Funds
Volumes for North American corporate bonds on International Continental Exchange’s (ICE) Credit Trade electronic trading platform increased to USD5.7 billion of traded notional in the first quarter of 2017, up 52 per cent compared to fourth quarter 2016 notional traded.
Launched in late 2015, the platform has achieved seven consecutive quarters of record notional value of bonds traded. The average trade size executed on the platform now exceeds USD1.1 million for US Investment Grade bonds and USD700,000 for US High Yield bonds.
Based on a unique session-based protocol known as Risk Matching Auctions (RMAs), ICE Credit Trade allows the
Friess Associates has launched the Friess Small Cap Growth Fund making the firm’s small-cap services widely available for the first time.
Smaller companies played such a significant role in the early growth of Friess Associates that the firm began dedicating specialised attention to the small-cap category in 1982. Over the next 35 years, only institutions and high-net-worth individuals able to meet substantial investment minimums could access the firm’s small-cap services.
Friess Small Cap Growth Fund’s investment minimum is USD2,000 in the fund’s investor class, which will trade under the ticker symbol SCGNX. Led by Chief Investment Officer Scott Gates (pictured), Friess researchers
Exchange turnover in investment products and leverage products increased on Europe’s financial markets in the first quarter of 2017. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2016, turnover rose by 8.0 per cent to EUR30.5 billion.
However, this still represents a 9.0 per cent decrease year on year. Those are some of the outcomes of an analysis by Derivative Partners AG of the latest market data collected by the European Structured Investment Products Association (EUSIPA) from its members.
The members of EUSIPA providing input to the report are: Zertifikate Forum Austria (ZFA), Belgian Structured Investment Products Association (BELSIPA), Association Française des Produits Dérivés de
Cowen has completed its acquisition of Convergex Group for a total consideration of USD100.7 million (including seller transaction expenses) and is comprised of USD53.1 million in cash and USD47.6 million in Cowen common stock.
Effective today, Convergex has been renamed Cowen Execution Services and Convergex Limited, its London-based brokerage, has been renamed Cowen Execution Services Limited.
“The acquisition of Convergex enhances our position as a leader in high quality research and superior global execution capabilities,” says Peter A Cohen (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cowen. “This transaction is another step forward in Cowen’s overall growth strategy.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is to acquire Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Global Research division’s index platform.
The BofAML indices are the second most used fixed income indices by assets under management (AUM) globally, and upon closing, the AUM benchmarked against the combined fixed income index business of ICE will be nearly USD1 trillion. Upon closing, the indices will be re-branded as the ICE BofAML indices. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, and the transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017. The financial impact of the transaction is expected to be immaterial in 2017.
Corporate credit specialist Muzinich & Co has launched the Muzinich Emerging Market Debt Fund for investors aiming to tap into capital growth opportunities in EM credit.
The Ireland-domiciled OEIC fund complements the existing Muzinich Emerging Market Short Duration Fund by giving investors access to the higher return potential available from regular duration emerging market credit.
Warren Hyland (pictured), portfolio manager of both funds, says: “The economic cycle is shifting. We’re moving from an environment where deflation and economic slowdown were the primary concerns to one of reflation and rising interest rates, where growth drivers are coming to the
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
IHS Markit has launched the Emirates NBD Markit iBoxx USD Sukuk Index in collaboration with Emirates NBD, the Dubai-headquartered bank.
The index provides an objective and transparent benchmark for investors in USD sukuk (bonds that conform with Islamic finance norms).
It couples market knowledge from Emirates NBD with IHS Markit’s expertise in the provision of fixed income indices.
“The creation of the Emirates NBD Markit iBoxx USD Sukuk Index is an important and timely expansion of our global iBoxx family of bond indices,” says Aram Flores, managing director and co-head of Indices at IHS Markit. “In partnering
Neuberger Berman has broadened its suite of alternative investment solutions with the launch of two UCITS funds employing collateralised index put writing strategies.
The Neuberger Berman US Equity Index PutWrite and Global Equity Index PutWrite funds seek to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns through the harvesting of premiums from selling put options on US and global equity indices, respectively, and the conservative investment of underlying collateral.
Volatility of this strategy is generally lower than the underlying equity indices as investors typically experience lower up market and down market capture than the underliers. Therefore, over time, this strategy aims to
Citi is to sell its fixed income analytics and index businesses to London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) for a total cash consideration of USD685 million, subject to customary adjustments.
The transaction includes Citi’s fixed income analytics platform, The Yield Book, and Citi Fixed Income Indices which include the World Government Bond Index (WGBI).
Subject to regulatory clearance and other customary closing conditions, the transaction is anticipated to close in the second half of 2017.
Citi made the decision to divest the businesses following a strategic review process. Citi believes that LSEG is a partner that will optimise
