Funds
Irish Funds has welcomed the Central Bank of Ireland’s (CBI) approval for Irish domiciled UCITS and AIFs to invest in the Chinese interbank bond market via Bond Connect.
The decision follows a CBI review of the China Bond Connect initiative and provides easier access to the Chinese interbank bond market for the EUR1.8trillion UCITS and EUR611 billion AIFs domiciled in Ireland.
Before Bond Connect, international investors wishing to access China’s bond market could use the China Interbank Bond Market (CIBM) Direct, QFII and RQFII routes. Bond Connect is an alternative, more straightforward method to access the China bond market.
Mastercard is to make a USD300 million cornerstone investment in Network International’s planned IPO on the London Stock Exchange. The companies have also agreed to enter into a strategic partnership to support and accelerate the development of electronic payments in Africa and the Middle East.
Mastercard and Network International will support their mutual strategy of growing the payments ecosystem in the world’s most underpenetrated payments market. Mastercard will pay, or invest through, Network International annually for the development and delivery of shared innovation to expand product areas and drive the adoption of digital payments in Africa and the Middle East.
CreativeCap Advisors, a global asset management consulting firm, is expanding its business with the planned addition of dedicated operational and financial experts to work in advising the emerging managers accepted into the Global Incubator program.
As institutional investors continue to target and allocate to emerging managers on a global scale, the Global Emerging Manager Incubator program will continue to work with select managers in giving them the requisite training ahead of meeting with institutions.
“This has always been a natural next step for us. By adding dedicated operational and financial experts, we make our Incubatees more competitive and attractive
The performance of every hedge fund strategy and sub-strategy was in positive territory last week (12-19 March), with Special Situation and Global Macro strategies outperforming, up +0.8 per cent, according to the latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross Asset Research team.
On a month-to-date basis, only L/S Equity Market Neutral strategies are in negative territory (-0.1 per cent), while CTAs and discretionary Macro strategies outperformed. L/S Credit strategies also managed to perform reasonably well recently.
In terms of positioning, CTAs and Global Macro strategies have further increased their equity positions, from very low levels at the end of January.
Style Analytics, a provider of factor-based analysis software for investment professionals, has entered into a distribution agreement with Sustainalytics, a specialist in ESG research, ratings and analysis, to serve the rapidly growing demand to integrate ESG considerations into the investment process.
As part of the agreement, Style Analytics will provide an easily-accessible portfolio level view of Sustainalytics’ company ESG data through its Skyline product.
As ESG considerations become more embedded into investment decision-making processes, the need for more powerful analytic tools is becoming more pressing. By bringing together market leaders in ESG data and research and factor analytics, investors
BlackRock is to acquire 100 per cent of the equity interests in eFront, an end-to-end alternative investment management software and solutions provider, from private equity firm Bridgepoint and eFront employees, for USD1.3 billion in cash.
The combination of eFront with Aladdin, BlackRock’s investment operating platform used by more than 225 institutions around the world, will set a new standard in investment and risk management technology.
eFront, which serves more than 700 clients in 48 countries, is a comprehensive technology solution for managing the alternatives investment lifecycle, from due diligence and portfolio planning to performance and risk analysis, across a
Investors may have added USD1.69 billion to hedge funds in February but they face a rough road in 2019 with net inflows still in the negative YTD, according to eVestment’s February 2019 Hedge Fund Asset Flows Report.
February is traditionally a bellwether month for hedge fund industry performance for the rest of the year, and February 2019 was the worst February for net flows in a decade.
However, while flows have generally been disappointing, individual products have performed quite well, with multi-strategy funds emerging as a preference for investors in 2019, with continued strong performance from January. eVestment has
Three periods of volatility in 2018, the last of which (in December) caused the biggest drop in US equities since the 1930s, were welcome news for convertible arbitrage fund managers. Simply put, the rise in volatility acts as a positive factor for convertibles as it increases the value of the convertible bond’s embedded option.
If, therefore, as some commentators believe, global equity markets become more frothy, the ability for convertibles to provide equity-like returns with less volatility could prove particularly helpful for investors in 2019. During equity market rallies, convertible bonds still give investors upside, but crucially, in a downturn,
Hedge funds extended their winning streak to a second month with a February return of 1.24 per cent, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
By comparison, the S&P 500 Total Return Index rose 3.21 per cent for the month. Year to date, hedge funds gained 4.98 per cent while the S&P was up 11.48 per cent.
“Markets quickly overcame the downdraft precipitated by a strong US wage growth report that stoked inflation fears and rising interest rate jitters early in the month,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), president of BarclayHedge. “Multiyear highs for corporate profits and consumer
The SS&C GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator for March 2019 measured 3.49 per cent, up from 3.42 per cent in February.
“SS&C GlobeOp’s Forward Redemption Indicator for March 2019 was 3.49 per cent, an uptick from the record low March redemptions of 2.91 per cent reported for the same period a year ago,” says Bill Stone, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SS&C Technologies. “Still, the 3.49 per cent for March 2019 is favorable compared to historical averages and is in line with other data points showing hedge fund asset retention remaining stable in the wake of several months of market volatility.”
