Funds
Alternative credit investment firm Crescent Capital Group has held the final close of Crescent Mezzanine Partners VII with commitments of over USD4.6 billion, surpassing the fundraising target of USD3 billion.
Fund VII’s limited partners include a diverse mix of global investors from more than 20 countries including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurance companies, financial institutions, foundations and endowments.
The closing represents the largest mezzanine offering in Crescent Mezzanine’s history. Thus far, Fund VII has deployed or committed approximately USD900 million across nine transactions.
“This fundraise is a significant milestone for our firm and speaks to the strength
Alternative UCITS indices performed strongly during December across almost all strategy styles, according to the latest LuxHedge Alternative UCTS Overreview.
The LuxHedge Global Alternative UCITS Index representing 1,352 funds increased with 0.76 per cent, slightly underperforming the broader Hedge Fund market: HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index 0.86 per cent.
Except for the commodity arbitrage UCITS index (-1.67 per cent) which is the smallest category representing 11 funds, all LuxHedge UCITS indices ended the month of December with positive performance.
Top performers were long/short equity funds as measured by the Long/Short Europe UCITS Index (+2.00 per cent). CTA/managed futures
Active asset manager Quaero Capital is expanding into Asia with licensed local fund distributor Peak Capital to promote Quaero’s Family Enterprise Fund and other high conviction investment strategies to professional investors in the region.
Quaero Capital is a specialist asset management boutique based in Geneva with offices in London and Paris. Its approach is to ‘hot house’ new and exciting investment strategies, testing them in the market place with a view to generating excess returns over the long term for its investors.
Quaero Capital managers Marc St John Webb and veteran investor Philip Best are well known in Europe
Latest figures from Eurekahedge reveal that hedge funds gained 1.01 per cent during the month of December, with 2016 returns coming in at 4.48 per cent.This compares with the MSCI AC World Index (Local) gaining 2.38 per cent in December with its 2016 returns coming in at 7.37 per cent.
The firm writes that North American equity markets traded higher in December as the Trump-driven reflation theme buoyed markets in a somewhat 'honeymoon' period post-election. The S&P 500 Index gained 1.82 per cent during the month, with the DJIA also up 3.34 per cent.
Eurekahedge writes that central bank actions
Nordea Asset Management has expanded its suite of outcome-oriented solutions with the launch of the Nordea 1 – Flexible Fixed Income Plus Fund.
As the current low yield environment challenges the return potential of high-quality fixed income assets, the fund aims to provide a solution for conservative investors willing to take on limited and controlled risk in a bid to achieve returns more in line with historical fixed income performance.
The strategy invests across all fixed income asset classes, but it also has the flexibility to have a limited exposure to equities of up to 15 per cent. The
Family Office Networks is expanding its hedge fund division to help a select group of emerging and established investment managers raise assets from the fast-growing family office sector.
"New managers typically rely on 'friends and family' money or perhaps a key investor to launch their fund. Once they've launched, however, they want allocations from family offices but find them to be hard to identify and get in front of to tell their story. That's where we come in. Our group has a global network of 7,000 family offices and we understand the investment preferences of every one of them," says
CBOE Holdings has priced an underwritten public offering of USD650 million of its 3.650 per cent Senior Notes due 2027.
The offering is expected to close on 12 January 2017, subject to customary closing conditions.
CBOE Holdings estimates that the net proceeds from the offering will be approximately USD643 million, after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses.
CBOE Holdings intends to use a portion of the net proceeds from the offering to fund, in part, the previously announced acquisition of Bats Global Markets, including the payment of related fees and expenses and the repayment of Bats'
Hedge funds posted gains across all strategies in December, with the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index (FWC) rising to a record index value level as oil prices surged, equities gained and US interest rates increased into year end.
According to data from HFR, the FWC advanced 1.1 per cent in the month, bringing the annual return to +5.6 per cent and the Index Value to 12,966, surpassing the prior record from May 2015 and the highest value since inception in January 1990. The HFRI Asset Weighted Composite Index (AWC) meanwhile, also gained 1.1 per cent in December. In a year
Ultimus Fund Solutions has surpassed USD50 billion in client assets serviced.
During 2016, Ultimus helped 11 advisers launch 15 new mutual funds.
It also managed the conversion of 12 clients with 36 mutual funds and over 50 separately managed accounts and private funds from other service providers.
“Ultimus enjoyed an incredible year of growth,” says Bob Dorsey (pictured), CEO and managing director of Ultimus. “We began the year with the extraordinary transition of the former Huntington Asset Services (HASI) book of business onto our service platform, which included services to collective investment funds and other pooled vehicles. In
Societe Generale Prime Services reports that all SG CTA indices posted positive returns in December 2016 at the end of what it describes as a difficult quarter. However, the SG CTA Index closed the year slightly negative at -2.86 per cent and SG Trend Index was down -6.19 per cent, the first negative year’s performance since 2012.
Short term traders faired marginally better, in positive territory at the end of 2016 at +0.31 per cent. The SG CTA Mutual Fund Index completed its first year of live performance in 2016, down -5.45 per cent, in line with returns of the
