Managers
Active investment manager Allianz Global Investors has launched the Allianz Fixed Income Macro Fund, a new global absolute return fixed income fund aimed at the UK market and will be managed by Kacper Brzezniak from the Conviction Fixed Income team based in London.
Mike Riddell will be deputy portfolio manager, and the team will be supported by Ryan Chin, a multi asset portfolio manager based in the US.
The Fund aims to outperform cash by 4-6 per cent per annum, (gross of fees) through all market cycles, regardless of the direction of interest rates, credit or equities.
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Alternative fund manager Abacus Capital’s Hogi Hyun is stepping into the crypto world to bring investors a blockchain and tokenised investment grade diamond investment opportunity.
Abacus was established in Singapore in 1996 and has some USD1 billion in assets in special situations and private equity investments in commodities, natural resources and mining. It also has a family office fund platform.
Hyun’s new venture, the D1 Coin, is based on the physical delivery of an initial 1,500 investment grade diamonds from Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond miner. The diamonds will be used to support the new asset-backed token D1 Coin.
Hyun
The first mobile-focused personal wealth manager exclusively for crypto assets, B21, has announced a partnership with Salus Alpha, a licensed and regulated investment provider for retail and institutional clients.
Through this partnership, B21 will list Salus Alpha’s Smarter than Crypto (STC) top 20 by market cap index fund, an actively managed closed cap fund for retail investors. In addition, Salus Alpha will provide the license framework for B21 to create its own funds on the B21 platform, improving its fund management capabilities.
“By partnering with Salus Alpha, we’re able to accelerate the deployment and expansion of the B21 platform,
Hedge funds were down 0.34 per cent in June with H1 2018 almost flat, with a 0.08 per cent gain year-to-date, according to the latest Eurekahedge Report. This would be the weakest first half performance of hedge funds on record since 2000.
The strongest gain occurred in H1 2009 when hedge funds gained 10.62 per cent while the next weakest H1 performance came in H1 2010 when managers posted gains of 0.91 per cent.
Total hedge fund assets grew by USD8.8 billion over the past six months, which compares with a growth in total AUM of USD98.5 billion over
Alternative asset manager Mariner Investment Group has closed a USD511 million collateralised loan obligation (CLO).
This is the sixth CLO issued by Mariner’s leveraged credit team and the third in the past 10 months, bringing the total CLO assets under management to approximately USD3.1 billion.
Mariner’s leveraged credit team transitioned from ORIX Corporation USA, Mariner’s parent company, in the fall of 2014. The 18-member team is co-led by David Martin and Erik Gunnerson, who together bring over 30 years of investment expertise. Martin and Gunnerson have managed the team for nearly nine years, including while at ORIX USA and
Demand for hedge funds crept upwards in May, according to the Barclay Fund Flow Indicator, as equity markets rebounded and the US economy improved. Industry assets remained at an all-time high of USD3.0 trillion.
Data drawn from more than 5,000 hedge funds in the BarclayHedge database estimated that the hedge fund industry (excluding CTAs) took in USD4.0 billion (0.1 per cent of assets) in May, reversing USD1.9 billion in redemptions the month before. Industry assets climbed 3.5 per cent year-to-date and surged 17.6 per cent over the trailing 12 months, according to the Barclay Fund Flow Indicator, a monthly big-picture
Stockholm IT Ventures, a Swedish technology company specialising in energy crypto currency mining, has secured a EUR2 million investment in its Bytemine token (BYTM) from Pecunio’s VC Fund.
Pecunio, a fintech company in the United Arab Emirates, has also offered to purchase the remaining allocation of Bytemine tokens (up to EUR 1 million) by the end of the sale.
“We are extremely excited to have Pecunio on board as an institutional investor,” says Phillip Nunn, Managing Director of the Crypto Division for Stockholm IT Ventures. “Being recognised and added to Pecunio’s exclusive portfolio represents a great testament to our
NEX Data, which delivers independent market intelligence and price information for OTC Data, and JBOND, an electronic platform for trading in Japanese Repurchase agreements, have launched the JBOND NEX Repo Index to measure the effective cost of funding for Japanese government bonds.
The first Japanese repo index, it was launched in response to considerable interest from financial community.
The Japanese Yen (JPY) repo market has been very active of late with the average month-end outstanding for 2017 reaching JPY160 trillion. The JBOND NEX Repo Index provides an insight in to the overall cost of funding in the dealer to
The flash estimate for the Barclay CTA Index, compiled by BarclayHedge, indicates a 0.05 per cent loss in June. Year to date, the Index is down 2.00 per cent.
“Trade war concerns sparked by economic sabre rattling shook grain markets while US pressure on its allies to boycott Iranian oil rallied energy prices to new highs on the year,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Agricultural Traders were down 0.59 per cent in June, the Discretionary Traders Index lost 0.59 per cent, and Diversified Traders gave up 0.21 per cent.
The MPI Barclay Elite Systematic Traders
Risk-on sentiment bolstered hedge funds’ returns last week with Lyxor’s Global Hedge Fund Index up 0.3 per cent. The most directional strategies outperformed, including L/S Equity along with Special Situations strategies.
Other strategies though, were flat.
The rise in equities and the JPYUSD depreciation supported CTAs, but long energy positions eroded some of their gains.
Overall, all hedge fund strategies refrained to add risk within portfolios. Global Macro strategies turned more bearish lately. L/S Equity shaved off their directionality and strengthened their defensive tilt. Their net exposure to equities remains nonetheless significant.
Lyxor writes: “Merger Arbitrage
