Funds
Ahead of the release of the IEA’s Oil Market Report on Friday, 16 January, Optima’s Graham Martin gives his assessment of the oil market for investors…
With such a fall in oil prices investors tend to stay on the sidelines till they are comfortable the price has reached the bottom. Of course once that happens, the price should rise quite quickly on oil and oil related stocks. The market will anticipate and recover in price ahead of the data which shows the actual increase in demand and/or decrease in supply. Thus for long term investors, buying into energy at these levels
Corporate, fund and private client services provider JTC Group has marked its 27th consecutive year of growth with the launch of a refreshed global brand.
The launch of JTC’s new look comes after another successful year, which saw the firm continue its strategic expansion plan, growing its Assets Under Administration (AUA) to more than GBP25bn across its three core divisions, expanding its global footprint to have a presence in 17 jurisdictions, growing its volume of clients to over 2,000, and increasing its global staff headcount to over 300.
JTC highlights from 2014 include acquiring a book of private client business
Estlander & Partners has launched a new systematic fund – the E&P Commodity Fund – which is focused exclusively on the commodities sector.
The fund began trading on 24 November 2014 with assets approaching USD30 million with backing from a large Nordic institution. The fund vehicle is only available for professional investors in specific jurisdictions within the approved regulatory framework. The strategy will also be made available as managed accounts to institutional and high net-worth investors.
The 100% systematic investment strategy is based on two years’ detailed research by the E&P team based in two of Finland’s leading university
Lyxor Asset Management has partnered with Capricorn Capital Partners to launch the Lyxor / Capricorn GEM Strategy Fund, a new UCITS-compliant long/short global emerging market equity strategy.
The fund, which expands Lyxor’s Alternative UCITS offering, seeks to achieve capital appreciation regardless of market conditions by taking long and short exposures in emerging market large cap equities, with a focus on liquidity and volatility. The investment team searches for opportunities with either upside potential (longs) or downside risk (shorts). As regards long positions, the team focuses on companies benefiting from a sustainable competitive advantage, an entrepreneurial mindset and a potential to
Moss Securities has launched The Moss Securities South American Hedge Fund which invests in key assets and products produced in South America.
Driven primarily by the promising long term growth of the Brazilian economy, the funds asset mix is weighted by each countries relative size and expected gross domestic product growth.
Currency exchange and inflation risk is hedged within the fund. Used in conjunction with a professionally managed portfolio, this fund can increase access to potentially large profits in the region with relatively little risk exposure.
Amundi Alternative Investments (Amundi AI) has awarded, through its Managed Account Platform, a EUR50 million mandate to FrontFour Capital Group LLC to actively trade, under AIFM compliant format, an event-driven strategy concentrated on North American situations.
The event driven strategy, run by FrontFour Capital Group LLC since 2006, focuses on the small & mid cap universe where outsized alpha opportunities have traditionally been found. The investment team, which has worked together since 2004, applies a deep fundamental bottom-up approach to identify and exploit value-unlocking catalysts such as M&A, asset spin-offs, stock buybacks and management change. It invests across the capital
Hedge funds acted as shock absorbers during the wide market gyrations recorded at the beginning of 2015. This year started with a large risk-off move and high volatility on all asset classes. Along with oil prices and rates, equities went sharply down as economic activity was below expectations in December and a potential Greek exit is making the headlines again in Europe. The US dollar posted strong gains, especially against the Euro, fuelled by the expectations that the ECB will find a consensus to adopt expansionary measures as the Eurozone entered deflation.
The total value of exits from private equity-backed portfolio companies throughout 2014 hit USD428bn, higher than any year previously and up from the USD330bn of exits in 2013. Christopher Elvin, Preqin’s Head of Private Equity Products, comments on the current deals and exits environment:
2014 represented the highest ever annual value of private equity-backed buyout exits. This has resulted in a significant increase in the level of capital being returned to buyout fund investors, which had almost surpassed the full-year 2013 amount as of June 2014 (the latest data available). Furthermore, the total value of private equity backed buyout deals
CloudMargin and AcadiaSoft have completed the integration of their respective solutions to provide real-time collateral management communication to their clients.
Using the new link to AcadiaSoft MarginSphere, CloudMargin’s clients are able to issue and respond to margin calls, manage disputes and then negotiate and process margin movements electronically with their brokers. This happens in real-time without sending emails or faxes, prevents the re-keying of data and removes the need to monitor an email inbox. Their brokers benefit hugely from greatly increased automation with their buy-side clients, lower error rates and reduced manual intervention.
CloudMargin is the cloud-based cross-product collateral management
The Caritas Royalty Fund has successfully navigated through the turbulent oil & natural gas markets, generating a +30% net return for investors in 2014.
Managed by Cornerstone Acquisition & Management Company LLC, the Caritas Royalty Fund invests in private oil and natural gas assets throughout the Continental US.
“We divested certain assets just prior to the oil price decline, locking in a material gain and maximising investor returns in a very difficult commodity price environment,” says Derren Geiger, Portfolio Manager of the Caritas Royalty Fund. “The recent price slide is beneficial for us moving forward as we have the ability
