Managers
December was another difficult month for the hedge fund industry, as the Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark recorded performance of -0.40 per cent.
This puts full-year performance for 2015 at 2.02 per cent, the lowest yearly return since 2011, when hedge funds posted -1.77 per cent. December’s losses mean that hedge funds have posted negative returns in five months of the year, while only three months saw them gain more than 1.00 per cent. All top level hedge fund strategies experienced losses in the final month of 2015, with equity strategies posting a negative return of -0.64 per cent, and
The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was down -0.7 per cent in December, with three out of 11 Lyxor Indices ending the month in positive territory.
The best performers were the Lyxor Merger Arbitrage Index (+1.5 per cent), the Lyxor LS Equity Variable Bias Index (+1.1 per cent), and the Lyxor CTA Short Term Index (+0 per cent) were the best performers.
Disappointment following the ECB meeting and worsening concerns about credit and oil kept pressure on risky asset in early December. After the confirmed Fed’s rate hike, the bottoming in prices by mid-month paved the way for a year-end
Northill Capital (Northill) is to acquire a majority interest in Capital Four Holding, a European High Yield asset management firm, based in Copenhagen, with an award winning performance track record and approximately EUR6 billion of assets under management.
Northill’s investment in Capital Four is consistent with its strategy to invest over the long term in high quality, single-purpose asset management businesses.
Northill’s investment in Capital Four represents approximately 60% of the firm’s equity, with existing partners Sandro Näf, Torben Skødeberg and Henrik Østergaard maintaining ownership of approximately 40%. As a result of the transaction, Northill will have indirectly acquired
2015 was a record breaking year for Electra Information Systems (Electra), a provider of software solutions for the asset management industry, including institutional investment managers, hedge funds, insurance companies and plan sponsors,
Since its inception in 1998, Electra has been guided by a single, client-driven principle – efficient processing is critical to success. As the market continued to increase in complexity in 2015, demand for automated post-trade operation and robust data management solutions quickly rose, increasing Electra’s client base by 20 per cent. While all its solutions contributed to Electra’s growth in 2015, particular strength was evident in Electra’s reconciliation
JMP Group’s hedge fund and investment arm Harvest Capital Strategies has raised USD245 million for the Harvest Intrexon Enterprise Fund, an investment vehicle dedicated to funding companies that utilise the inventions, discoveries and technologies of Intrexon Corporation, a specialist in synthetic biology.
The Harvest Intrexon Enterprise Fund will invest exclusively in entities that utilise Intrexon’s technology, with a particular focus on new companies, to spur the creation of biologically-based products across a number of sectors, which may include healthcare, food, agriculture, energy, environment, chemicals and consumer products. The fund has made two investments to date: Thrive Agrobiotics, Inc, a startup entity
European equities still present an attractive potential over the long term, but according to systematic analysis used by Quaero Capital’s Argos European Systematic Long Short Equity fund, the optimum market timing conditions to go net Long have not materialised.
For some time the fund’s net investment rate has been 0 per cent (50 per cent long stocks and 50 per cent Short Eurostoxx 50 futures), which has contributed to strong outperformance relative to the HFRX Equity Hedge EUR Index.
Year to date, the fund returned +6.56 per cent, compared to –3.09 per cent for the Index. Since inception
The Archstone Partnerships, an alternative investment management firm focused exclusively on hedge fund investments, has extended its investment offerings for the first time to accredited investors through the Archstone Alternative Solutions Fund.
Capitalizing on over 25 years of experience and offering unique access to leading hedge fund managers, the Archstone Alternative Solutions Fund seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation while attempting to reduce volatility relative to the equity markets.
The Archstone Alternative Solutions Fund employs a fund of hedge funds strategy that was previously only available to qualified purchasers. It is now available to a broader group of investors
Sapient Global Markets, a provider of business technology and consulting services for the capital and commodity markets, has launched of CMRS Portal, delivering the proven trade reporting capabilities of CMRS as a fully outsourced solution.
For firms with a lower volume of reportable derivatives trades, in-house solutions or on premise software is uneconomic due to the initial investment required and ongoing maintenance and support overheads. CMRS Portal is designed as a self-service solution for firms who require a low-touch approach to reporting compliance with the smallest possible infrastructure and integration investment.
“Trade reporting has been and continues to be
Dynasty Financial Partners has teamed with iCapital Network to launch the Dynasty Select platform of alternative asset managers.
Dynasty will now offer access to private equity funds, hedge funds and direct investments together with institutional-quality research and diligence, leveraging iCapital’s technology to provide end-to-end automated transactional support for financial advisors and their clients.
Dynasty Select also provides for turn-key processing and administrative solutions for the RIAs and dually-registered advisors who have curated their own roster of alternative managers.
Key features of the platform, which will be accessible through the Dynasty Desktop, include access to top private equity, hedge,
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) has registered a new annual record on its dairy futures market in 2015 with a total volume of 29,380 tonnes – 5,876 contracts – traded in this sector throughout the year.
This surpasses the previous maximum recorded in 2014 which totalled 26,385 tonnes (which corresponded to 5,277 contracts).
This represents a year on year increase of 11 per cent, which in turn sets a new record as the highest annual volume for dairy product risk management instruments that are traded on any exchange in Europe. EEX has offered trading in agricultural futures since 11
