Funds
Steady performance and investor inflows through Q3 2017 increased total hedge fund capital to a fifth consecutive record quarterly level, as global economic growth prospects improved despite continued elevated geopolitical risks.
Total hedge fund industry capital rose to a record USD3.15 trillion, an increase of USD50 billion over the prior quarter, as reported today by HFR, the established global leader in the indexation, analysis and research of the global hedge fund industry. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gained 2.3 per cent in Q3 2017 and is up 5.9 per cent YTD, led by the HFRI Equity Hedge (Total) Index,
Alternative UCITS continued on their path of steady gains in Septmeber, with the LuxHedge Global Index advancing 0.27 per cent during the month to take its YTD return to 1.60 per cent.
The heterogeneity of different funds in the universe remains very large with a largest fund return at +9.25 per cent and a worst return of -7.20 per cent last month. Roughly two-thirds of Alternative UCITS funds posted positive results in September.
Performance was led by Equity Hedge funds with the LuxHedge Equity Long/Short Europe UCITS index gaining 1.12 per cent (+3.12 per cent YTD) and the LuxHedge
New Silkroutes Group’s (NSG) wholly-owned subsidiary New Silkroutes Capital (NSC), is to acquire a 66 per cent stake in European fund manager Culross Global Holdings Limited and related companies in a deal worth USD2.6 million.
As part of on-going efforts to transform NSG, the NSG group has been restructured with the intention that NSC will eventually serve as the financial ‘dashboard’ for the group’s invested verticals, which comprise investments in financials, energy, healthcare and real estate. With the acquisition, NSC will not only be able to on-board essential wealth management capabilities but will also be able to operate seamlessly in
Alternative investment manager FS Investments has launched its first open-end mutual fund, FS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund, which seeks to generate absolute returns with low correlation to traditional investments over a complete market cycle, and is distinct in that it combines hedge fund managers and alternative beta strategies.
“FS Investments always looks for differentiated ways to help investors access alternative sources of returns,” says Michael Forman (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FS Investments. “FS Multi-Strategy Alternatives Fund was created to provide exposure to an investment approach employed by some of the most successful institutional investors. We are excited to bring
Man Numeric, Man Group’s quantitative equity investment manager, has launched the Dublin-domiciled Man Numeric European Equity fund, its fifth UCITS-compliant vehicle for the European market.
The Man Numeric European Equity fund provides investors with access to Man Numeric’s European Core strategy, which launched in 2002. The investment strategy aims to outperform the MSCI Europe Index and provide consistent returns over time through quantitative, bottom-up stock-selection from a broad stock universe of about1,300 names, via a fundamental, systematically implemented, investment process.
Overseen by portfolio managers Greg Bunimovich, Ori Ben-Akiva and Mickael Nouvellon, the strategy utilises a combination of proprietary Valuation
BNY Mellon and HSBC are each partnering with Algomi, a bond market infrastructure provider, to expand corporate bond trading opportunities for their custody clients and the wider market.
The collaboration is expected to bolster fixed income market liquidity by giving clients the ability to make select holdings information available anonymously on the Algomi Honeycomb network of market participants.
The initiative will increase trading in the illiquid corporate bond market, which has seen turnover shrink while outstanding debt has risen by 75 per cent in the last decade. In a recent FCA study, a leading fixed-income trading house reported that
Heptagon Capital, a USD8.3 billion London based asset management firm, has added the first Long/Short equity manager to its USD2 billion Irish UCITS funds offering.
The Heptagon Kettle Hill US Long Short Equity Fund launched on Thursday 5 October, and assets for this US Small Cap strategy managed by New York based Kettle Hill Capital Management, have already grown to USD90 million.
The investment team at Kettle Hill seeks to generate superior rates of return in any environment, through a combination of value and momentum investing, with a focus on the less efficient small cap sector of the US
Singapore Exchange (SGX) has expanded its international footprint with the opening of SGX America in Chicago.
Building on its existing international connectivity, SGX’s presence in the US will enable it to better serve a growing client base in this region and meet the rising international investor appetite to access and risk manage Asian exposure.
SGX operates a unique pan-Asian multi-asset marketplace that provides international investors with exposure to 95 per cent of Asia’s GDP through the world’s most liquid offshore market for the benchmark equity indices of China, India, Japan and ASEAN. SGX America will enhance access for investors
Hedge funds were up 0.42 per cent in September, with 2017 year-to-date gains coming in at 5.53 per cent, according to the October 2017 Eurekahege Report.
Total hedge fund assets grew by USD157.52 billion over the past nine months with USD83.1 billion attributed to investor inflows while managers posted performance-based gains of USD74.4 billion. The industry’s total assets currently stands at USD2.38 trillion.
Long/short equities mandated hedge funds led the table for the month with gains of 1.46 per cent. On a year-to-date basis, long/short equities hedge fund managers also topped the tables gaining 9.00 per cent. Year-to-date investor
Hedge funds enjoyed another positive week last week according to the latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross-Asset Research team.
Lyxor writes: “Cracks in the reflation trade emerged after the marginally dovish Fed’s minutes and with doubts intensifying about the tax-cut package. CTAs outperformed, thanks to their contrarian allocation in bonds (they are long, mainly in Europe), in FX (they are dollar short, especially vs. non-G10 currencies) and in commodities (they are long gold). They also benefitted from their more cyclical exposures to equities and metals. While sector rotations away from the reflation trade weakened L/S Neutral funds, equities remained well
