Funds
The Irish Funds Industry Association (IFIA) has welcomed the consultation by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) to enhance fund management company effectiveness and efficiency.
The consultation proposes further enhancements to the existing governance structure and includes a proposal to rationalise the current list of 15 designated functions under AIFMD to six functions.
It is also proposed that UCITS management companies (and self-managed UCITS) managerial functions will similarly be rationalised to six.
In order to ensure the availability of the necessary skillsets required to oversee these functions the CBI are relaxing their requirement to have two Irish resident
Omni Partners, the alternatives specialist set up by trading veteran Steve Clark in 2004, is preparing to launch its fourth product, Omni European ELS, to external investors.
Omni European ELS follows a low net European equity long/short strategy by pursuing opportunities in liquid large-cap equities in developed Europe identified via a dynamic valuation and factor process.
Omni European ELS is managed by Howard Spooner and Hugh Selby-Smith.
Spooner serves as chief investment officer and has more than 30 years of trading experience. He was most recently head of European equity trading at Barclays and previously spent time at
Hugo Bain, Senior Investment Manager at Pictet Asset Management outlines the findings of his recent trip to Russia…
Ukraine and pro-Russia rebel forces agreed a ceasefire on 5 September, the first step towards ending a five-month conflict in eastern Ukraine. But the United States and Europe have imposed fresh sanctions on Moscow in a bid to put further pressure on President Vladimir Putin. How is the country dealing with the effect of Western sanctions and how do ordinary Russians view Putin’s moves? On my recent trip to Russia, I discovered that the situation is not quite as bad as the
361 Capital, an asset management firm specialising in liquid alternative mutual funds, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the 361 Global Long/Short Equity Fund.
Los Angeles-based Analytic Investors, which manages approximately USD10 billion in assets, will sub-advise the fund.
The 361 Global Long/Short Equity Fund will use the same investment strategy as the Analytic Global Long/Short Equity Portfolio, a separately managed account (SMA) which was launched in December 2009.
“The launching of this fund will provide a quality long/short mutual fund option to investors. There is clearly a shortage of attractive long/short equity
Guernsey’s financial services regulator approved 42 new investment funds during the second quarter of this year, bringing the total number of additions in the 12 months to the end of June to 131.
Figures from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) show that 33 new funds were approved during the third quarter of 2013 and 30 during the fourth, along with 26 during the first quarter of 2014 and 42 during the second quarter.
The GFSC approved two open-ended funds, 17 closed-ended funds and 23 non-Guernsey open-ended schemes between the start of April and the end of June. Taking
Chicago-based alternative investment firm Granite Hall Partners has held a first closing on its fifth alternative investment vehicle.
The Granite Hall Partners Credit Opportunity Fund has so far attracted USD10 million in initial seed capital sourced from family offices and high net worth investors.
The firm is seeking USD50 million for the fund to invest in six to eight leading distressed and alternative credit managers.
The fund has already made its first commitment to Apollo Credit Opportunity Fund III. The firm expects to raise capital for the next nine to 12 months.
Alceda Fund Management has been granted a licence to act as Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM) by the Luxemburgish Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).
The licence will enable Alceda to work with initiators of Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) covering both traditional open-end equity and bond funds as well as closed-end real asset funds.
In March 2014, Alceda Asset Management GmbH had been granted a licence to act as AIFM by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
Alceda manages and handles the administration of the funds issued by the Aquila Group and acts as AIFM and
BATS Chi-X Europe and BX Swiss have entered into a partnership agreement designed to bring greater competition and enhanced market efficiencies to the Swiss equities market.
The partnership comprises two key elements:
· Cross-listings for ETFs: Under FINMA regulations, ETF issuers wishing to market to Swiss investors must list their funds on a Swiss exchange. By operating a cross-listing partnership, BATS and BX will streamline the process, making it quicker and cheaper to list pan-European ETFs.
· Trade reporting: BX has approved BATS’ registration as a Swiss Trade Data Monitor (TDM). As a result, non-Swiss domiciled firms will now have
Some of the largest hedge fund managers such as BlueBay Asset Management LLP, Marshall Wace LLP and Brevan Howard are piling in to the liquid alternative fund space as demand shows no sign of abating reported Bloomberg this week.
A survey by Deutsche Bank AG, which canvassed opinion from 86 hedge fund managers overseeing USD6tn in assets, found that 42 per cent currently offer liquid alternative products; up from 27 per cent last year.
A quarter of managers said that they planned on launching at least one alternative UCITS product over the next 12 months. To underscore just how
Gottex Fund Management has reported strong performance from its core products in the six month period ended 30 June 2014.
The firm’s bond substitution product, the alternative credit product, returned +4.9 per cent; its portable alpha multi index product +11.8 per cent; market neutral products +3.0 per cent; and multi-asset products +4.9 per cent.
The EIM transaction will complete this month, with operational cost synergies now estimated to reach USD15 million per annum and to be fully in place by Q2 2015.
Gottex’s operational loss before acquisition related charges of USD5.7 million (compared to a loss of USD1.4
