Hedge fund Westbeck Capital to set up electric vehicle metals fund

Published on: January 21, 2018
Author: Editor

London-based energy hedge fund Westbeck Capital is planning a fund to invest in metals used in electric vehicles, as demand surges for commodities from cobalt to lithium.

Led by Will Smith, who previously ran the natural resources team at CQS — the hedge fund run by Sir Michael Hintze — Westbeck hopes to raise $100m this year. The fund will also include a former chief executive of a lithium company, according to a person familiar with its launch.

The fund will invest in small and mid-cap miners of materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, rare earths and graphite, which are used in electric car batteries and motors.

It comes as some of the largest mining funds are adjusting their portfolios to include miners of these commodities, in order to benefit from growth in electric cars. Last year investors who had bought up thousands of tonnes of cobalt also launched a listed vehicle in Canada, called Cobalt 27.

The Westbeck Electric Metals fund will also consider investing in battery manufacturing and recycling. It will also take short positions on companies who will be losers of the electric vehicle revolution.

Westbeck has some investors lined up and plans to launch the electric vehicles fund next month. It will be a long-short equity fund, which can make both positive and negative bets on stock price movements.

Source: FT.com

Electric Cars Energy Metals Industrial Metals Lithium