XA's Evanston fund is an interval conversion in waiting

XA Investments said it will take over as investment adviser to the Evanston Multi-Alpha Fund, a $91 million closed-end tender-offer fund, while Evanston Capital Management remains portfolio manager under new advisory and sub-advisory agreements that still require board and Fund shareholder approval. If those votes pass, the change takes effect in the third quarter of 2026 and stretches the XAI Funds complex from three funds to four.

The substantive move comes after the appointment: XAI and Evanston intend to convert the fund to a daily-NAV interval fund by the first half of 2027, replacing the tender-offer fund's set repurchase dates with daily pricing that is easier for advisors to transact and for home offices to put on platforms. Kimberly Flynn, XAI's president, called the partnership a response to "resurging interest by financial advisors in hedge fund solutions" and said the evergreen structure is how Evanston's expertise reaches those advisors.

Evanston has managed multi-strategy hedge fund investments for nearly 25 years, running a $4.4 billion book for endowments, foundations, public plans, and family offices; CEO and co-chief investment officer Adam Blitz pointed to manager selection, institutional scale, and the fund's record of downside protection in volatile markets. The fund itself holds just $91 million against that parent book, a pilot rather than a flagship, which makes the interval conversion the growth play.

XA already knows this shelf. Its quarterly update counted 308 funds and $233 billion in net assets across the semi-liquid complex, with first-time sponsors behind a large share of recent launches, and converting an existing tender-offer fund into the daily-NAV interval structure is a faster route to the shelf than starting a vehicle from scratch. The daily-NAV interval structure has been spreading across the semi-liquid market.

XA gets a hedge fund anchor with an institutional pedigree at a time when credit and real estate dominate the shelf, but the conversion is not scheduled until the first half of 2027. The shareholder vote, and the home-office reviews that follow, will determine whether that pedigree translates into flows.