Funds
Smith, Graham & Co Investment Advisors, a USD6 billion institutional solutions based asset manager, has acquired the Five Mile Capital Partners’ residential mortgage team, an alternative investment manager, led by Brian Tortorella, managing director.
The acquisition will further strengthen SGIA’s focus on expanding its fixed income investment capabilities to address current and future client needs.
“The appeal of this offering, rebranded as ‘Mortgage and Real Estate Debt Alternatives’, is rooted back to our inception in 1990 when we found that mortgages provided above market yields with little additional risk over corporate debt,” says Gerald Smith (pictured), chairman and CEO. “The
Malta will benefit more than any other financial centre in Europe from Brexit, according to international asset management firm Managing Partners Group (MPG).
While Malta offers financial firms wishing to operate in the European Union several benefits, the alternatives all have serious flaws that make them comparatively less attractive, MPG says.
MPG’s capital markets team will be expanding on the company’s views at The Malta Solution – Ahead of the Curve seminar in London on 30 March.
Jeremy Leach (pictured), chief executive officer at MPG, says: “Malta will be the biggest beneficiary following Brexit. After London, it should
Brazilian investment manager Captalys has launched its first offshore fund with the support of Apex Fund Services as administrator.
Captalys has BRL1.5 billion in AUM and invests in Brazilian private credit.
The onshore fund has a six-year track-record (returning 20.2 per cent last year and 19.3 per cent in 2015) and started 2017 positively, gaining 1.7 per cent in January.
The recently launched offshore fund, Captalys Private Credit USD, is registered in the Cayman Islands and will operate a credit vehicle with a partial currency hedge to protect against the Brazilian real.
Running the new fund, which
Law firm Michelmores and communications agency Bell Pottinger have combined to provide a new crisis management service to help mitigate reputation risk for the alternative investment and finance market.
The service was launched at an event at Michelmores’ offices on 16 March and was attended by prominent figures from leading businesses within the alternative financial services sector.
Michelmores’ and Bell Pottinger’s crisis management offering responds to the increasing variety and complexity of challenges faced by businesses in the sector. The greatest risk to these firms is a collapse in investor/lender confidence.
There are many reasons for loss of
Hedge fund liquidations increased in the fourth quarter even as the industry surpassed the USD3 trillion milestone, bringing the number of closed funds for 2016 to the highest level since 2008.
Hedge fund liquidations increased to 275 in Q4, rising from 252 in the prior quarter, though falling from the 305 funds liquidated in Q4 2015, according to the latest HFR Market Microstructure Report, released today by HFR.
For the full year 2016, liquidations totalled 1,057, surpassing the 1,023 liquidations from 2009, though falling well short of the record of 1,471 liquidations from 2008.
As previously reported by
The alternative UCITS market continued on its strong growth path in February with LuxHedge recording a net inflow of EUR5.8 billion in assets under management, representing solid growth of 1.4 per cent on a monthly basis.
For the second month in a row, multi strategy (+EUR4.6 billion) and fixed income arbitrage (+EUR1.6 billion) funds contributed significantly to the rise in AuM.
With 21 new additions and 10 liquidations, LuxHedge also saw a continued rise in the number of alternative UCITS funds in its database.
The LuxHedge Global Alternative UCITS index increased by 0.24 per cent during February 2017.
The Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark recorded returns of 1.18 per cent in February, building on the 1.43 per cent gains seen the previous month.
This contrasts with the losses that hedge funds incurred in February 2016.
The industry has now recorded 11 months of positive gains in the past year, and 12-month performance has consequently risen to 13.63 per cent, the highest level since May 2013 (+13.76 per cent). Most leading hedge fund strategies returned positive figures in February, with event driven strategies (+1.46 per cent) and equity strategies (+1.54 per cent) funds once again posting the strongest
Concern about the impact of geopolitical risk in the investment profession has grown since the UK’s decision to leave the European Union in July 2016, according to a poll of almost 1,500 investment professionals from around the world by the CFA Institute.
The survey reveals that changes to the geopolitical environment are widely expected to have long-term impacts on the financial markets.
The vast majority of respondents (70 per cent) expect investment returns to be compromised by geopolitical uncertainties over the next three to five years.
Despite the risks identified by members in the poll, a large majority
Hedge funds gained 0.99 per cent in February with underlying markets, as represented by the MSCI AC World Index (Local) up 2.72 per cent over the same period, according to EurekaHedge’s latest Index Flash Update.
On a year-to-date basis, managers gained 1.93 per cent with 11 per cent of them posting returns in excess of 5 per cent.
Among developed mandates, North American hedge funds were up 0.77 per cent, followed by European and Japanese counterparts which gained 0.46 per cent and 0.30 per cent for the month respectively. On a year-to-date basis, North American managers were up 1.78
The G10-Rosseau Special Situations Fund (US) LP, managed by Rosseau Asset Management of Toronto, earned the top position in 2016 among the 4,099 hedge funds tracked by BarclayHedge with a 156.32 per cent annual return.
Rosseau funds also took the second and sixth spots with returns of 155.94 per cent and 128.89 per cent, respectively.
Warren Irwin, president and chief investment officer, says: "The strong rebound in the resource sector was very refreshing after years of challenging markets. We spent the downturn focused on finding the best special situations available and were rewarded handsomely for our efforts in 2016."
