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By Ross Ellis (pictured), SEI – The asset management industry is going through a transformative period dominated by two somewhat conflicting trends: growth and uncertainty.
Revenue growth and operational efficiency are always primary business drivers, but paired with flat budgets and growing regulatory requirements, today’s asset managers often face difficult decisions about future planning.
Business growth is bringing additional complexities across the spectrum of buy-side firms: the client base is extending to include global pension funds and sovereign wealth firms, while the number and variety of managed accounts and investment vehicles are expanding. Meanwhile, the strategies within a firm are broadening
A new white paper by New York-based Liquid Holdings Group Inc addresses the very real issue of credibility that hedge fund managers face in today’s crowded market.
Entitled Driving Hedge Fund Growth & Institutional Credibility: An Introduction to the 5 Ss of SaaS, the white paper details five key elements of a vertical SaaS solution managers should be mindful of when trying to build institutional credibility, both with service providers and investors.
Today’s environment is unforgiving for those managers who fail to demonstrate an ability to foster closer collaboration with institutional investors. Managers need a level of sophistication
Eight months after the launch of the reporting duty for exchange traded derivatives (ETD) and over-the-counter (OTC), over one billion transactions have been processed by REGIS-TR, the European trade repository owned by Clearstream (Deutsche Börse Group) and Iberclear (BME).
Elena Carnicero, chief executive officer of REGIS-TR, says: “The one billion transactions that we have processed are a significant milestone that proves that REGIS-TR has become the European hub for the derivatives transaction reporting. Today, REGIS-TR has approximately 1,000 customers and in September it received more than 200 million transaction reports. Processing has been smooth and without failure, which shows how
Preqin looks in detail at investors’ allocations to real estate to assess how they are changing, and how, in light of current investor sentiment, these allocations may be impacted in the coming years.
Institutional confidence in real estate has increased significantly in 2014. The Preqin Investor Outlook: Real Estate, H2 2014, Preqin’s most recent study of institutional investors in real estate, demonstrates that many investors plan to increase their allocations over the longer term as a result of increasing satisfaction with returns.
Allocations
Investors’ average current and target real estate allocations have slowly increased, with the average current allocation increasing from 6.7% of total assets under management
Andy Brunner, investment strategist at Morningstar OBSR, says US equities area facing a number of challenges…
The US is leading a modest rebound in the global economy which most commentators expect to continue through next year. Despite this, a period of higher volatility seems likely as US equities face a number of challenges, not least being they are fairly fully valued, and have avoided a correction for several years.
Another key challenge now facing the US equity market is the end of QE, with investors rightly concerned about the Fed’s campaign to normalise interest rates and the consequent impact on
International investors can now access Franklin Templeton’s first multi-manager, multi-strategy Luxembourg-registered SICAV fund focused on alternative investment strategies.
The Franklin K2 Alternative Strategies Fund SICAV, which was soft-launched a month ago, will follow the same strategy as the US-registered Franklin K2 Alternative Strategies Funds.
Building upon Franklin Templeton’s acquisition of hedge fund solutions provider K2 Advisors in 2012, the fund provides access to a diversified portfolio of alternative investment strategies managed by institutional-quality hedge fund managers. It seeks to provide investors with lower correlations to traditional asset classes, reduced portfolio volatility and attractive risk-adjusted returns, while offering daily liquidity.
The Isle of Man Funds Association, in partnership with the Isle of Man Government’s Department of Economic Development, is to sponsor the Hedge Fund Start-up Forum.
As part of their support for the event which targets new ‘start-up’ investment funds and fund managers and is being held in Zurich on 22 October 2014, Paul Kneen, chairman of the Isle of Man Funds Association and chief executive officer of leading fund administration specialists, the Abacus Financial Services Group, will join other industry professionals as a panel speaker during the first session, ‘Launching a new Hedge Fund: Refining a Strategy and Raising
Hang Seng Indexes Company and Markit have launched the Hang Seng Markit iBoxx Offshore RMB Bond Index family (HSM iBoxx).
The bond index series will track the performance of offshore renminbi (RMB) sovereign and corporate debt using an enhanced methodology for the treatment of unrated bonds alongside comprehensive breakdowns by bond tenor and rating.
The HSM iBoxx is built on the iBoxx principles of transparency, independence, open access and multi-sourced pricing. The methodology reflects specific characteristics of the offshore RMB bond market based on feedback from more than 15 asset managers and banks. Key features of the index family
Hong Kong-based asset manager Value Partners announced this week that it was launching its first Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) product – Value Partners China A-Share Select Fund.
Authorised by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission for public offering, the fund, which launched on 16 October, offers investors a direct and broad exposure to the Mainland’s stock market.
Value Partners was granted its first batch of RQFII quota of RMB800 million in October 2013, which will be applied to the fund. In April 2014, it obtained a new round of quota of RMB500 million.
With the upcoming
Risk management, cost and changes in fund structuring are the key issues for managers and investors arising from the initial impact of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), according to Crestbridge.
Launched at a special Crestbridge Forum, attended by over 100 highly influential fund sector specialists in Luxembourg on 2 October, the IFI Global ‘Impact of AIFMD’ report examined opinions on the impact of the introduction of the Directive in the last few weeks before the transition period for its implementation expired.
Featuring a dynamic line-up of panellists from Luxembourg and abroad, the event explored the initial findings from the
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