Managers
Altana Wealth has launched a new UCITs fund, The Altana Directors’ Dealings System Fund (ADDS), which is now open to external investors.
The fund tracks the short term opportunistic buying behaviour of company directors in US liquid listed companies and replicates the best 0.5% of their trades. Rigorous back testing of the system shows that during the period 2003 to 2014 ADDS significantly outperformed the S&P 500 index. The strategy has already attracted significant investor interest including a large external cornerstone investor.
The strategy has been running live in a (non-UCITS) wrapper since November 2014 and recorded gross returns of
BATS Global Markets (BATS) is to acquire Hotspot FX, an institutional spot foreign exchange market, in a cash transaction valued at USD365 million.
Closing is expected in the first half of 2015, and represents further expansion into non-equity trading businesses for BATS as it enters the world’s largest asset class. Turnover for the global FX market was estimated at USD5.3 trillion in 2013.
Joe Ratterman, Chief Executive Officer of BATS, says: “Hotspot is an innovative foreign exchange leader which will become an important part of our expanding global footprint, and we are excited to welcome their highly-regarded team to
Conifer Financial Services, a provider of fund administration, middle office, trade execution, and prime brokerage services to the asset management industry, has received an unqualified opinion in the Service Organisation Controls (SOC) 1 TYPE 2 (SSAE 16) 2014 examination of its fund administration entity, Conifer Asset Solutions.
Notable among the reports is the laudable lack of exceptions achieved by the business sector pertaining to Fund Services and Middle Back Office.
The SOC 1 Type 2 examination was conducted in accordance with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 (SSAE 16) and
Columbia Management has launched a liquid alternative mutual fund, the Columbia Adaptive Alternatives Fund (CLAAX) providing investors with access to a multi-strategy fund from Blackstone Alternative Investment Advisers.
Through the convenience of a traditional mutual fund with daily liquidity and multiple share classes, the fund offers investors access to a range of underlying hedge fund advisers selected by Blackstone, and to alternative beta strategies and non-traditional asset classes (including commodities, REITs, inflation-linked bonds and listed private equity) managed by Columbia Management.
The structure of the fund can provide several benefits: Access to a wide array of alternative investments and strategies
SuMi TRUST Global Asset Services has launched the BlueBay Global Investment Grade Credit Fund managed by BlueBay Asset Management for exclusive distribution in Japan by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Limited (SMTB).
The Fund has been structured as a Cayman Island open ended Unit Trust and will be distributed to the SMTB Trust Bank pension fund clients in Japan.
The Fund launched with USD69 million and offers both accumulation and distribution share classes denominated in Japanese Yen, both hedged and unhedged. BlueBay will be targeting returns that aim to meet the expectation of Japanese Pension Funds. SuMi TRUST global Asset Services will
Global Markets Exchange Group International (GMEX Group) has taken a strategic stake, through its GMEX Technologies Limited (GMEX TECH) subsidiary, in the UK based post-trade software firm Avenir Technology Limited (Avenir).
Avenir has developed a suite of innovative and cost effective systems for post-trade processing for exchanges, clearing houses, central securities depositories (CSDs) and share registrars across multiple assets classes including securities, derivatives and physical commodities.
Avenir’s first product is a share registry platform that is currently used by firms in the UK and New Zealand. Other products include AvenirSettle, a depository solution for handling physical settlement in securities as
The IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF (QAI), the first liquid alternative exchange-traded fund (ETF), has topped USD1 billion in assets.
QAI, which marked its five year anniversary in March, is the largest fund in its category and anchors IndexIQ’s growing family of liquid alternative solutions that includes ETFs, mutual funds, separate accounts and model portfolios.
“This is a significant milestone for QAI, and a testament to the increased recognition of the role liquid alternatives can play in an investor’s portfolio,” says Adam Patti, chief executive officer at IndexIQ. “QAI is now widely considered the ‘S&P 500 of the hedge fund
Elston Consulting has launched the Elston Strategic Beta indices – a range of multi-asset smart beta indices launched for institutional investors – in conjunction with index provider Solactive.
To date smart beta has typically focused on reconstituting single asset class indices using a factor-based approach or an alternative weighting scheme. Elston Strategic Beta is innovative as it offers outcome-oriented asset allocation strategies that are diversified across global asset classes, using a risk-based approach.
The investment process provides a quantitative, methodical, and objective approach to creating dynamic diversified growth strategies that isolate and capture shifting risk premia across asset classes.
Gottex Fund Management has reported good performance from its UCITS Multi-Asset Balanced Fund in 2014, up 6.0% for the year.
Both of the company’s Asian equity funds saw significant gains too, with the Gottex-Penjing Asian equity strategy up 7.7% in 2014 after returning 27.4% in 2013 and the Penjing Asia beta select product posting a return of 12.9% in 2014 after generating 14.7% the previous year.
Total fee-earning assets for the group were USD8.20 billion compared to USD8.70 billion at 30 September 2014.
In recent weeks Gottex has been preparing the launch of the Gottex Yellow Mountain UCITS Fund,
Preqin has launched its 2015 Preqin Global Alternatives Reports, revealing significant growth in assets held by private equity, hedge fund, private debt, real estate and infrastructure fund managers. Total industry assets now stand at USD6.91tn*, up from USD6.22tn as of this point last year.
Infrastructure enjoyed another year of solid growth in 2014, with the prospects for continued expansion looking good for 2015 and beyond. Assets under management for unlisted infrastructure managers reached an all-time high, having increased by 85% over the past five years.
The 2015 Preqin Global Infrastructure Report provides a comprehensive review of the industry along with
