Managers
SS&C Technologies, a provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, has acquired Conifer Financial Services, an independent asset services firm, for an aggregate purchase price of USD88.5 million.
Senior management of Conifer will continue to lead the business.
Conifer has 200 clients worldwide representing USD110 billion of combined assets under administration (AUA). Headquartered in San Francisco and with offices in New York, Singapore and Nova Scotia, Conifer services pensions, endowments, foundations, family offices, RIAs, traditional asset managers, private equity and hedge funds.
The acquisition strengthens SS&C's market position on the West Coast and provides a wider array
Man Group is marking the 25th anniversary of Man FRM, a global alternatives investment specialist with USD12.8 billion of funds under management.
FRM was founded in 1991 in London as a hedge fund research consultancy and in 1997 launched its first client partnership solution and its flagship commingled portfolio product.
In 1998 the firm expanded into managed accounts to better serve clients and the firm’s own investment needs. In 2000 it was behind the development of the MSCI hedge fund indices in collaboration with Morgan Stanley.
In 2012, FRM was acquired by Man Group and combined with the
Och-Ziff Capital Management Group has closed its first European collateralised loan obligation (CLO) transaction, OZLME, totalling approximately EUR413 million.
The CLO, arranged by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, will be managed through Och-Ziff's affiliate, Och-Ziff Europe Loan Management, and will invest predominantly in broadly syndicated senior secured loans.
"We are very pleased to announce the closing of our first European CLO," says Adeel Shafiqullah, managing director and senior portfolio manager of institutional credit strategies in Europe. "We have a deep, experienced team of credit investment professionals in Europe with significant and broad expertise investing and managing CLO portfolios. This
Societe Generale Prime Services has made three changes to its flagship SG CTA Index for 2017 – one new constituent and two strategy rotations – following its annual CTA indices review.
Tom Wrobel, director of alternative investments consulting at Societe Generale Prime Services, says: “We welcome GSA Capital Partners to both the SG CTA Index and SG Trend Index, whilst Graham Capital Management and MAN Investments have both substituted constituent programs, reflecting changes in the evolving CTA asset landscape. Whilst the turnover in index constituents is low, the industry is growing, and the asset cut-off for inclusion in all index
Hedge fund managers have become more upbeat about the Brexit result in the intervening five months, according to a new report published by Preqin.
Preqin surveyed 276 hedge fund managers and 108 investors in November 2016 to see how their views on Brexit have changed since the referendum result. The report – Impact of Brexit on Hedge Funds – combines the results of that survey and comprehensive data taken from Preqin's online services.
As the majority of fund managers believed the UK would vote to remain in the UK (71 per cent), it is unsurprising that a large proportion were caught out by the
Acadian Asset Management, a USD74 billion quantitative equity investor, has launched the Acadian Sustainable Emerging Markets ex Fossil Fuel UCITS Fund.
The fund is the first of its type to focus on implementing this theme across emerging markets.
Anchored by a significant investment from a UK institutional investor advised by Cambridge Associates, the global investment firm, the fund has been created to help meet growing investor demand for divestment within portfolios, while maintaining investment returns, and ensuring investors are not penalised for investing in a sustainable manner.
Using a combination of third-party data and its own proprietary methods,
Recovery continues in hedge funds according to Eurekahedge which found that hedge funds were up 0.48 per cent during the month of November, with 2016 year-to-date returns coming in at 3.60 per cent.
Meanwhile, underlying markets as represented by the MSCI AC World Index (Local) gained 2.88 per cent in November with its 2016 year-to-date returns at 4.88 per cent. Roughly 56 per cent of underlying constituent funds for the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index were in positive territory this month, with majority of them being long/short equities mandated. North American hedge fund managers posted the best returns among regional peers
By David Young (pictured), President, Gemini Alternative Funds – Allocations to alternative investment strategies have continued to evolve as asset owners – in particular pensions, endowments and family offices – have become more knowledgeable about, and comfortable with, these strategies.
Direct investments into hedge funds, funds of hedge funds and alternative mutual funds are not meeting the increasingly complex needs of today’s institutional investors, where flexibility, tailored reporting, transparency and cost efficiency are key factors.
Today, asset owners are searching for the appropriate structure and relationships that will provide them with the services and controls that meet their individual, committee
Managed account platforms (MAPs) vary in size and sophistication. At one end of the spectrum, the simplest MAP provides a separate ownership structure whereby a single investor invested in a MAP is required to manage each counterparty relationship with the administrator, the prime broker(s), OTC counterparties, FX counterparties, repo counterparties and so on.
The traditional fund of funds (FoF) investment model is structured so that the FoF manages the overall allocations into the hedge fund on behalf of the investor. However, transparency tends only to be provided on a monthly basis, and typically with a one-month lag.
In some cases,
Managed account platforms allow institutions to broaden out their hedge fund allocations and invest in emerging managers with confidence, thanks to the strong operational controls they provide. At a time when some of the larger established names have suffered performance issues, diversifying into a wider mix of unknown managers is becoming of strategic import to institutions.
Speaking recently at a New York Hedge Fund Roundtable event, Robert Akeson, COO of Daewoo Securities (and the event moderator) was quoted as saying that small and emerging hedge fund managers, as a group, consistently outperform other managers. “However, as the physicists like to
