Managers
By Richard L Shamos (pictured) and Ron S Geffner, Sadis & Goldberg – The global investment funds marketplace today is beset by contradictory economic forces, with increasing financial opportunity accompanied by a rising regulatory burden and populist politics. These tensions are perhaps nowhere more apparent than in Europe, where the investment funds industry posted a record high in 2016 of EUR14.1 trillion in assets under management, including record sales of alternative investment funds of EUR184 billion. This all occurred amidst the Brexit referendum, Trump election, record immigration, attacks of terrorism and sporadic bursts of nationalism.
The underlying message is a profoundly positive one: the
Softbank’s decision to choose a Jersey-based financial services company to administer its USD100 billion technology fund is expected to lead to more funds domiciling in the island.
The Softbank Vision Fund was launched in October 2016 with the aim of becoming the biggest investor in the technology industry over the next decade.
The decision to have the fund administered in Jersey has been described as a “game changer” in the selection of fund domiciles by several attendees at the Jersey Finance Annual Funds Conference in London last week.
Christopher Griffin, counsel at law firm Carey Olsen, says Softbank’s choice
European regulators have blocked the proposed merger between Deutsche Börse and the London Stock Exchange Group.
The EU Commission says the deal would create a “de facto monopoly” for certain financial services, despite remedial measures offered by both companies to alleviate the competition concerns.
Deutsche Börse says it regrets the decision taken by the European Commission.
Joachim Faber, chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Börse AG, says: “The prohibition is a setback for Europe, the Capital Markets Union and the bridge between continental Europe and Great Britain. A rare opportunity to create a global market infrastructure provider
SEI increased its assets under administration (AUA) by 25 per cent in 2016, with year-over-year net flows in its UK private banking business rising by 21 per cent.
The business, which provides outsourced investment processing technology for private banks and wealth management firms through the SEI Wealth Platform, ended the year with AUA at GBP31.6 billion, up from GBP25.2 billion in 2015 – an increase of 25 per cent.
In 2016 SEI also added WHIreland, Netwealth, and Munnypot to its client base and extended contracts with Danske Bank and Veritas Investment Management.
SEI’s data reveals that the 2016
Recently, investor demand has increased for private equity, hybrid public / private funds and alternative yield strategies such as direct lending, asset leasing and royalty streams. As such, the more complex nature of these strategies makes both pre- and post-investment due diligence far more important.
Swiss investors, like all investors, have behavioural biases, which can lead to thorough pre-investment due diligence, but a more laissez faire approach to ongoing diligence post-allocation. Given that many of those "fashionable" strategies hold assets which can be hard to value and may have asset existence issues (assets are not held with a custodian or
According to last year's Preqin Global Hedge Fund Report, Asia Pacific's hedge fund industry had USD159 billion in AUM and the largest allocator, with USD29.9 billion of committed capital, was China Investment Corporation (China's Sovereign Wealth Fund).
In total, there are an estimated 1,709 active hedge funds being managed in the region, and whereas last year's performance relative to the global hedge fund industry was disappointing (1.76 per cent compared to 5.40 per cent), over a three-year period Asia hedge funds have outperformed the US and Europe, returning 6.84 per cent compared to 5.49 per cent.
These facts have not
By Fiona Frick, Unigestion – In a world where returns from traditional asset classes are under pressure, many investors are turning to alternative investments to boost their portfolio's performance potential. However, although an allocation to hedge fund strategies offers potential for attractive risk-adjusted returns and portfolio diversification, the low interest-rate environment has thrown the issue of fees into stark relief.
There is little doubt from our experience that skilled hedge fund managers provide a valuable source of uncorrelated alpha for long-term investors. However, advances in quantitative modelling have challenged traditional definitions of alpha and raised the possibility of accessing alternatives
Jabre Capital Partners is one of the industry's best-known hedge funds. Co-founded in 2006 by Philippe Jabre, Mark Cecil and Philippe Riachi, the Geneva-based hedge fund runs a variety of strategies that include: Multi-strategy, Equity Long/Short, Credit Long/Short, Convertible Bonds and Emerging Markets.
Liquidity management is very much at the core of Jabre Capital's investment philosophy. Granted, the level of market volatility has been somewhat subdued over the last year or so. The VIX Index spiked following the Brexit vote last June, reaching 25.76, and spiked again in November to 22.51 following the US election, but in general it has
Swiss institutions are looking to diversify their alternative allocations in a bid to improve yield and meet their long-term liabilities. Real estate, private equity and infrastructure funds (and co-investment deals) are a major part of their portfolios with hedge funds still viewed with a degree of caution.
Recently, asset managers like Swiss Life Fund Managers have responded to investor demand by launching the Swiss Life REF European Real Estate Living and Working vehicle, targeting housing, healthcare, office and retail assets. Swiss Life said the fund will invest in "B locations in A cities and A locations in B cities", an approach
Alternative investment manager FS Investments has launched its first closed-end interval fund, FS Energy Total Return Fund, which seeks to generate an attractive total return by investing in the equity and debt securities of public and private energy and energy infrastructure companies.
FS Investments already manages more than USD5 billion of energy and power assets, with a focus on directly originated private debt investments.
“FS Investments looks for ways to help investors access alternative sources of income and growth in the market, and we believe the energy industry has great long-term fundamentals if you have the flexibility to invest
