Managers
The Bank of England has raised interest rates by a quarter point to 0.5 per cent, the first interest rate rise in a decade.
Commenting on the decision, Andrew Fowkes, Head of Retail Centre of Excellence, SAS UK & Ireland says: “Today’s decision to increase interest rates will be felt by consumers immediately.
“Some brands have already invested in the ability to respond to external events in real-time to survive and thrive. Our research shows that over half (55 per cent) of UK organisations use changes in financial markets to inform their customer interactions, with telco providers, insurance companies and
H2O Asset Management, an affiliate of the Natixis Global Asset Management Group, has acquired a strategic stake in Poincaré Capital Management, a Hong-Kong-based asset manager focusing on global equities driven by Asian growth.
This move followed H2O’s recent communication on the limited management capacity left in its high-risk global macro products, and on its ambition to expand its range of investment products through acquisitions that remain close and complementary to its DNA. After launching a global emerging debt, then a global aggregate fund, H2O created its Barry brand in 2016, which is dedicated to thematic investments linked to the lack of liquidity
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) achieved a total volume of 261.3 TWh on its power derivatives markets in October (October 2016: 410.1 TWh).
The October volume comprised 141.1 TWh traded at EEX via Trade Registration with subsequent clearing. Clearing and settlement of all exchange transactions was executed by European Commodity Clearing (ECC).
The shift in liquidity from the German-Austrian Phelix Future into the German Phelix DE future continued to increase in October. A large share of German trading volumes for maturities beyond 2018 is already traded in the Phelix-DE Futures on a regular basis. In October, options were traded on
Crestline Investors, a credit focused institutional alternative asset manager, has closed its third Opportunity Fund (Opportunity Fund III). Opportunity Fund III, and related managed accounts, secured over USD1.34 billion in capital commitments, exceeding the fundraising objective.
Investors in the strategy include leading public and private pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, and other institutional investors.
The new fund is the ninth in Crestline’s series of opportunistic funds, which started in 2005 and have attracted more than USD5.6 billion in client commitments to date. Each of the funds is managed by Crestline’s Credit Strategies team, which has closed over 75
Glendon Capital Management has successfully closed its second credit opportunities and special situations fund, Glendon Opportunities Fund II, with final commitments reaching the hard cap of USD2.5 billion.
Glendon’s senior investment team has spent the vast majority of their careers pursuing compelling dislocated or distressed opportunities globally. The Fund’s limited partners are comprised of some of the largest and most respected domestic and international institutional investors from various sectors including public and private pension funds, financial institutions, foundations and endowments. The Glendon Opportunities Fund, which closed in 2014, raised USD1.1 billion in total commitments.
“We are very grateful for
The State Street Global Investor Confidence Index decreased to 96.9 in October, down 7.5 points from September’s revised reading of 104.4.
The decline in sentiment was driven by an 8.7 point drop in the North American ICI to 96.8, along with a 6.7 point fall in the Asian ICI to 96.2 and a 0.7 point decrease in the European ICI to 93.1.
The Investor Confidence Index was developed by Kenneth Froot (pictured), and Paul O’Connell at State Street Associates, State Street Global Exchange’s research and advisory services business. It measures investor confidence or risk appetite quantitatively by analysing the
Nicola Wealth Management has launched its NWM Private Debt Fund. This fund combines a fund-of-funds approach with a direct investment in private debt opportunities to earn an attractive premium above public market fixed income yields and returns.
“By partnering with a stable of handpicked sub-managers, we are able to diversify across regions, industries, and strategies to include a wide set of private debt opportunities,” says NWM president, David Sung (pictured). “Nicola Wealth has always focused on an asset allocation that extends beyond typical stocks and bonds to create true diversification. We see great potential in adding private debt to that mix.”
CME Group is planning to launch bitcoin futures in Q4 2017, pending regulatory approval. The new contract will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) which serves as a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of bitcoin.
Bitcoin futures will be listed on and subject to the rules of CME.
“Given increasing client interest in the evolving cryptocurrency markets, we have decided to introduce a bitcoin futures contract,” says Terry Duffy (pictured), CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “As the world’s largest regulated FX marketplace, CME Group is the natural home for this
Stone Harbor Investment Partners, an independent global fixed-income investment firm focused on credit risk strategies and asset allocation, has launched the Emerging Markets Explorer Strategy, a concentrated, high conviction, unconstrained strategy in emerging markets debt.
The Emerging Markets Explorer Strategy is managed in a concentrated, total return style and primarily invests in fixed income securities selected from the emerging markets debt asset classes of hard currency sovereign debt, corporate credit, local duration and EM FX.
The Strategy will be managed by the Stone Harbor Emerging Markets team who have a long history of investing in emerging markets through various
Most hedge fund strategies remained in positive territories in the past week, with Global Macro leading the pack, benefitting from short European bonds and from positions in Japanese FX and equities, according to the latest Weekly Brief from Lyxor’s Cross Asset Research team.
The Lyxor Merger index is up +7 per cent year-to-date. While deal spreads tightened up until the summer, they have widened since then. Merger funds though, have emained immune.
Lyxor writes: “Since the end of last year, the perception of merger risk receded. The number of deals motivated by an inversion objective dried out and very
