Funds
Standard Life Investments combines micro and macro capabilities to launch new fund… BNY Mellon closes two sub-funds…
BNY Mellon has taken the decision to close two of its funds on the back of falling assets. As reported this week by Citywire Global, the two funds in question are: BNY Mellon Evolution Global Alpha and BNY Mellon Latin America Infrastructure.
The former launched in 2006 as a multi-asset absolute return strategy and closed with less than EUR7.1mn of assets. The latter launched more recently, in 2010, to give investors exposure to companies involved in Latin American infrastructure projects. Over the
Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services, a global asset administrator, has acquired Meridian Fund Services Group, a fund administrator with USD14bn of assets under administration (AuA).
Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services, part of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), provides a wide range of fund administration and investor services to hedge funds, fund of funds, private equity and real estate funds, mutual funds and family offices.
The acquisition of Meridian raises MUFG’s fund services AuA to approximately USD165bn, servicing over 300 clients and 1000 funds.
The deal is part of a wider growth strategy to build Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services into a
Global institutional trading network Liquidnet is planning to enter the fixed income market with its acquisition of bond trading platform Vega-Chi.
The partnership, subject to regulatory approval, will combine Liquidnet’s experience, scale and global reach within the institutional investment community with Vega-Chi’s corporate bond trading platform and sector expertise to accelerate efficiencies within the corporate bond market.
“There has been a massive increase in corporate bond issuance and at the same time a depletion of capital that dealers can use to facilitate trading. The result has been increasing difficulty among investment managers and dealers in accessing liquidity. To fix
KNEIP has been appointed by Vontobel Asset Management to carry out fund data management, regulatory filing, KIID production and dissemination and financial reporting.
Vontobel Asset Management will be making use of KNEIP’s service across its entire Swiss- and Luxembourg-domiciled fund ranges.
Joel Kieffer, sales manager at KNEIP, says: “Our data, document and reporting management solution helps Vontobel streamline the data aggregation process and supports the generation and submission of the finalised documents to relevant authorities, in the relevant languages and formats.”
For regulatory filing, KNEIP’s solution was developed in partnership with CETRELSecurities and is fully sanctioned by Luxembourg
ABN AMRO Investment Management has launched the first two ABN AMRO Basic UCITS exchange-traded funds reported AssetServicingTimes this week. Both have been listed on Euronext Amsterdam.
CACEIS has been awarded the fund administration mandate. Both funds are physical ETFs that invest in a basket of shares to replicate the underlying index. Neither fund is engaged in securities borrowing and lending, thus removing the threat of counterparty risk.
Bart Mantje, director at ABN AMRO Investment Management, was quoted as saying: “We are delighted to be able to offer these high quality investment solutions to the market. We believe that ABN
After launching its new brand and announcing a fresh start with the shareholder New York Life Investment Management last month, Candriam is in the process of renaming all of its funds.
This process, which should be completed by the summer 2014, begins with the alternative investment fund range.
Fabrice Cuchet, member of the executive committee and head of alternative investment strategies at Candriam, says: "With systemic risks retreating since Mario Draghi's speech in July 2012 and, as a corollary, the return of fundamentals as the primary market driver, conditions are supportive for conviction-based and alternative investment strategies. Uncertainties remain on
Alternative multi-manager Tages Capital has signed a strategic partnership with Frankfurt-based Gauly | Dittrich | van de Weyer Asset Management.
Under the terms of the agreement, Gauly | Dittrich | van de Weyer Asset Management will distribute Tages’ investment solutions and products in Germany and Austria.
In addition, Gauly | Dittrich | van de Weyer Asset Management and Tages Capital will cooperate on an exclusive basis to launch a multi-asset product outside of Germany and Austria.
Founded in 2011, Tages Capital specialises in providing customised alternative fund of fund investment solutions for institutional clients who currently account for
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management's (DeAWM) Aggregator Solutions fund has recently acquired a USD85m portfolio of illiquid hedge funds from a Swiss asset manager.
The fund closed in August 2013 with commitments from professional investors of USD1bn.
The Aggregator Solutions fund has now either acquired or had bids accepted on positions with a net asset value of more than USD400m from professional investors since it launched in October 2012. The fund was set up to invest in illiquid or lower-liquidity hedge funds, particularly in situations where market conditions make it difficult for investors to redeem their holdings.
Magnus
The Swiss banking group Syz & Co has launched Oyster Market Neutral Plus, a new sub-fund of Oyster, its Luxembourg UCITS SICAV.
The fund is an increased leverage version of the Oyster Market Neutral fund, whose neutral beta long/short strategy has proved itself since it was launched four years ago.
Managed by Syz Asset Management according to the same investment process and with the same diversification and non-correlation objectives as the original fund, Oyster Market Neutral Plus offers 2x leverage and targets a return of LIBOR +10 per cent.
With a target return of Libor +10 per cent
February proved to be a more positive month performance-wise for alternative UCITS funds with the UCITS Alternative Index Global returning 1.06 per cent. All strategies, bar two, posted positive returns.
As was the case in January, the best performing strategy was long/short equity, gaining 2.14 per cent to leave it up 2.05 per cent YTD. Also doing well in February were CTA, event-driven and emerging markets strategies, gaining 1.27 per cent, 0.95 per cent and 0.95 per cent respectively. FX and volatility strategies registered minor losses of 0.28 per cent and 0.08 per cent. Behind long/short equity, the next best
