Managers
London-based International Asset Management Limited (IAM) has been investing in hedge funds since 1989. Over that time it has seen a great deal of change in the industry, honing its technique for uncovering talented fund managers with a clearly defined investment edge.
That experience has proven crucial given the tough time that hedge funds have had since 2012; a period since when unparalleled central bank intervention has made the process of generating investment alpha harder than ever.
“In terms of what we look for in a manager, it focuses on differentiation, predominantly in the liquid side of the market,” says
Old Mutual Global Investors (OMGI), part of Old Mutual Wealth, has launched the Old Mutual Systematic Positive Skew Fund, targeting sophisticated institutional investors.
The Irish-domiciled Qualified Investor Alternative Investment Fund (QIAIF) is the latest alternative launch from OMGI addressing the demands of institutional investors for funds offering uncorrelated absolute returns, designed to counterbalance the severe volatility within equity and bond markets.
OMGI currently manages over USD8.7 billion in the liquid alternatives space.
The launch is designed to meet the demand from sophisticated investors for a higher volatility alternative strategy that complements OMGI’s existing range.
The long/short fund
BT has signed an agreement to acquire IP Trade, a provider of unified communications and collaboration solutions for trading floor environments and command-and-control dispatch centres.
Completion of the deal is subject to certain conditions, including regulatory clearance, and is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2017.
The acquisition is underpinned by BT’s Cloud of Clouds portfolio strategy and underlines its continued investment in voice trading and turret solutions.
BT says customers will benefit from optimised cost of ownership, flexible cloud-based deployment options and operational agility, and will be better able to meet demanding regulatory compliance obligations,
Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has launched the CBOE S&P 500 Range-Bound Premium Income Index, which is designed to serve as a benchmark for investors aiming for consistent income distributions while taking the view that short-term equity returns will be range-bound.
The CBOE S&P 500 Range-Bound Premium Income Index measures the performance of a hypothetical portfolio of short-term Treasury bills and exchange-traded Flexible Exchange (FLEX) options based on the S&P 500 Index (SPX). The index strategy is designed to deliver consistent monthly income distributions that have low correlations to returns from US domestic fixed-income markets and are neutral to the
Nasdaq has reported record fourth quarter 2016 net revenues of USD599 million, up USD63 million or 12 per cent from USD536 million in the prior year period, driven primarily by a USD54 million positive impact from acquisitions.
Organic growth in non-trading segments was 5 per cent as compared to the fourth quarter of 2015.
"As Nasdaq's new CEO, I'm excited to have the privilege to lead one of the best businesses in the world as we pursue our mission to help our clients more efficiently and effectively navigate the global capital markets," says Adena Friedman (pictured), president and CEO,
The volume of European restructurings is expected to hit its next peak in 2017, according to a survey by Debtwire in conjunction with independent investment bank Greenhill and law firm Orrick.
The study, for Debtwire Europe’s 13th European Distressed Debt Market Outlook, canvassed the opinion of 130 European hedge fund managers, distressed debt investors and private equity professionals and provides insight into their expectations for the European distressed debt market in 2017 and beyond.
“2016 proved to be another challenging year for the restructuring community, mostly as a result of a continued slim pipeline of workouts and distressed opportunities,”
Lombard Odier Investment Managers has expanded its alternatives range with the launch of the 1798 Event Convexity Strategy, as part of its initiative to offer structurally convex strategies that have asymmetric risk/return profiles.
The launch, with over USD100 million of committed capital, follows the launch of the 1798 Credit Convexity Strategy in early November 2016.
The 1798 Event Convexity Strategy, managed by Christophe Thomas, portfolio manager, focuses on building deeply asymmetric risk profiles around events using intra-capital structure dislocations. The investment approach enhances traditional fundamental event driven analysis with the convexity available from the combination of equities, credit and
PortfolioScience, a provider of on-demand risk management systems, has launched a Factor Index Construction Toolset via the company's RiskAPI Enterprise platform, which allows users to dynamically construct factor indices based on dozens of fundamental, technical and statistical metrics.
In addition to several highly customisable index construction methodologies, the system also provides detailed index constituent quantile analysis, allowing users to inspect and understand constituent behaviour and contribution to construction, valuation, and historical performance.
"The RiskAPI factor index toolset allows users to fully control the valuation and construction process of factor indexes critical to exposure analysis," says Ittai Korin, PortfolioScience's founder
Value Partners Ireland Fund Plc, an Irish UCITS umbrella serviced by HSBC, has been approved to commence investing in China via the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect.
On 5 December 2016, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong launched the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect programme, enabling mutual market access between China and Hong Kong.
Since then, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) has been actively reviewing the legal and operational regime supporting Stock Connect and the market infrastructure through which China-A shares are acquired and held.
HSBC has worked closely with the CBI in respect
AGF Investments has launched AGFiQ Asset Management (AGFiQ), a quantitative investment platform powered by a multi-disciplined team that combines investment professionals across AGF and its affiliates from Highstreet Asset Management and FFCM.
"Innovation has always been at the heart of AGF, dating back to our founders 60 years ago. We were built on the principles of creating a company that was innovative, focused on clients and driven by superior investment management," says Blake C Goldring, chairman and chief executive officer, AGF Management. "The launch of AGFiQ and our offering of ETF solutions is yet another milestone in our commitment to
