Funds
Beechbrook Capital has held the first close of its inaugural UK SME Credit Fund, with commitments of more than GBP100m. The fund will support UK small and medium-sized businesses with a turnover of between GBP10 million and GBP100 million and EBITDA of more than GBP1 million.
Among the institutional investors that have made commitments to the new fund are British Business Bank Investments Limited, the commercial arm of the British Business Bank, and the European Investment Fund. With additional investments to the fund already pledged, Beechbrook expects to hold a second close in the second quarter of 2016 with a
Towards the end of 2015, Global Macro and CTAs experienced mixed fortunes. During November they were able to make returns amidst difficult market conditions. For both strategies, strong tailwinds in FX proved to be beneficial, the Lyxor Global Macro Index gaining 1.3 per cent mid-way through November and ending the year up +3.9 per cent. These gains were largely in response to the buoyancy of the USD against G10 and Emerging Market currencies.
In short, both strategies were trading on the expectations of a US Federal Reserve rate hike, which duly materialised in December.
As the Wall Street Journal wrote
ALPS Fund Services is to expand its Denver-based hedge fund administration business with the acquisition of Kaufman Rossin Fund Services (KRFS), an independent, full-service provider of specialised administration services to the financial community.
Established in 1994, KRFS has offices in Miami, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, and Grand Cayman. The company’s hedge fund services include accounting and valuation, back-office outsourcing, investor services, treasury services, and customised reporting. KRFS is an affiliate of Kaufman Rossin & Co
“We see this acquisition making us a top-20 provider in the hedge fund administration business,” says Ned Burke (pictured), CEO of ALPS Holdings, Inc., the
The State Street Global Investor Confidence Index (ICI) rose to 108.3 in December 2015, up 1.0 point from November’s revised reading of 107.3, driven by an increase in the European ICI from 96.2 to 103.7 along with the Asian ICI rising 4.6 points to 105.1.
By contrast, the North American ICI decreased by 5.9 points to 106.6.
The Investor Confidence Index was developed by Kenneth Froot (pictured) and Paul O’Connell at State Street Associates, State Street Global Exchange’s research and advisory services business. It measures investor confidence or risk appetite quantitatively by analysing the actual buying and selling patterns of
Exchange traded fund sponsor and asset manager WisdomTree has launched the WisdomTree Dynamic Long/Short US Equity Fund (DYLS) and WisdomTree Dynamic Bearish US Equity Fund (DYB) on the BATS Exchange.
DYLS offers a stock selection strategy designed to add alpha in the core long stock portfolio, while hedging market drawdowns with a dynamic hedge on the market. DYB also offers a stock selection strategy designed to add alpha in the core long stock portfolio, but is designed to provide “more bearish” net positioning. DYLS and DYB each have a net expense ratio of 0.48 per cent.
As markets have become
Japan is host to some of the largest pools of institutional investment assets in the world. It ought to be a magnet for asset managers of all kinds, and especially for the alternative investment managers that are garnering substantial shares of institutional assets in North America and Europe. Yet Japan has proved an exceptionally challenging market to penetrate, for reasons which range from the cultural to the structural.
However, says SumiTrust, there are now signs that Japan’s institutional investors are opening their portfolios to foreign and alternative assets. How should alternative managers approach this opportunity?
Japan is an
It all started so well. In February 2015, hedge funds posted their highest monthly gains (+2.13 per cent) for two years and there was an overall feeling of optimism in the air. As Preqin’s data reveals in its December Hedge Fund Spotlight, at the time 60 per cent of hedge fund managers felt that overall hedge fund performance in 2015 would exceed that of 2014.
Onwards into March, and further positive performance led to Q1 2015 being the best quarterly performance since Q4 2013, with the average hedge fund posting returns of +3.03 per cent.
And then, slowly but
Vineer Bhansali has formed LongTail Alpha, a new investment management advisory firm that will provide qualified investors with the opportunity to benefit from the experience of one of the most accomplished tail risk experts in the financial industry.
LongTail Alpha believes that sustained portfolio performance comes from expecting the unexpected, and positioning portfolios to earn yield while maintaining convexity. The firm will blend a solutions approach with additional value provided through applying decades of experience in active portfolio implementation of these techniques.
“I am eager to embark on this new stage in my career, and apply my professional and
Royce & Associates is reopening the Royce Premier and Special Equity Funds to new investors as of Monday, 4 January.
Chuck Royce and Charlie Dreifus, the funds' respective portfolio managers, say they are comfortable accepting additional asset flows at each fund's current asset base.
Royce and Dreifus, both large shareholders in these portfolios, believe reopening at this time is in the best interests of each portfolio's shareholders. Dreifus says: "I would like the fund to be available to those investors who want to participate in its opportunistic purchases considering both current valuations for equities and the uncertain global economy.
Neptune, the open standards network utility for pre-trade indications in bond markets, is continuing to expand its business to the wider community.
The network launched in August initially, with a limited set of buy-side and sell-side sponsors. Neptune has already seen strong growth in the amount of quality data flowing through the network enhancing pre-trade transparency for those market participants already signed up.
Neptune is now extending the fixed income pre-trade information network to the global financial community. With over USD16 billion of gross notional and nearly six thousand line items, referencing over four thousand ISIN’s across IG/HY/EM bonds, the
