Funds
Following a marginal uptick in performance in June, CTAs faced headwinds again in July with all of Societe Generale Prime Services’ SG CTA indices posting negative returns.
Although the performance was up in the first half of the month, conditions became challenging in the second half. The CTA Index was up 1.44 per cent and the Trend Index up 2.24 per cent mid-month, however by the end, performance was down 0.71 per cent and 0.81 per cent respectively.
Performance was dispersed as five out of 20 constituent managers in the CTA index posted marginally positive returns. In particular, it
RBC Global Asset Management saw mutual fund net sales of USD524 million in July, with sales of long-term funds registering USD549 million. Money market funds meanwhile had net redemptions of USD26 million.
Mutual fund assets under management increased by 1 per cent.
“Investors and advisors continue to favour balanced solutions, which offer stability and diversification,” says Doug Coulter, president of RBC Global Asset Management Inc. “This trend is demonstrated by strong sales of our RBC Select Portfolios, which in July surpassed USD85 billion in assets.”
Mutual fund sales results information is based on preliminary data from the Investment
Anglo-Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company Glencore has reported ‘strong financial performance’ for the first six months with adjusted EBITDA of USD8.3 billion, up 23 per cent, and adjusted EBIT of USD5.1 billion, up 35 per cent.
Net income attributable to equity holders during the period totalled USD2.8 billion, up 13 per cent; while net income, pre-significant items increased 40 per cent to USD3.3 billion. Funds from operations meanwhile, saw an increase of 8 per cent to USD5.6 billion
Net debt decreased by 16 per cent to USD9.0 billion, while EPS was increased by 12 per cent to
Hedge funds posted gains in July to begin the second half of 2018, recovering the narrow decline from June, and effectively navigating a primarily positive earnings season punctuated with certain idiosyncratic equity volatility and directional dislocations, including Facebook and Apple.
The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index advanced 0.6 per cent for the month, according to data released today by HFR.
Bank Systematic Risk Premia strategies again posted mixed performance in July with gains concentrated in Credit and Equity strategies. The HFR BSPR Credit Index gained 3.14 per cent for the month, led by the HFR BSRP Credit Multi-Strategy Index,
In July 2018, the average daily transaction value on the Euronext cash order book stood at EUR7,313.3 million, down 4.0 per cent compared to July 2017 and down 17.1 per cent from the previous month.
The average daily transaction value on the ETF order book was EUR213 million, down 7.2 per cent compared to July 2017 and down 20.2 per cent from the previous month. At the end of July 2018, 1,085 ETFs were listed on Euronext compared to 1,048 at the end of December 2017.
In July 2018, the overall average daily volume on derivatives reached 543,902 contracts, up
Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners (AIP), an investment team within Morgan Stanley Investment Management, has closed the unit’s latest investment fund, the Riverview Strategic Opportunities Fund III (SOF III) with over USD500 million in commitments.
The fundraise saw robust interest from both institutional and high net worth investors with the raise being completed within a few weeks. The Fund is an opportunistic hedge fund solution focused on hedge fund secondaries and co-investments.
“We are pleased investors continue to see promise in our fund’s differentiated approach as hedge funds look to alleviate the constraints they face in the market and
By Don Steinbrugge, CFA – CEO, Agecroft Partners – It is no secret that the vast majority of investors, including hedge funds managers, have underperformed market indices over time. However, some managers have distinguished themselves generating very strong risk adjusted returns.
Outperforming an index requires an information advantage over what is broadly available in market. It also requires a way to process that information to more accurately price securities and select those that demonstrate divergence versus the market. It is becoming increasingly more challenging to achieve this, resulting in an arms race for alpha. Investment processes must be constantly enhanced
BlackRock has launched a suite of open-ended Emerging Market Debt (EMD) funds that integrate environmental, social and governance factors (ESG).
BlackRock says the new range of UCITS funds complements its existing EMD offering and aims to provide investors with a choice of products that may empower them in reaching their financial objectives and expressing their preferences. The funds are actively managed against a respective set of ESG benchmarks – the JESG EMD indices – launched by JP Morgan in collaboration with BlackRock in April 2018. The funds will provide investors with exposure to debt securities issued by government, public local
Prime Capital AG, an independent asset manager and financial services provider, has launched PCAM Select, a new multi-strategy fund of hedge funds.
PCAM Select expands Prime Capital’s absolute return offering and follows the highly successful PCAM Blue Chip Ltd, which was launched in 2007 and has been hard-closed since the end of 2017 after reaching an investment volume of approximately USD850 million. PCAM Select’s underlying portfolio currently comprises 16 target funds that invest across the entire strategy spectrum. Up to 25 per cent of the capital is invested in medium-sized, agile managers, while the majority of the capital is invested
IHS Markit, a specialist in critical information, analytics and solutions, has completed its USD1.855 billion acquisition of Ipreo, a financial services solutions and data provider.
Previously, IHS Markit had announced its intent to acquire Ipreo from private equity funds managed by Blackstone (NYSE:BX) and from the Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division on 21 May 2018; closing happened on 2 August 2018.
“We are moving quickly to integrate the IHS Markit and Ipreo services across multiple business lines to provide greater value to our customers,” says Lance Uggla (pictured), chairman and CEO of IHS Markit. “We look forward to seeing them
