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Initial feedback from the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the ICMA European Repo Council (ERC) members and operations working groups indicates that that the transition to settlement at T+2 for the European fixed income markets has been largely successful with few issues.
The migration of the standard settlement cycle for cash trading in bonds from settlement at T+3 (Trade date + 3 working days) to T+2 was made in response to the EU Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR) and took effect on 6 October 2014.
Godfried De Vidts, chair of ICMA’s European Repo Council, says: “Feedback from ICMA
Gemini Alternative Funds brought together a variety of experts on alternative investments at "Gemini Forum: Behind the Scenes of Alternatives," held in New York City on 8 October.
The registered investment advisors (RIAs) and journalists who attended the event were given an opportunity to learn about the benefits managed account platforms offer to investors seeking access to alternative investment strategies.
The industry experts also discussed why strategies focused on managed futures are attractive in the present environment.
"Liquid alternatives are growing fast, and this trend may likely continue for at least the next few years," says David Young,
PineBridge Investments has appointed two senior investment professionals to its private funds group.
PineBridge appointed Justin Pollack as senior vice president and Stacia Rogers as vice president, product specialist.
Pollack will support secondaries activities and opportunities for the team, and Rogers will oversee growth initiatives and serve as the team's primary contact for various business development channels.
"We are excited to have such experienced and well-rounded investment professionals join our private funds group," says Steven Costabile, managing director and global head of the private funds group. "Stacia and Justin bring a wealth of knowledge in private market investing
ConceptONE is geared up to file AIFMD Annex IV reports for AIFMs in all major EU National Competent Authorities (NCAs).
The firm has already been engaged by numerous AIFMs to provide its Annnex IV reporting solution, and urges those managers who have not yet made filing arrangements to do so as soon as possible in order to avoid missing the mandate’s first deadline.
By fully integrating with fund administrators, prime brokers, and portfolio accounting systems, ConceptONE’s RegERM Platform streamlines the process of aggregating and validating the necessary input data to answer the 3,800+ individual responses required by Annex IV.
Event-driven investment firm Pinyon Asset Management has partnered with alternative asset management firm GCM Grosvenor.
Patrick Burke, former event-driven equity portfolio manager at Sandell Asset Management from 2004-2010, is the chief investment officer and managing partner of Pinyon.
Burke has 20 years of experience managing portfolios in the global event-driven arena. Previously, he served as senior managing director and head of international event-driven proprietary trading at Bear Stearns & Co.
Pinyon’s investment team also includes Geoffrey Postel, Nicola (Nic) Caiano, and Paul Murrell. Previously, Postel was a managing director of global equity trading and event-driven equities at Davidson
Peak Ridge Capital has added Robert Showers as a partner to the firm.
Showers will be primarily responsible for assisting Peak Ridge Capital in the continuing expansion of its alternative investments platform.
Most recently, Showers was the global co-head of listed derivatives execution services at UBS Securities where he managed and developed business strategy for global sales traders and managed traders in North America and Brazil across fixed income, equities and commodity futures markets.
Previously he was the North America head of listed derivatives execution services at Barclays Capital and senior salesperson of OTC interest rate derivatives at
Owain McNeill has joined Quintillion Limited, a European-based affiliate of US Bancorp Fund Services, as senior vice president of business development.
McNeill, based in London, will focus on the continued growth of the company’s alternative investment service offering throughout the European, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) market.
“We are excited to continue expanding our dedicated team of professionals serving the European financial community,” says Joan Kehoe, chief executive officer for Quintillion. “Owain’s experience and expertise in alternative investments and fund administration helps strengthen our team and provides additional support for our clients.”
McNeill joins Quintillion with more
Thomson Reuters has launched a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) dataset to support event-driven hedge fund managers.
Thomson Reuters M&A data provides the global asset management and alternative investment management industries with coverage of M&A activity worldwide.
It incorporates over 900,000 M&A events announced since the late 1970s, currently available to clients through a flexible suite of datafeed offerings.
This transaction coverage is now accompanied by a new event history companion dataset that features time series data through the evolution of the deal. The multidimensional view of the dates, valuations and events, from announcement to completion, empowers advanced quantitative
Morgan Stanley is to become a clearing member of the Eurex Clearing’s Securities Lending CCP.
Both partners aim to have finalised the process by the end of October.
“Morgan Stanley is supportive of CCP solutions for securities lending such as the Eurex Clearing model as it allows us to preserve our client relationships and deliver best execution with risk, resource and operational efficiencies. Tiered membership plays a critical part in facilitating buy-side participation through different forms such as the Specific Lender License,” says Susan O’Flynn, managing director, global head of CCP strategy and optimisation, Morgan Stanley.
“We are
ALTIN, the USD245m multi-strategy fund of hedge funds listed on the London and Swiss stock exchanges, outperformed in the year to end September 2014 with its net asset value up 4.45 per cent.
The HFRI FoF Composite Index stood at 2.68 per cent for the same period.


Protection strategies were slightly increased in the third quarter of the year in order to account for a larger volatility risk as the beginning of a tightening cycle in the US approaches.
The current portfolio, which features more than 40 underlying hedge funds and represents over 10 investment strategies, is well
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