Managers
Martin Currie has now received the necessary approvals to complete the purchase of the business assets and investment management team of PK Investment Management, the London based long/short Japan Equity boutique.
Led by Paul Kirkby, the team now includes Martin Currie incumbent manager, Claire Marwick. Overall assets under management for the enlarged team are USD425 million.
Kirkby has also been appointed as lead manager of the Legg Mason Japan Absolute Alpha Fund the Luxembourg domiciled UCITS fund.
Andy Sowerby, Head of Sales and Marketing at Martin Currie, says: “This is an exciting milestone in the development of our
Balter Liquid Alternatives has launched the Balter European L/S Small Cap Fund (BESMX) and the Balter Event-Driven Fund (BEVIX), both conversions of existing hedge funds into a mutual fund wrapper.
The Balter European L/S Small Cap Fund is sub-advised by SW Mitchell Capital, a USD2 billion European equity specialist based in London, UK. The Fund has an 8+ year record with an annualised return of 10.6 per cent. Portfolio Manager Jamie Carter uses a bottom up fundamental security selection process. The Fund's investment objective is to generate absolute returns for investors, primarily by investing both long and short in Small
Affiliated Managers Group (AMG) has completed its investment in Systematica Investments. In addition, AMG has also recently completed investments in Ivory Investment Management (Ivory) and Abax Investments (Abax).
Systematica, led by Leda Braga, is an technology-driven firm focused on the application of science and technology to the investment process and focuses on managed futures and systematic trading management. Systematica became an independent organisation in January 2015 following its separation from BlueCrest and now offers a number of distinctive strategies, including trend-following and quantitative equity investing in both traditional hedge fund vehicles as well as liquid alternatives.
Systematica’s award-winning strategies
Lazard Asset Management (LAM) has launched the Lazard US Fundamental Alternative Fund, a UCITS compliant, a liquid and diversified portfolio primarily focused on US securities, with the flexibility to invest across the whole market cap spectrum.
Utilising bottom-up stock selection, the Fund seeks to take long positions in equities of companies believed to have strong and/ or improving financial productivity and attractive valuations, and short positions in companies with deteriorating fundamentals, unattractive valuations, or other qualities warranting a short position.
The fund will be managed in New York by portfolio managers Dmitri Batsev and Jerry Liu, who leverage a
Just one of Market Vectors Index Solutions’ (MVIS) six investable Long/Short Equity Indices – the Market Vectors Global Long/Short Equity Index (0.11 per cent) – recorded positive performance in December.
The month’s biggest loser was the Market Vectors North America Long/Short Equity Index with a return of -1.05 per cent, followed by the Market Vectors Asia (Developed) Long/Short Equity Index (-0.77 per cent), the Market Vectors Global Event Long/Short Equity Index (-0.75 per cent), the Market Vectors Western Europe Long/Short Equity Index (-0.65 per cent), and the Market Vectors Emerging Markets Long/Short Equity Index
(-0.10 per cent).
Each index is
Aberdeen Asset Management has completed its acquisition of Arden Asset Management (Arden), a provider of hedge fund solutions with offices in New York and London, on 31 December, 2015.
This acquisition grows Aberdeen's global alternatives platform, which encompasses multi-manager research, selection and portfolio management for hedge-fund strategies, private equity and debt, property and other real asset investments, along with direct investments in infrastructure projects. Aberdeen can now offer its clients access and exposure to a universe of high-quality alternative investments, covering liquid strategies, private markets and real assets.
The combined hedge fund solutions team located in London and New York
Aquila Capital has been mandated by ČEZ-Group to build a wind portfolio in Germany in the triple-digit-million Euro range. With this mandate, ČEZ is further expanding its activities in CO2-neutral energy generation.
The ČEZ-Group is the largest energy company in Central Eastern Europe and ranks among the ten largest energy suppliers in Europe, both in terms of installed capacity and number of clients. The listed company has a growing focus on renewable energy infrastructure investments and currently has a wind portfolio with an installed capacity of more than 600 MW. Partnering with Aquila Capital also includes the asset management of
Hedge fund consulting and marketing firm Agecroft Partners has released its annual prediction of the trends it believes will have the biggest impact on the hedge fund industry during 2016.
Agecroft”s Managing partner Don Steinbrugge (pictured) believes that the hedge fund industry is very dynamic and both managers and investors can benefit from anticipating, and preparing for, what changes are likely to occur. Those who effectively evolve with the industry will succeed, while stagnant firms will be left behind. Agecroft’s top ten trends for 2016 are:
1. Reduction of expected returns for a diversified Hedge Fund portfolio. Hedge fund
Beechbrook Capital has held the first close of its inaugural UK SME Credit Fund, with commitments of more than GBP100m. The fund will support UK small and medium-sized businesses with a turnover of between GBP10 million and GBP100 million and EBITDA of more than GBP1 million.
Among the institutional investors that have made commitments to the new fund are British Business Bank Investments Limited, the commercial arm of the British Business Bank, and the European Investment Fund. With additional investments to the fund already pledged, Beechbrook expects to hold a second close in the second quarter of 2016 with a
Towards the end of 2015, Global Macro and CTAs experienced mixed fortunes. During November they were able to make returns amidst difficult market conditions. For both strategies, strong tailwinds in FX proved to be beneficial, the Lyxor Global Macro Index gaining 1.3 per cent mid-way through November and ending the year up +3.9 per cent. These gains were largely in response to the buoyancy of the USD against G10 and Emerging Market currencies.
In short, both strategies were trading on the expectations of a US Federal Reserve rate hike, which duly materialised in December.
As the Wall Street Journal wrote
