Asset manager March Gestión, part of Spain’s Banca March, has launched a new global equity fund focused on family businesses, according to reports.

The Family Business Fund will invest in listed firms which are at least a quarter-owned by a single family, with at least one family member in senior leadership and where the ownership of the business is intended to stay in the family.

The asset manager believes that family-run businesses are more stable than non-family companies as they tend to take a long-term view and shun leverage, while also having the qualities of commitment, loyalty and motivation embedded in their culture. José Luis Jiménez, chief executive of March Gestión, has also noted that family businesses are currently outstripping their non-family peers in terms of revenues and profits.

Managing the new fund will be José Antonio Méndez Roth and Francisco Javier Pérez Fernández. 

The fund has already been registered for sale in Spain, Italy and Luxembourg, while registrations for the UK, Austria and Switzerland are afoot.

Banca March, which is itself family-run, was founded by Majorcan businessman Juan March Ordinas in 1926.