NETHERLANDS - Global multi-manager SEI captured eight new Dutch pension fund mandates in 2006 as the company reports institutional sales growth worldwide of €4.5bn.

Among the new Dutch clients is TDV, the pension fund of the Impress Group, a metal packaging provider.

SEI is now preparing to incorporate long/short strategies into its Dublin-based equity funds under the liberalisation of UCITS III.

It is in the process of a marketing and education programme with clients. Although SEI is a manager of managers, the long/short strategies will not be distinct from its existing products or be part of a specific, new fund. Clients need to understand the changes as they would new strategies in a traditional, single-manager segregated mandate.

SEI already has a portable alpha fund and considers the incorporation of so-called hedge fund strategies as part of a general ethos to give underlying managers the appropriate freedoms to seek alpha where they are best suited.

The distinction between traditional managers and hedge funds has diminished greatly with the advent of UCITS III, which permits far greater use of derivatives in publicly available investment funds.

Mark Parsonson, client portfolio manager at SEI said the strength of a manager of managers was that its funds can evolve as new strategies come to the fore without the need to launch new products.