Funds
Hedge fund adviser Headstart Advisers posted stellar returns in 2020 as volatility returned to global markets, outpacing peers.Headstart Advisers’ flagship fund posted its strongest ever annual return as it successfully navigated the market turmoil in March 2020 when the global pandemic roiled markets. The fund then captured the rebound in the latter half of the year finishing the year up over an estimated 20 per cent.
Notably, the Headstart Fund of Funds was up in both March and April 2020 when less than a fifth of all hedge funds made positive returns in both months. For March, Headstart Fund of
Hedge funds weathered the political, social and economic shocks brought about by the global pandemic and frequent bursts of soaring volatility to score a near-12 per cent return last year – their best since 2009 – outperforming both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and FTSE 100, new data from Hedge Fund Research shows.
HFRI’s main Fund Weighted Composite Index – a global, equal-weighted measure of some 1400 single-manager hedge fund strategies – finished 2020 up 11.6 per cent for the year following a 4.5 per cent rise in December.
The full-year gains represent a strong rebound for the hedge fund
Eventus Systems, a global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions, has reported ‘unprecedented growth’ on multiple fronts in 2020, marking its strongest year to date in revenue and new client onboardings. Read the full story at Institutional Asset Manager
Norwegian Block Exchange (NBX) has secured a NOK60 million investment arranged by sole manager and book runner Pareto Securities – a leading investment bank in the Nordics. Read the full story at Institutional Asset Manager…
Ed Butchart, former CIO at Sloane Robinson, has joined Kepler Partners alongside a team of three research analysts.Together the team will continue to be responsible for managing the KLS Emerging Markets Fund, which launched on the Kepler Liquid Strategies Platform in July 2017 and has generated 13.85 per cent annualised returns since inception, including a return of 28.75 per cent in 2020.
The team join Kepler at an exciting time for the business and will be responsible for managing the KLS Emerging Markets Fund that was originally launched in partnership with Sloane Robinson in 2017. The fund invests in global
New York-based Marathon Asset Management is zeroing in on a broad range of special situations opportunities arising from the coronavirus pandemic fallout with the launch of a new distressed strategy, the Marathon Distressed Credit Fund.
The fund, which has closed with around USD2.5 billion worth of commitments, aims to provide capital solutions for companies in stressed and distressed situations to grow or reposition themselves. Marathon has some USD20 billion of assets under management.
The assortment of opportunities, which stem from the varying paces of recovery across different industries and sectors, include restructurings, debtor in possession financings, and exit financings.
Louis
The European Power Spot markets operated by EPEX SPOT reported a new high of 55.8 TWh in ecember 2020, beating the previous volume record set in March 2019 (54.8 TWh). The increase was driven by both the Day-Ahead (45.7 TWh) and Intraday (10.1 TWh) markets, which respectively rose by 2 per cent and 11 per cent compared to December 2019.
During the month, the Austrian, Belgian and Swiss Day-Ahead markets registered strong growth rates with +11 per cent, +17 per cent and +12 per cent respectively, while the French Intraday market registered a new monthly record with 1.1 TWh traded in
EQUOS, the cryptocurrency exchange of digital assets financial services company Diginex Limited, has launched Bitcoin (BTC) Perpetual Futures Contracts.The successful launch of the BTC Perpetual is a major milestone in the roadmap of derivative products that are being introduced by EQUOS. Derivatives linked to traditional financial assets like equities, commodities or foreign exchange often eclipse the value traded in the underlying spot markets by hundreds of times.
Derivative products are nascent in the digital asset industry and are presently not offered by some of the major digital asset exchanges. From near nonexistence only a few years ago, the size
Founded in 2005, EJF Capital focuses on investment opportunities in financial services, targeting all levels of the capital structure on both a long-only and long/short basis. Specifically, the firm’s strategy seeks out ideas stemming from regulatory and structural changes impacting the banking sector, insurance companies and specialty finance.
Headquartered just outside of Washington DC, the firm was founded by Manny Friedman and Neal Wilson in 2005. In 2013, it established a European base in London, led by Hammad Khan (pictured, above left) and Peter Stage (pictured, above right), EJF’s senior managing directors in Europe. Lucas Netter, a director also focused
Trend-following hedge funds and managed futures strategies enjoyed a storming finish to what was ultimately a turbulent and unpredictable year for the sector, with Société Générale’s CTA indices ending 2020 in positive territory following strong December performances.
SocGen’s main SG CTA Index notched up its best monthly return in more than five years, advancing 5.54 per cent in December. The gain put the index – a daily snapshot of a select pool of 20 of the largest managed futures strategies – up 3.12 per cent annually for 2020.
All 20 of the CTA Index constituents recorded positive performance, with trend-following
