Latest News
SS&C GlobeOp has obtained Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approval for its Depositary “Lite" service offering.
The recently launched service helps managers of non-EEA AIFs in fulfilling their Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive (AIFMD) requirements.
SS&C will help managers comply with various aspects of the AIFMD including functions relating to asset verification, cash flow monitoring and oversight services.
"We have been operating as a Depositary 'Lite' under the transitional provision for a number of months and we are delighted to now receive our full authorisation," says Des Pierce, senior director, SS&C GlobeOp.
"We've seen strong interest in our
Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) global physical benchmark SICOM Rubber Futures contracts achieved a new record month in June with 40,679 lots traded, surging 53 per cent higher than a year before.
Open interest also achieved a new high on 27 June 2014, hitting 29,679 contracts or 148,395 tonnes.
Volume traded in the first half of 2014 hit 1.06 million tonnes, representing a 30 per cent increase over the same period last year.
The rapidly rising trading interest in the SGX SICOM Rubber Futures market follows increased activity by financial participants including banks and proprietary trading companies – from
SS&C GlobeOp, one of the hedge fund industry’s leading administrators, is currently supporting European fund managers under the AIFMD’s Depositary “Lite” regime having recently gained authorisation from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.
For hedge fund administrators, the ability to provide offshore depositary services to managers running non-EEA AIFs is an excellent opportunity to enhance their value proposition; and at SS&C GlobeOp, they’ve built a dedicated team for the sole purpose of running their new Depositary “Lite” solution.
Under Article 36 of the AIFMD, the appointed depositary(ies) – the Depositary “Lite” – must still perform the three core functions of
Activist hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management is proposing a slate of six independent directors for the board of directors of Allergan.
The six members of the slate are: Betsy Atkins, Cathleen P Black, Fredric N Eshelman, Steven J Shulman, David A Wilson and John J Zillmer.
As previously announced, Pershing Square is seeking to call a special meeting of Allergan shareholders. At this special meeting, Allergan shareholders will be able to voice their support for a number of critical matters, including the removal of six incumbent members of the Allergan board, the appointment of the independent Pershing Square
The choice of domicile for insurance-linked securities (ILS) transactions was among the hot topics discussed at a Guernsey Finance-hosted thought leadership event in the reinsurance centre of Zurich last week.
The event attracted 80 delegates from around the world, including Japan, Hong Kong, France, the UK and Switzerland and from across the asset management, wealth management and reinsurance and adviser communities.
It was held at the Park Hyatt Zurich where there were two panel sessions featuring ILS experts from Guernsey, the UK and mainland Europe. Domicile choice was one theme which stood out through both sets of discussions and
Mutual funds continue to grow as the vehicle of choice for accessing alternative strategies, according to the eighth annual alternative investment survey by Morningstar and Barron’s.
“2013 marked the strongest asset flows into alternative funds and the largest number of fund launches on record," says Josh Charlson, director of manager research, alternative strategies. "For the fourth year in a row, long-short strategies garnered the most interest, but growing apprehension toward the bond market has also contributed to blistering growth in non-traditional bond funds."
Organic growth rates for mutual funds rose to eye-popping levels. Long-short equity funds rose by more
The outperformance of L/S equity versus L/S credit and fixed income arbitrage recorded in 2013 came abruptly to a halt in the first half of 2014, says Phillipe Ferreira, head of research at Lyxor’s Managed Account Platform.
The former strongly outperformed, against bullish expectations for L/S equity. But despite the poor relative performance of the latter, inflows into L/S equity remain positive.
Lyxor says the strategy is attractive, but suggests higher portfolio diversification to avoid a strong bias in favour of a particular investment style. There is a feeling amongst managers that this earnings season could be a turning
Taliance, a global analytics provider serving the alternative investments marketplace, has sold its back office-focused accounting and transactional solutions to asset management software provider Cassiopae.
Taliance now intends to concentrate on the rapidly-growing and evolving alternative investments space.
Cassiopae, which has a global focus on back office solutions for the real estate market, will acquire Taliance’s staff, software and clients dedicated to back-office operations. The senior management team of the firm will remain with Taliance. The two companies will collaborate moving forward and work together closely to share market expertise and development opportunities where synergies exist for the mutual benefit
The Efficient Minimum Volatility strategy was the best performing strategy for the developed equity universe in June, both in absolute (8.54 per cent) and relative terms (2.20 per cent), according to ERI Scientific Beta.
The worst, but still positively, performing strategy was the Maximum Deconcentration strategy, both in absolute (7.54 per cent) and relative (1.20 per cent) terms.
The Diversified Multi-strategy index allows extremes to be avoided by diversifying across five weighting schemes and posts year-to-date relative return of 1.60 per cent.
Since inception in 2002, the Diversified Multi-strategy index for the Developed Equity Universe also has the
Lyxor Asset Management UK has made three appointments to lead its growth in the UK and Northern European markets.
Olivier Cassin has been appointed as head of UK institutional sales; Mattias Gustawsson as head of Nordic institutional sales; and Joost Wijstma as head of Netherlands institutional sales.
Cassin joins from consultant Bfinance where he was co-head of the London office and co-head of the private markets team. He has led the research and development team for Bfinance's investment consulting practice.
Wijstma has over 15 years’ experience in the banking and fund management industry gained with JP Morgan and
