Funds
MSR Indices (MSR) has launched an institutional investment platform, which will provide investors with access to the returns of MSR Investable Indexes through established third-party asset managers.
The platform is meant to provide a liquid alternative to investing directly with a commodity trading advisors (CTA), hedge fund, or traditional long-only manager.
“We are thrilled to provide access to the returns of MSR Indices in an efficient manner,” says Michael Rulle, founder and CEO of MSR. “For a long time, the only way investors could access bespoke strategies like risk parity and risk control was through opaque, illiquid and high-fee
New hedge fund launches increased for the second consecutive quarter in Q2, with launches through mid-year 2019 on a pace that could see the industry top launches from calendar year 2018.
Launches totalled an estimated 153 in Q2 2019, bringing the H1 total to 289 new funds, according to the latest HFR Market Microstructure Report by HFR.
The H1 2019 launches put the industry on pace to top the 561 launches from last year, which represented the lowest annual total for new funds since 2000.
Fund liquidations declined but remained elevated on a calendar year basis, with liquidations
LoCorr Funds is to acquire Steben & Company, an alternative asset manager that specialises in multi-manager alternative investment products.
LoCorr has also made a number of additions to its distribution team.
Steben & Company, headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is an alternative investment manager that launched its business in 1989. The company specialises in multi-manager products including fund of hedge funds and managed futures strategies. Steben’s investment philosophy is defined by high conviction, actively managed exposures with a focus on more liquid, lower beta strategies.
“This is a very exciting time for our business,” ssaysaid Kevin Kinzie, Chief Executive
UBS Hedge Fund Solutions (HFS) is repositioning the UBS Multi Strategy Alternatives fund, a UCITS fund investing via DB Platinum IV UBS Multi Strategy Alternatives.
The Fund commenced trading in September with USD490 million in AUM and six high conviction hedge fund strategies across equity hedged, trading and relative value strategies, with the intention to opportunistically add more managers over time. Each account in the Fund is managed by its allocated sub-investment manager, resulting in the fund directly owning the underlying securities and avoiding an additional layer of expenses. The Fund, managed to be UCITS-compliant overall, allows for a wider
IHS Markit has launched the IHS Markit Global Carbon Index, the first benchmark for the global price of carbon credits.
According to the IHS Markit Global Carbon Index, the global weighted average price of carbon credits is USD23.65. Since the beginning of 2018, the total return potentially gained by investors in global carbon is 132 per cent, index data shows.
The design, construction and administration of the IHS Markit Global Carbon Index is a result of extensive collaboration among the firm’s Indices, Environmental and Energy businesses, including OPIS, the company’s energy price reporting arm which offers data and pricing
Investors redeemed an estimated USD6.51 billion from the global hedge funds business in August 2019, bringing year-to-date (YTD) flows to a negative USD63.61 billion, according to the August 2019 eVestment Hedge Fund Asset Flows Report.
Performance also reduced assets as total industry AUM declined to USD3.259 trillion last month.
The majority of primary strategies eVestment tracks actually saw asset inflows, but large outflows among Macro hedge funds (-USD6.18 billion) and Long/Short Equity funds (-USD5.33 billion) in August dwarfed those other inflows. YTD Long/Short Equity funds are the biggest asset losers among primary strategies eVestment tracks, seeing outflows of -USD31.14
Hedge fund managers ended August 2019 down 0.35 per cent on an equal-weighted basis, and 0.54 per cent on an asset-weighted basis, according to data released by Eurekhedge.
The risk-off sentiment persisted throughout the month, as the US labelled China a currency manipulator, intensifying the tension between the two economies.
CTA/managed futures hedge funds were up 1.89 per cent in August with managers citing long exposure to metals and fixed income, as well as short exposure to the energy sector as performance drivers. The mandate’s AUM has grown by USD18.6 billion year-to-date, in contrast to the USD45.5 billion decline recorded
Robeco has launched the Robeco QI Emerging Markets Sustainable Enhanced Index Equities with a strategy that aims for a 20 per cent higher score on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria than the benchmark (MSCI Emerging Markets Index).
It also aims to reduce the environmental footprint for greenhouse gas emissions, water use, waste generation and energy consumption by 20 per cent compared to the benchmark, while maintaining the ability to provide alpha in emerging markets. The strategy uses an extensive values-based exclusion list and includes voting and engagement, which will be carried out by Robeco’s Active Ownership team.
The
Lyxor Asset Management Group (Lyxor) has launched a new alternative UCITS fund, the Lyxor/Bridgewater Core Global Macro Fund, which gives investors access to Bridgewater Associates’ strategies.
The fund, which started trading on 23 September with initial assets under management of over USD600 million, provides a wide pool of institutional investors across various geographies, including Europe, Asia and Latin America.
With more than USD160 billion in assets under management, Bridgewater is a specialist in institutional portfolio management. A natural expansion of the long-standing partnership between Lyxor and Bridgewater, the new fund, which is registered in Ireland, will be managed by
Scientific Beta is now providing an ESG option for all of its indices, enabling investors to benefit from the performance of its High Factor Intensity (HFI) Multi-Beta Multi-Strategy (MBMS) indices while upholding ESG norms and materially reducing exposure to companies with high exposure to ESG risks.
The ESG option excludes companies that fall severely short of global standards of responsible business conduct, deprive shareholders of voting rights or are involved in activities that conflict with global ESG norms or their objectives (anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions, tobacco manufacturing, coal). It also includes additional negative filters targeting companies facing critical controversies
