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The amount of capital invested by venture capital fund managers in young companies reached USD87bn in 2014, over 58% more than the capital invested in 2013. Preqin’s Head of Private Equity Products, Christopher Elvin (pictured), analyses the latest data:
Over the past year, a total of 7,474 venture capital financings were announced globally with an aggregate value of USD86.6bn. This represents an 11% fall in the number of financings taking place compared to 2013, but a 58% rise in the aggregate value of deals compared to the previous year.
*Figures exclude add-ons, grants, mergers, venture debt and secondary stock purchases
Hollis Park Partners, a global structured products investment management firm, has formed a strategic partnership with alternative investment manager GCM Grosvenor.
Hollis Park, which will invest in a diverse range of structured products around the globe, launches with significant investment capital from GCM Grosvenor and other institutional investors.
"We believe today's environment presents attractive and rapidly changing opportunities across a wide spectrum of structured products including Agency and Non-Agency mortgage-backed securities, CLOs, CMBS and asset-backed securities, and we will seek to dynamically allocate capital across a number of strategies," says Troy Dixon, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner of Hollis
Aeon Funds, a family of alternative investment funds, has launched the Aeon Fiber Opportunity Fund LP.
The fund’s structure complements the Aeon Multi Opportunity Fund which focuses on Pre-IPO investments in the most notable VC backed technology companies in the world today.
Aeon Funds has expanded its management team and commenced fundraising for this exciting new addition to the Aeon family. The Aeon Fiber Opportunity Fund will initially invest in the installation of military grade fibre-optic cable in gated communities throughout the US Southeast. As a significant validator of the market opportunity, Aeon management estimates there are approximately 35,000 communities
The world's hedge fund have a benign attitude towards 2015 market conditions and the investment outlook for the year ahead despite a deterioration in observed financing conditions and tightening of liquidity.
That’s according to a survey by Aksia which also reveals that AIFMD legislation is imposing considerable difficulties on managers of all sizes, with smaller managers particularly impacted and the majority of managers becoming entirely reliant on reverse solicitation.
In the fourth annual institutional hedge fund manager survey, Aksia polled 187 managers collectively representing in excess of USD1 trillion in AUM.
Managers say that liquidity and financing are
Trading activity at CBOE Holdings reached new all-time highs in total volume and average daily volume (ADV) in 2014.
CBOE Holdings consolidated trading volume for options contracts on Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and C2 Options ExchangeSM (C2SM) and futures contracts on CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) totalled 1.3 billion contracts, an increase of 12 per cent over the 1.2 billion contracts in 2013. Average daily volume was 5.3 million contracts, an increase of 12 per cent from the 4.7 million contracts per day in 2013.
New records for annual total volume and average daily volume were also set at
Singapore Exchange (SGX) derivatives trading hit records in December and the whole of 2014, while securities activities grew in December but declined overall during the last year.
Total securities trading value was USD22 billion, up 8.2% from a year earlier; average daily trading value was USD983 million, up 3.4%. December 2014 had one more trading day than December 2013.
New companies listed totalled seven, raising USD583 million compared with 1 raising USD6.1 billion a year earlier. Bond listings totalled 28 raising USD8 billion. This was 36% up from the amount raised a year earlier.
Derivatives volume was a record
During the last two weeks of December, hedge funds erased the bulk of the losses recorded earlier in December, when risk aversion was elevated, according to Lyxor.
CTAs were again the best performers, in a remake of the patterns observed throughout the year (+4.7%from 16 December to 30 December). The good news came from Event Driven managers, up +3.1% during the same period. Yet, December was overall a mixed month, the Lyxor Hedge Fund Index being down 0.2% on the back of the underperformance of Fixed Income strategies (-3.1%). Their poor showing was related to the sharp high yield spread
Fixed income asset manager BlueBay Asset Management has appointed Katherine Wentrup-Estupinan as a Sales Director to support the growth of the firm’s Alternatives business.
Wentrup-Estupinan is joining from Strategic Investments Group, a boutique alternative investments advisory firm, where she led the business development and investor relations effort within Southern Europe. Previously, she held a variety of business development roles at Alpha4x Asset Management, HSBC Global Asset Management and HSBC Securities Inc., managing client relationships across Europe, the US and Latin America.
“Katherine’s comprehensive experience of marketing within the alternatives space will help strengthen our existing sales efforts,” says
With As the first AIFMD reporting deadline for many managers of Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) looming large on 30 January 2015, firms may turn to outsourcing to meet their obligations.
A survey conducted by the Financial Services team of Moore Stephens highlighted that only half of AIFMs are fully aware of the Annex IV reporting requirements applicable to them and the timetable for submission, with a further 42% being somewhat aware but unsure of the information required. Almost 35% of AIFMs surveyed stated that they were not prepared for the actual reporting process.
Moore Stephens believes that the lack
Mirabaud Asset Management has appointed Patrick Hube as Senior Portfolio Manager responsible for Swiss large cap companies.
Huber's appointment is an additional step towards strengthening the management capabilities of an existing team which, thanks to its expertise and good performances, has been able to win numerous mandates and multiple awards. Among other asset classes, in Swiss equities specifically Mirabaud Asset Management currently manages nearly one billion Swiss francs, distributed among various Swiss equity funds and mandates, both on behalf of professional and institutional investors.
With fifteen years' experience and an unparalleled level of knowledge of Swiss companies, Huber joins
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