Funds
Malta hosts a wide range of service providers, all of whom are well versed in structuring and supporting alternative investment funds, fund administration, risk management and so on. According to the MFSA’s statistics for Q1 2017, Malta had 26 recognised fund administrators, 115 Category 2 investment services groups, and 153 Company Service Providers.
From a fund launch perspective, a total of 21 Professional Investment Funds (PIFs) were licensed and three Notified Alternative Investment Funds (NAIFs).
“Overall, for the past 12 months fund formations in Malta have been strong,” says Nicholas Warren, Manager, Corporate Services, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates. “We’ve seen
Traditionally, Luxembourg’s fund industry has always been based on the products being regulated. Both UCITS funds, and Specialised Investment Funds (SIFs) under AIFMD, work on this premise. However, the Grand Duchy was quick to realise that given AIFMD is manager regulation, it created a double layer of regulation for alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) wishing to run alternative investment fund (AIF) products.
As Kavitha Ramachandran (pictured), Senior Manager Business Development & Client Management at Maitland, explains, this was a potential problem where time to market was essential.
“This is what led to the creation of the Reserved Alternative Investment Fund
What does the future hold for the raising of funds in Europe? Wayne Atkinson (pictured) of Collas Crill, on behalf of the Guernsey Investment Fund Association, takes a closer look…
With the arrival of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), many were quick to bemoan what they saw as the inevitable loss of their favoured route to market; the use of national private placement regimes in the key European markets to raise capital for a Guernsey fund vehicle. With the passing of a few more years, a Brexit referendum and more than a little regulatory delay, it is becoming increasingly
By James Williams – 1. Choosing the Fund’s European Domicile: One of the hardest decisions for any start-up or established manager wishing to launch a European Alternative Investment Fund is picking the most suitable jurisdiction. Europe has multiple fund centres, including Luxembourg, Ireland, Malta and The Netherlands, each of which offers something slightly different. Due care and consideration of all the options is therefore vital before the manager engages with legal counsel to commence the fund set-up phase.
Europe’s largest onshore funds domicile is Luxembourg, home to approximately 14,400 funds, including sub-funds, representing just short of EUR4 trillion in AUM,
UK active funds transaction fees have dropped by 20 per cent since 2014 while portfolio turnover stayed relatively stable over the same period according to independent fund research company, Fitz Partners.
The average portfolio turnover of UK domiciled active equity funds hardly moved from 59 per cent to 52 per cent in three years, whilst transaction fees decreased gradually from 0.25 per cent to 0.20 per cent.
Hugues Gillibert (pictured), Fitz Partners Chief Executive Officer says: “We have seen a gradual disconnect between transaction fees and levels of portfolio turnover. A 20 per cent drop in transaction fees over
Hedge funds were up 0.33 per cent in May with 2017 year-to-date gains coming in at 3.28 per cent, according to the June 2017 EurekaHedge Report.
Investor appetite for hedge funds has picked up pace since the start of the year, with net inflows of USD39.0 billion for the year following redemptions of USD55.1 billion in 2016.
AUM for the North American hedge fund industry has reached a record high of USD1.55 trillion as of May 2017. Since the Trump win in November last year, North American mandates have recorded a growth in AUM of USD56.3 billion – USD39.5
The Lyxor Hedge Fund index was about flat during the past week, according to the latest weekly brief from the Lyxor Cross Asset Research Team.
Lyxor says that CTAs lagged with losses concentrating in their long US and Canadian bonds, in their long CAD, as well as in their short soft commodities, while moves in other strategies were mild.
L/S Equity funds’ losses in growth and tech positions were offset by gains in financials. Returns among L/S neutral funds were heterogeneous. Neutral fundamental outranked quantitative approaches, which were caught by factors rotation. Event Driven funds were supported by the catch-up
Financial technology group ayondo has expanded its product portfolio with the launch of Bitcoin trading, allowing its clients easy access to the price movement of Bitcoin without the need to open up an e-wallet to purchase bitcoin on the internet.
Bitcoin is a type of digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.
The digital currency has experienced rapid growth recently and can now be traded at ayondo via spread betting/CFD trading. Bitcoin is also available to signal providers
Intercontinental Exchange has reported a new daily volume record of 3.35 million contracts for the Three Month Sterling (Short Sterling) futures contract set on 15 June, 2017. The previous record was 2.89 million contracts set in June 2014.
On 13 June, ICE’s FTSE 100 Index futures contract traded over one million contracts for the first time since its launch in 1984, setting a new daily volume record of 1.14 million contracts. The previous record was 862,468 contracts set in March 2014.
The records follow an increased focus on the UK following the recent general election. In addition, despite no
Polen Capital, an independently owned global investment manager, has launched a US Small Company Growth strategy to be led by Tucker Walsh from a new office in Boston.
Walsh has managed small cap portfolios and researched small cap companies for more than 25 years and brings a wealth of leadership experience from his roles as CEO and Head of Portfolio Management at Copper Rock Capital. He will build and head Polen Capital’s Small Company Growth Team as an autonomous unit out of a new Boston office.
The US Small Company Growth strategy seeks to outperform by investing in stocks
