Latest News
This article investigates the future plans of institutional investors in infrastructure, featuring the latest data from the Preqin Quarterly Update: Infrastructure, Q2 2015.
When investing in the infrastructure space, the majority of investors will target domestic opportunities in the next year (Fig 1). However, a large proportion of investors also seek geographical diversification when making investments, particularly North America-based institutions, with 57 per cent of these investors targeting global opportunities in the next 12 months.
As the infrastructure asset class matures and investors become more sophisticated, many establish separate infrastructure allocations, as opposed to targeting the asset class through
- 21/07/2015
This extract from the Preqin Quarterly Update: Private Debt, Q2 2015 offers insight into the annualised contributions and distributions of direct lending and mezzanine funds, as well as examining the current record levels of dry powder in the asset class.
Fig 1 shows the relationship of annualised contributions and distributions, as well as the net cash flows, for an investor with a USD10 million commitment to a direct lending fund. This examination of the typical cash flows to and from an investor further highlights the relative illiquidity of the private debt asset class. Given the lower risk/return profile of direct
- 21/07/2015
Two-thirds of top-tier financial institutions have established reconciliation centres of excellence (CoE) following a recent wave of consolidation of the reconciliation function within these institutions, according to a study by SunGard and Aite Group.
Compliance requirements continue to place pressure on firms. Forty percent of respondents said compliance and regulatory reporting were the largest factors driving reconciliation, as institutions race to work through a significant backlog of reconciliation requirements.
The speed at which this book of work can be addressed varies, but the average time taken to deliver new production reconciliations is around 64 days. This is inhibiting their
- 21/07/2015
CME Group and Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on various cooperation activities and potential business opportunities, including a joint viability study of setting up operations in an International Finance Service Centre in India.
Under this MOU, various initiatives between CME Group and MCX will also include the establishment of a joint working group to explore opportunities to develop and market new products and services for the US and Indian markets, as well as collaboration on customer education.
At the same time, CME Group and MCX also announced the extension of
- 21/07/2015
Options, a managed service and IT infrastructure provider to the global capital markets industry, has opened a new central London office. The move sees the firm consolidate its two existing London offices into one larger premises in the Victoria area of central London.
The 5,000 square feet office, situated in Portland House, Victoria, will accommodate growing staff numbers within the firm and have capacity for over 100 employees.
The SW1 office boasts an impressive location with Victoria Street on its doorstep. Crucially, this location will ensure that Options’ engineering, support, account management and sales teams are within close proximity
- 21/07/2015
- 21/07/2015
Euronext has expanded it Spotlight options offering with new options on IMCD, a distributor of speciality chemicals and food ingredients (ticker symbol: IMD).
The options follow the company’s successful IPO on Euronext and are available for trading on the Amsterdam market with immediate effect.
The Spotlight segment is dedicated to the development of new option classes requested by market
participants. The Spotlight options on Euronext-listed underlying values have short-term maturities of one, two and three months. The combination of added liquidity and visibility allows the option classes to grow to become mature option classes. If these option classes take
- 21/07/2015
Eurex Exchange has launched new futures and options based on the STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index expanding its dividend index product suite, which currently comprises the DivDAX and Euro STOXX Select Dividend 30 indices.
Whereas the two existing contracts cover German and European stocks, the STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index offers investors the ideal tool to invest into 100 high dividend-yielding companies across developed countries from North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. As of June 2015, nearly 1.7 billion euros in assets are invested in ETFs that are based on the STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 Index.
“The STOXX
- 21/07/2015
Singapore Exchange (SGX) is pleased to welcome Hong Kong-based Bright Smart Futures and Commodities Company Limited (Bright Smart) to its derivatives market as a trading member.
Chew Sutat, Head of Sales and Clients at SGX said, “We are pleased that Bright Smart has joined the SGX family as we continue to expand our footprint in Greater China. The active participation of Bright Smart and their network of clients will add to the liquidity in our suite of derivative products. Together, we are well-positioned to better serve our customers who are keen to tap on trading and investment opportunities in Asia.”
- 21/07/2015
Greece is back from the brink and now it is like the latest leg of the Greek saga was just a bad dream. The 85% probability of Grexit which some prominent commentators predicted a few days ago is now forgotten and market conditions in Europe have normalized in the wink of an eye. During the period under review, the Eurostoxx 50 was up 9.5%, equity volatility fell 10% (VSTOXX), high yield spreads tightened 26 bps in Europe and the 10-year bund yield rose by the same order of magnitude.
- 21/07/2015
ETFGI reports that the second quarter has seen assets invested in the global ETF/ETP industry finally beat the assets under management in the hedge fund industry.
Deborah Fuhr says: “According to our analysis there was USD2.971 trillion invested in the 5,823 ETFs/ETPs listed globally at the end of Q2 2015.”
Assets had dropped slightly from their record high of USD3.015 trillion at the end of May 2015, Fuhr writes. HFR reports that assets in the global hedge fund industry reached a new record high of USD2.969 trillion invested in 8,497 hedge funds over the same period, some USD2 billion smaller
- 21/07/2015
- 21/07/2015
Special Reports
FeatureD
- Intel
- May 2, 2024
- Intel
- May 1, 2024
- Intel
- April 30, 2024
- Intel
- April 29, 2024
- Intel
- April 26, 2024
- Intel
- April 25, 2024
- Intel
- April 24, 2024
