Funds
Hedge funds returned an average of +1.27 per cent in February, according to the just-released eVestment February 2019 hedge fund return data, building on a strong January to bring year-to-date (YTD) performance to +4.55 per cent.
The contrast to 2018’s average industry performance of -5.05 per cent is stark and demonstrates the industry’s effort to shake off last year’s challenges. The first two months of 2019 offered up the industry’s best returns to start a year since 2012, when average returns were at +5.78 per cent through February of that year.
The big winners for the month were China-focused
Following a challenging start to the year, CTA Indices showed signs of improvement with over half of trend constituents in positive territory in February. The SG CTA Index was up by 0.42 per cent, whilst the SG Trend Index was up by 0.81 per cent.
Short term strategies struggled and underperformed other strategies, with the SG STTI down by -1.19 per cent for the month.
The SG Trend Indicator attributed February’s positive results to gains in currencies and a selection of commodity markets, as well as trends in interest rate markets. Long positions in bond markets reverted slightly, leading
Aspect Capital (Aspect), a USD6.9 billion systematic investment manager, has launched a new Cayman-domiciled fund that will provide investors with access to the Aspect Systematic Global Macro Programme.
The Programme utilises a systematic relative value approach to global fixed income, stock indices, volatility and currency markets. It aims to generate absolute returns by managing a diversified portfolio to deliver low correlations to traditional and alternative asset classes, allocating its risk to over 25 individual models spread across 13 macro-economic themes.
The Cayman fund has been seeded with USD100 million of external capital and will provide investors with an alternative
Europe’s sub-advised fund assets declined 7.6 per cent in Q4 2018, and 4 per cent for all of 2018, but the structural growth drivers remain intact and have added EUR7.6 billion net assets from new market entrants, according to new date from instiHub.
The final quarter of 2018 saw assets of sub-advised funds sold in EMEA drop by EUR48 billion to EUR581 billion as capital markets across the globe repriced. This is the first time during 2018 that total assets of 1,700 funds for which 152 sponsors across 15 European markets delegate investment services to 550 third party managers dropped
Electronic US Treasuries (UST) trading venue, LiquidityEdge, experienced record trading volumes during February 2019.
On February 28, participants traded over USD 31 billion (single count) across both on-the-runs and off-the-runs. It also experienced a record week last month, with USD 101 billion traded between 21-28 February.
The surge in activity was due to the treasury auctions, calendar rolls and the record number of unique participants benefiting from the directed, disclosed model championed by LiquidityEdge. The flexibility in its structure allows clients to choose between one-to-one or many-to-many models, facilitating a combination of anonymous and/or disclosed streaming executable prices creating a bespoke
The Multi-Strategy Fund of Funds (FoHF) PCAM Select, which was launched in August 2018 with approximately USD60 million, has recently surpassed USD100 million assets under management (AUM).
At the end of February 2019, PCAM Select reported more than USD140 million in AUM. The fund continues to accept further investors. It is the successor to the highly successful PCAM Blue Chip Ltd, which was launched in 2007 and stopped accepting new funds at the end of 2017 after reaching an investment volume (AUM) of around USD850 million.
“PCAM Select is attracting a great deal of interest from institutional investors,” says
Trium Capital, a London-based alternative investment specialist, has partnered with New York based Chesapeake Asset Management (CAM) to offer a global equity fund – The Trium Chesapeake Global Equity UCITS Fund – which launched last month.
The fund’s global, nimble approach allows the portfolio manager to dynamically shift focus to areas where opportunity is greatest at any given time. It uses top-down country and industry research, as well as fundamental analysis to identify companies facing multi-year opportunities – or threats – that go beyond normal cyclical fluctuations. The portfolio is actively managed with a heavy emphasis on risk management and
EnTrustPermal – one of the world’s largest hedge fund investors and alternative asset manager headquartered in New York and London – has rebranded the firm as EnTrust Global.
“This announcement speaks to our international expansion, as we currently serve clients from 47 different countries around the world,” says Gregg S Hymowitz (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EnTrust Global, as well as Chair of its Investment Committee. “Moreover, as EnTrust Global continues to pivot from traditional alternatives products to provide differentiated investment offerings, the firm’s business today encompasses an enhanced and global suite of capabilities. “
Hymowitz adds: “We
Apex Group Ltd (Apex) has acquired Atlantic Fund Services (Atlantic), a US-based fund administrator serving the traditional and alternative mutual fund market. Apex is a portfolio company of Genstar Capital.
The acquisition adds a further USD12 billion in assets under administration to the Group’s portfolio and is a strong strategic fit for Apex’s US expansion given Atlantic’s complementary mutual fund client base and specialist 40-Act service capabilities. The addition of the Atlantic business further builds on Apex’s growing presence in North America adding 75 people in Portland, Maine to Apex’s existing offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Costa Mesa, New York
ESG investment considerations have risen to prominence in recent years as institutional investors think more carefully about the impact their investments have on the world, and on society at large. It is an issue that all investment managers – traditional and alternative – can ill afford to dismiss.
And as alternative data sets become more widely available, the way that managers think about ESG factors in the investment process is continually evolving; both in terms of corporate credentials, and measuring whether ESG investing can lead to improved performance in their portfolios.
It is a topic that splits opinion and will
