Funds
Arkk Compliance has launched a new service for regulated financial services firms. The firm has already been working with a number of investment firms on COREP and AIFMD filings since a soft launch back in April of this year.
“The service is designed as a fixed-fee solution that assists firms in their quarterly or annual filings,” says Nick Baldwin (pictured), who heads up the Arkk Compliance team. “From talking to regulated firms we realised that often those with a small back office team or overseas managers struggle to meet annual or quarterly deadlines for their filings due to lack of
Challenger Limited’s boutique funds management division, Fidante Partners, is to acquire 100 per cent of European alternative investments group Dexion Capital Holdings Limited.
Dexion has interests in three specialist fund managers, and also has an investments distribution business, based in London.
The acquisition substantially expands Fidante Partners’ presence in Europe where it already holds interests in UK-based alternative asset managers, including global infrastructure investor Whitehelm Capital and asset-backed security specialist, WyeTree Asset Management.
Challenger’s Chief Executive Funds Management, Ian Saines, says: “This represents a significant step- up in our European presence and is an important part of our
The gross return of the SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Performance Index for June 2015 measured -0.65 per cent, while hedge fund flows as measured by the SS&C GlobeOp Capital Movement Index declined 2.71 per cent in July.
“In terms of seasonality, July is typically a month that sees net outflows,” says Bill Stone (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SS&C Technologies. “SS&C GlobeOp’s CMI showed a -2.71 per cent change for July 2015, indicating a somewhat higher level of net outflows compared to -2.00 per cent a year ago.
“This increase in net outflows most likely reflects concern over
By Robin Sarkar, State Street – In the case of liquid alternatives, investors would be especially smart to pay heed to an age old piece of advice: buyer beware. That's because, despite their differences when compared with traditional alternative investment vehicles, liquid alternatives present higher risk factors, such as the use of leverage and illiquid securities, than do conventional mutual funds. As investors consider whether liquid alternatives make sense for their portfolios in light of their particular investment goals, they should educate themselves about, and monitor, the risks that underlie these funds.
For example, it's critical to be familiar with a
Lyxor Asset Management operates the largest commingled hedge fund managed account platform (MAP), but over the last couple of years it has made inroads to build out a similar offering in the UCITS space.
The Lyxor Alternative UCITS platform has seen its stable of funds grow to nine in total – six external single manager funds, two internal single manager funds and one internal multi-manager fund. Through May 2015, the platform had a combined AUM of EUR1.6 billion.
At the end of 2014, Capricorn Capital Partners launched the Lyxor/Capricorn GEM Strategy Fund – a global emerging markets long/short strategy. Then,
The liquid alternatives space, which by definition includes alternative UCITS funds in Europe and '40 Act registered alternative mutual funds in the US, is not only attracting strong inflows. According to latest research from Preqin, the average alternative mutual fund returned 4.36 per cent in 2014. This compares to returns of 3.78 per cent for the average hedge fund.
The average alternative UCITS returned 1.45 per cent but if one considers performance at the strategy level, CTAs and equity market neutral funds held up well; according to Alix Capital, who run a series of alternative UCITS indices, their UAIX
SYZ Asset Management, the investment funds arm of Swiss banking group SYZ, offers investors two unique long/short strategies in its OYSTER UCITS-compliant fund range. The main differentiators between the two funds are summarised in the table.
Both funds are Luxembourg-domiciled, with each product providing its own diversification benefits as investors take steps to guard against expected equity market volatility on the one hand, and additional sources of returns to complement their fixed income portfolios on the other.
OYSTER market neutral
Market neutral strategies, as their name suggests, are non-directional in nature. As Joseph G. Nicholas, founder and chairman of HFR
Five years ago, UCITS funds weren't exactly a prominent blip on the radar screen at Société Générale Prime Services, but over the last two years, excluding managed accounts, they have accounted for approximately 50 per cent of all new funds onboarded by the business in Europe.
Andrew Dollery (pictured) is Director, Origination & Structuring at Société Générale Prime Services. He looks after many of its UCITS fund clients and is also actively involved in the structuring and servicing of '40 Act funds, as well as hedge funds and managed accounts.
"It is relatively easy to launch a UCITS fund. We
The TCW Group has partnered with Gargoyle Investment Advisor to offer its first alternative mutual fund, the TCW | Gargoyle Hedged Value Fund (TFHIX / TFHVX).
In conjunction with the offering of this Fund, TCW has formed TCW Alternative Funds, a new family of alternative mutual funds.
The TCW | Gargoyle Hedged Value Fund, which is advised by TCW and sub-advised by Gargoyle, seeks long-term capital appreciation with lower volatility than a stand-alone stock portfolio. The Fund aims to achieve this outcome through a combination of buying undervalued stocks and selling overpriced index call options. The Fund has a three-year
Following the strongest first quarter since 2008, managed futures endured a challenging second quarter of 2015, according to the latest performance data for Societe Generale Prime Services’ Newedge CTA indices.
June saw CTA managers experience losses at both the beginning and at the end of the month, resulting in all indices ending the month in negative territory.
The Newedge CTA Index declined 4.20 per cent during the month of June. However, the performance of the index at the end of the first half of the year was somewhat protected by stronger returns at the beginning of the year, standing
