funds.
The latter, McLean said, were particularly short on banks and other financials that have been hit by losses from the credit crisis and have driven up lending costs between them.
"I think the lack of interbank confidence has been a lack of trust, and I don't think we can expect the stock market to trust what banks say if banks don't trust each other," he said.
"We're only getting a gradual revealing of positions."
SVM is also short of non-financials expected to need cash.
"Quite a number of growth stocks require more capital," McLean said.
In addition the firm is not keen on pharmaceuticals and is avoiding stocks that have exposure to rising food prices but are unable to pass them on to consumers.
McLean would not discuss specific stocks that his firm currently held short.
He said, however, that SVM's two hedge funds, the pan-European Highlander and UK Saltire funds, had managed to return about 1 to 1.5 percent in the first quarter.
This would compare with an industry-wide loss of around 2.9 percent for the period, based on MSCI data.
NOT JUST SHORT
McLean said SVM remained generally positive about oil and gas stocks and miners in gold and precious metals. Continued...
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