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Compliance and regulatory services provider Cordium has acquired HedgeStart, a provider of UK tax, accounting and regulatory compliance consulting services to the investment management and securities industries.
The deal marks another chapter in a period of planned expansion for Cordium, following quickly on from the acquisition of The Sigma Partnership in December 2013.
The HedgeStart acquisition allows Cordium to add a corporate and private client tax capability to its wide range of client services. It also expands Cordium’s core compliance specialism and provides a further boost to its regulatory accounting division.
All of HedgeStart’s staff and the majority
Asian hedge funds outperformed their global peers last year and investors took notice, chalking up the highest inflows to the region since 2007, research has shown.
Overall, hedge funds based in Asia (but outside Japan) made 15.85 per cent in 2013, data monitor Eurekahedge said in its end of year report. This outstripped performance by funds based in the larger hubs of North America and Europe.
Investors allocated USD11 billion to these funds, the report showed – the largest amount for six years – while the funds realised performance-based gains of USD8.1 billion, bringing the size of the industry to
Following three completed investments since mid-2012, NewAlpha Asset Management has announced the fourth incubation partnership between the French managers-only seeding fund Émergence and Rcube Asset Management.
Émergence has provided EUR30m of funding for Rcube’s Global Macro UCITS Fund, which is aimed at French and international institutional investors.
Approved by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the Rcube Global Macro UCITS fund implements a global macro investment strategy across all asset classes (excluding commodities), using only the most liquid instruments.
The investment process is built on a framework of macroeconomic models and discretionary analysis. The quantitative part
David Absolon (pictured), Investment Director at Heartwood Investment Management, examines the outlook for bonds in 2014…
Bond markets have enjoyed a bull run over the past 30 years, largely supported by both falling interest rates and inflation and, since 2008, loose monetary policy. But things began to change last summer as prices fell and yields started rising, and we expect this environment to continue in the coming year. Indeed, 2013 gave us only the third negative annual return for global bonds since 1987. The other two were 1994 and 1999.
What does the year ahead look like for bonds? Neither
Guernsey has more entities listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) than any other jurisdiction globally excluding the UK, according to figures from the market authority.
LSE data shows that at the end of December 2013 there were 115 Guernsey-incorporated entities listed on the Main Market, the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and the Specialist Fund Market (SFM).
This is more than the major economic powers of the US (37), Australia and Russia (both 30), India (29), South Africa (8), Germany (6), China (4) and France (3). It was also well ahead of competitor centres Jersey (88), Ireland and the
Pine Grove Asset Management (PGAM) has launched the Pine Grove Alternative Institutional Fund (Alt Instl Fund), its first registered closed-end fund under the Investment Company Act of 1940.
The Alt Instl Fund adds to the fund-of-funds offerings at PGAM, which was founded in 1994 and is one of the oldest, independent firms in the hedge fund industry.
The Alt Instl Fund will provide accredited investors with streamlined access to relative value and event driven hedge fund strategies with a core focus on credit investing.
With the launch of the Alt Instl Fund, PGAM took deliberate steps to convert
LMAX, the regulated multilateral trading facility (MTF), has agreed to list Ven, enabling brokers, banks and institutions to trade the global digital currency.
Ven was launched through social network HubCulture.com and has previously been available exclusively inside the network, where over 30 million Ven have been exchanged since 2007.
Ven is priced against other major currencies at floating exchange rates and is 100 per cent asset backed with a mix of fiat currencies, commodities and carbon, creating a globally diversified hedge oriented currency. It was the first digital currency to float, the first used in bilateral commodity trading, and the
Pictet Asset Management has launched the Pictet Absolute Return Fixed Income fund, domiciled in Luxembourg and UCITS compliant.
Andres Sanchez Balcazar, senior investment manager and co-head of global and regional bonds, is the fund manager. He has over 16 years of experience in managing bond portfolios and is supported by three experienced investment managers.
The fund has a flexible and benchmark-unconstrained approach which targets positive returns while helping to protect the fund against rising rates. It is well diversified across rates, spreads and FX and can invest across all fixed income sectors in both developed and emerging markets. Economic
Event driven was the best performing liquid alternative beta (LAB) strategy in 2013, finishing up 11 per cent due primarily to Russell 2000 and iBoxx High Yield Bond exposures, according to Credit Suisse Asset Management.
The firm’s 2013 Liquid Alternative Beta Performance Review, which examines key factors that drove liquid alternative strategy performance in 2013, says Credit Suisse's Illiquidity Premium factor also contributed positively to event driven strategy performance in 2013.
The weight of the Illiquidity Factor grew throughout the year, suggesting that managers in the space are taking greater illiquidity risk as they search for yield.
Systematic
Kin Lee has joined Angel Oak Capital Advisors as a senior portfolio manager.
He will focus on building and managing strategies within the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market.
“Lee brings 15 years of CMBS investment experience to the Angel Oak team. His expertise allows us to find additional opportunities in fixed-income for our investors,” says Sreeni Prabhu, Angel Oak co-founder and chief investment officer.
Prior to joining Angel Oak, Lee served as executive director at Nomura Securities International. He also held the previous role of head of CMBS trading for both Mizuho Securities and RBS Greenwich Capital. Lee
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