Managers
Hedge fund and private equity fund administrator Pinnacle Fund Services has selected PFS-PAXUS for the administration of the firm’s global fund operations business.
David Smith (pictured), Managing Director at Pinnacle, says: ’The selection of PFS-PAXUS has been mainly due to its reputation in the market for its sophistication and reliability. At Pinnacle we are excited about growing our fund administration business and with PFS-PAXUS’s track record as a robust and proven platform we are confident that the system will allow us to meet our business objectives’. 

Pinnacle Fund Services is a fund administration company. It is supported by a team
Lyxor Asset Management (Lyxor) and Och-Ziff Capital Management (Och-Ziff) have launched the Lyxor/OZ US Equity Opportunities Fund on Lyxor’s alternative UCITs platform.
The launch of this new US long/short equity strategy makes Lyxor the eighth alternative manager on the platform.
The Fund focuses on long and short investment opportunities in the US equity market, with the aim of producing positive, absolute returns with low volatility. The investment strategy employs an opportunistic approach that fuses deeply-researched, proprietary, long-term fundamental views with process-oriented expertise in corporate actions/events. The approach seeks to take advantage of mis-pricings in situations involving various types of
The number of Europe-focused private equity funds of funds to close so far in 2015 is at its lowest ever level, with just seven vehicles having held a final close. Despite slow fundraising, 2012 vintage funds have seen the highest median IRR historically and a substantial number of European investors are still showing an interest in committing to this strategy. In its latest factsheet, Preqin compiles the latest data on the European fund of funds market.
Read the full factsheet here.
This article, taken from the newly released Preqin Special Report: Natural Resources, looks at the make-up of institutional investors in natural resources, preferred strategies and regions, sources of allocations and future investment plans.
The increasing amount of capital raised by natural resources funds in recent years indicates healthy investor appetite for the asset class. As previously mentioned, a Preqin survey in June 2015 found that 29 per cent of investors in natural resources planned to increase their exposure to the asset class over the long term, compared with only 12 per cent that planned to reduce their allocations. Preqin’s
Underwhelming performance in 2015 and high investor dissatisfaction have reduced inflows and demand for CTA funds, according to a report release by Preqin.
Having recorded returns of +10.85 per cent in 2014, their strongest performance since returning +15.70 per cent in 2010, CTAs saw further good performance in Q1 2015 as they posted returns of +4.29 per cent. However, negative returns in Q2 (-3.74 per cent) and Q3 (-0.16 per cent) saw volatile swings in CTA performance, and as of the end of October Preqin’s CTA benchmark has recorded YTD losses of -0.39 per cent. In contrast, all other hedge
The London Metal Exchange (LME) is planning to introduce a cap on the rent that can be charged by an LME-approved warehouse for metal held in a delivery queue, and an increased minimum load-out rate for metal stored in LME warehouses.
The LME’s decision comes in response to market-wide discussion and consultations.
Since 1 July 2015, the LME has sought feedback on a proposed increase in the standard load-out rate (LORI) and on suggested queue-based rent capping (QBRC) rules. It has received 20 responses to the consultations overall.
After considering respondents’ views, the LME now intends to impose
Euronext is to launch Spotlight options on ABN AMRO Group as of 26 November on its Amsterdam derivatives market. The options (ABN) follow the company’s successful IPO and listing on Euronext Amsterdam, that took take place on 20 November.
Spotlight options are a special segment on the derivatives markets of Euronext, dedicated to the development of new option classes on newly listed companies and other securities requested by market participants. These options give additional visibility to underlying assets through a unique combination of liquidity provider support and promotion by sponsoring brokers. The options classes initially have short-term maturities of one,
CLS Group (CLS), a provider of risk mitigation and operational services for the forex (FX) market, and Markit, a provider of financial information services, have launched a new FX settlement service for the cross currency swaps market.
Cross currency swap trades expose counterparties to significant settlement risk due to the high value of initial and final principal exchanges. The service provides a streamlined process for the payments related to these trades by incorporating them into CLS’s existing unique payment-versus-payment (PvP) settlement service. CLS receives settlement instructions from cross currency swaps electronically confirmed using MarkitSERV, the OTC derivatives trade processing service
Baird is to acquire Chautauqua Capital Management, a global investment manager based in Boulder, Colorado. The deal will enable Chautauqua Capital to focus on the performance of the firm’s global and international investment strategies while Baird provides the back office services and support for Chautauqua Capital clients.
The transaction is expected to close in early 2016.
Chautauqua Capital’s globally experienced investment team is led by Chief Investment Officer Brian Beitner, CFA. Beitner is a veteran investor who was previously a senior portfolio manager of Trust Company of the West’s Concentrated Core Equities portfolio management team, which he joined in
In this extract from November’s Preqin Hedge Fund Spotlight, Alastair Hannah takes a detailed look at CTA launches, different trading methodologies, strategies and markets traded, as well as providing an outlook for the rest of the year.
CTA launches
Fifty CTAs have launched in the first nine months of 2015 to 30 September (Fig 1). Although the number of funds launched this year is likely to grow as managers bring new funds to market in the final quarter, and also due to more data becoming available, 2015 looks set for the fewest CTA launches since 2006. Similarly, the proportion
