Managers
TradingScreen, an independent provider of electronic trading solutions, and a group of 15 European long-only asset managers have launched TradeCross, the first buy side-designed crossing platform for fixed income corporate bonds.
With the support and collaboration of these asset managers, TradeCross enables participants to uncover and unlock hidden liquidity from buy-side inventories along with other new sources of liquidity to complement the traditional trading approach for credit products.
TradeCross covers all segments of the credit market – investment grade, emerging markets, high yield – and offers buy-side traders the ability to anonymously trade blocks while respecting their sell-side relationships
Irish Funds is predicting the government’s announcement permitting Irish domiciled funds to invest in the Chinese securities market via the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect Scheme, will prompt dozens of applications from investment managers.
Pat Lardner, CEO at Irish Funds, says: “This is exciting news in the near term for the dozens of managers who can now move with certainty to provide access to this important investment channel. As importantly, it will allow the hundreds of global investment managers who already have Ireland as a strategic base for their cross-border funds to utilize this important access point. The detailed and considered
Hedge funds lost 0.91 per cent in June, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge. The Index remains up 3.52 per cent year to date, outperforming the S&P 500 Index which has gained 1.23 per cent.
“Grexit fears and China’s stock market in free fall took a toll on risk assets in June,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Fourteen of Barclay’s 18 hedge fund indices had losses in June. The Global Macro Index dropped 2.24 per cent, Emerging Markets were down 1.81 per cent, Distressed Securities lost 1.36 per cent, European Equities were
Cowen Group is to acquire Concept Capital, an independent provider of prime brokerage services. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but Cowen Group expects the acquisition to be accretive to earnings in 2015.
The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of both companies.
“Concept Capital’s strong presence among emerging hedge fund clients complements Cowen’s focus on providing best-in-class products and services to institutional clients,” says Peter A Cohen, Chairman and CEO of Cowen Group. “Given the changing prime broker landscape, many investment managers are looking for alternative prime solutions and there are a limited number of
Thomas Miller Investment, a member of the 129 year old Thomas Miller Group of companies, has launched a Dublin domiciled UCITS compliant Diversified Assets Fund.
The fund offers exposure to a broad range of alternative sectors providing a single investment solution for investors looking to add diversification to their portfolio. It is designed to deliver absolute returns over an economic cycle, with lower volatility than equity markets while exhibiting a low correlation to traditional asset classes.
The fund is co-advised by Thomas Miller Investment’s Abi Oladimeji and Mark McKenzie.
Carolyn Gelling (pictured), Director and Head of Collective Investment
Quality Capital Management (QCM), a UK-based global systematic macro investment manager, has launched its Alpha Financials Programme on the MontLake UCITS platform, an independent platform for UCITS funds.
Founded in 1995, QCM has a wealth of experience in managing investments. It has successfully navigated through 20 years of wide-ranging market cycles, dealing also with systemic shocks from abnormal events such as the global credit crisis. During the period QCM has generated for its investors a cumulative return of 560% in its flagship product.
QCM founder, Aref Karim, formerly spent thirteen years with the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Abu
Arkk Compliance has launched a new service for regulated financial services firms. The firm has already been working with a number of investment firms on COREP and AIFMD filings since a soft launch back in April of this year.
“The service is designed as a fixed-fee solution that assists firms in their quarterly or annual filings,” says Nick Baldwin (pictured), who heads up the Arkk Compliance team. “From talking to regulated firms we realised that often those with a small back office team or overseas managers struggle to meet annual or quarterly deadlines for their filings due to lack of
Challenger Limited’s boutique funds management division, Fidante Partners, is to acquire 100 per cent of European alternative investments group Dexion Capital Holdings Limited.
Dexion has interests in three specialist fund managers, and also has an investments distribution business, based in London.
The acquisition substantially expands Fidante Partners’ presence in Europe where it already holds interests in UK-based alternative asset managers, including global infrastructure investor Whitehelm Capital and asset-backed security specialist, WyeTree Asset Management.
Challenger’s Chief Executive Funds Management, Ian Saines, says: “This represents a significant step- up in our European presence and is an important part of our
The gross return of the SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Performance Index for June 2015 measured -0.65 per cent, while hedge fund flows as measured by the SS&C GlobeOp Capital Movement Index declined 2.71 per cent in July.
“In terms of seasonality, July is typically a month that sees net outflows,” says Bill Stone (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SS&C Technologies. “SS&C GlobeOp’s CMI showed a -2.71 per cent change for July 2015, indicating a somewhat higher level of net outflows compared to -2.00 per cent a year ago.
“This increase in net outflows most likely reflects concern over
By Robin Sarkar, State Street – In the case of liquid alternatives, investors would be especially smart to pay heed to an age old piece of advice: buyer beware. That's because, despite their differences when compared with traditional alternative investment vehicles, liquid alternatives present higher risk factors, such as the use of leverage and illiquid securities, than do conventional mutual funds. As investors consider whether liquid alternatives make sense for their portfolios in light of their particular investment goals, they should educate themselves about, and monitor, the risks that underlie these funds.
For example, it's critical to be familiar with a
