Funds
Maples and Calder and MaplesFS which together comprise Maples Fiduciary and Maples Fund Services, have consolidated their offerings under a single brand, now called the Maples Group.
This composite of collective services includes an international law firm, advising on the laws of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Jersey and Luxembourg and global fund administration and fiduciary services.
The rebranding initiative, which includes a new corporate logo and website, highlights the strength of the Maples Group as a comprehensive solution for legal, fiduciary, fund, entity formation and management services, as well as regulatory and compliance services.
Many Alternative UCITS funds did not have a happy 2018, with only one in six funds able to post positive results for the year, and assets under management in the total space declined with slightly less than 8 per cent.
That’s according to the LuxHedge Alternative UCITS 2018 Market Overview which reveals that the LuxHedge Global Alternative UCITS Index posted a loss of -4.45 per cent in 2018, the worst annual result since the start of the LuxHedge indices in 2006. Every strategy group index lost and dispersion between funds was even larger than usual with the top performers delivering
Europe’s fund industry, including ETFs, registered net inflows of EUR152 billion to long-term funds in 2018, a far cry from the record-breaking levels – EUR774 billion – seen in 2017, according to data released by Morningstar.
Morningstar says that the growth of index funds in Europe has outpaced that of actively managed funds for years, and this trend continued to play out in 2018. The biggest divergence came to a head in the bond space, where actively managed bond funds suffered outflows of EUR32.5 billion, while passively managed bond funds enjoyed inflows of EUR30.4 billion for the full year.
NewAlpha Asset Management (NewAlpha), a Paris-based global fund incubation and acceleration specialist, has made a strategic investment with discretionary global macro manager Montrock48 Capital (Montrock48).
Launched in July 2016, New York based Montrock48 is an alternative asset manager that invests in discretionary global macro themes using a sophisticated approach that combines deep fundamental economic analysis and sophisticated derivative-based trade structuring.
The firm was founded by Richard Herman and Louis Jaffe, who worked together at Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust for a combined 48 years, eventually leading the global fixed income franchise. Each have invested a meaningful portion of their
Forty-two per cent of hedge fund managers were able to raise new capital in 2018, but those who saw redemptions and/or lost money were in the majority, and declared 2018 to be one of the most challenging years for the industry in a decade.
That’s according to December and Year-End 2018 eVestment Hedge Fund Asset Flow Report, which reveals that investors removed USD19.64 billion from the industry in December, bringing total 2018 investor redemptions to USD35.3 billion, the second highest investor redemptions since 2009, according to the new eVestment data. Performance-related asset declines of USD52.4 billion during the year, coupled
Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trust (VCT) specialist Calculus Capital has invested GBP2.5 million in fintech company Essentia Analytics, a provider of behavioural data analytics and consulting for professional investors.
The investment by Calculus will be used to further develop Essentia’s services as it scales its client base of investment management institutions around the world.
The firm’s Essentia Insight service – which is used by clients including active fund managers, chief investment officers, asset allocators and wealth managers – provides a continuous data-driven feedback loop, similar to those used by athletes.
To date, Essentia has helped
RWC Partners is to launch a new fund, the RWC Next Generation Emerging Markets Fund, for its Emerging & Frontier Markets team, after seeing significant interest from investors.
The fund will be managed by James Johnstone (pictured), who, together with John Malloy, heads up RWC’s Emerging & Frontier Markets team, and will follow an existing strategy managed by the team since 2014.
The RWC Next Generation Emerging Markets Fund is designed to provide investors with unconstrained access to growth opportunities in the emerging and frontier market universe that are under-represented by current indices and funds.
James Johnstone, Portfolio
UCITS and AIFs registered net outflows of EUR38 billion in November, compared to net inflows of EUR1 billion in October, according to the European Fund and Asset Management Association’ (EFAMA) latest Investment Fund Industry Fact Sheet.
This development was mainly due to a turnaround in net sales of money market funds in both the UCITS and AIF markets.
UCITS recorded net outflows of EUR40 billion, compared to net outflows of EUR8 billion in October, with long-term UCITS (UCITS excluding money market funds) continuing to suffer from net outflows, albeit at a lower level (EUR27 billion, compared to EUR41 billion in October).
Net
Apex Group Ltd (Apex), and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have partnered to deliver Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting to investment managers.
Apex, the world’s fifth largest fund administrator, and ISS, a provider of end-to-end governance and responsible investment solutions have joined forces to deliver ESG reporting capabilities to asset managers worldwide.
Under terms of the partnership, ISS ESG, the responsible investment arm of ISS, will partner with Apex to deliver ESG reporting capabilities to its global client base. The reports will allow Apex clients to measure the ESG performance of each of their portfolio companies through accessing ISS’
The market rebound since end of December fuelled hedge fund strategies most exposed to risk assets such as L/S Equity and Special Situations, according to the latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross Asset research team.
Lyxor writes that this is in sharp contrast with performance in Q4-18, which was ‘dreadful’. “Our preferred strategies are those who can navigate fast changing market conditions like those we experienced recently. Merger Arbitrage and Fixed Income Arbitrage have met expectations in that regard.”
“CTAs have done well in December but are under pressure in early January due to the rebound in equities which
