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As the initial problems of ‘Obamacare’ are ironed out, Simon Laing, Head of US Equities at Invesco Perpetual, looks at the effect this may have on the US healthcare sector in 2014…
Obamacare is the informal name that has been given to the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act that was signed into law in 2010. Its major initiative of providing affordable health insurance to all US citizens started rolling out in 2013. But it’s been an inauspicious start with its well-publicised website enrolment problems, preventing most people from taking out coverage.
President Obama has had to enact several
By James Williams – Irish law firm Matheson has provided an update from its London office on the introduction of a new corporate vehicle for Irish funds – the Irish Collective Asset Management Vehicle (ICAV).
The ICAV is set to give managers another option in addition to the public limited company (plc) that has, to date, been the most popular vehicle for Irish collective investment funds.
The General Scheme of the ICAV Bill was approved for legal drafting by the Irish Government on 17 December 2013. Matheson notes that it is “anticipated that the ICAV will become the vehicle
Fewer than 20 per cent of alternative investment fund managers (AIFMSs) have submitted an application to their local regulator for Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) authorisation.
That’s the finding of new research from BNY Mellon, which comes just six months before full implementation of the directive.
Given that securing authorisation typically takes a number of months, bottlenecks and delays are now likely to develop, putting even greater pressure on AIFMs, depositaries and services providers as they seek to implement the necessary changes in time for July’s deadline.
In a similar survey conducted by BNY Mellon in July
KNEIP has been appointed by Oppenheim Asset Management Services (OPAM) to carry out transparency reporting under the Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive (AIFMD).
OPAM will be making use of KNEIP’s Fund Reporting service for aggregating and submitting information to regulators.
OPAM has one alternative investment fund manager (AIFM) and 64 alternative investment funds (AIFs) for which KNEIP will be creating an AIFMD report.
OPAM has been an officially authorised AIFM since 12 September 2013 and is now one out of only a handful of AIFMD-compliant companies in Luxembourg.
Bob Kneip, chief executive of KNEIP, says: “AIFMD represents
More than 120 buy-side firms signed with EurexOTC Clear, Eurex Clearing’s central counterparty service for Interest Rate Swap (IRS), by the end of 2013.
In addition, a total of 32 clearing members including all major global sell-side banks are connected.
Further clearing members are in the admission process, ensuring broad market support among sell- and buy-side firms for EurexOTC Clear.
“We are very pleased about the strong market interest to join our service well ahead of the clearing mandate in Europe. This proves Eurex Clearing’s appealing proposition to our customers, especially to buy-side firms across Europe. By joining
Oaktree Capital Group and its subsidiaries have priced Oaktree CLO 2014-1 Ltd, a USD516.5m collateralized loan obligation (CLO).
Oaktree CLO 2014-1 Ltd will invest in corporate leveraged loans.
Oaktree’s CLO activities are part of its global senior loan strategies, which manage USD6.0bn of loans on a levered and unlevered basis in the US and in Europe as of 30 September 2013.
The US senior loan strategy is headed by managing directors Armen Panossian and Desmund Shirazi, who serve as co-portfolio managers and oversee the day-to-day management of all of Oaktree’s US senior loan portfolios.
The hedge fund industry could see up to USD80bn in net flows during 2014 – an increase of nearly 25 per cent over 2013 and the largest amount since 2007 – as well as almost USD285bn of reallocations during the year.
These figures are the findings of a survey conducted by Barclays’ Prime Services business, presented in its latest report, Waiting to Exhale.
Combined, the total amount of “money-in-play” for the industry could approach USD365bn, the survey results indicate.
“2014 could be a great year for hedge fund asset raising,” says Lou Molinari, head of capital solutions. “While
Managed futures gained 0.52 per cent in December, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
The index ended the year with a loss of 1.42 per cent.
The Barclay CTA Index was down 3.14 per cent at the end of September. Managed futures performance turned around beginning in October, gaining 1.72 per cent in the last three months of the year.
“Aided by the positive fundamentals driving the on-going recovery of G-7 equity markets, the volatility of rapid risk-on/risk-off transitions diminished in the fourth quarter,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge. “CTAs have been
Asset management firms are still using too much jargon in their Key Investor Information Documents (KIIDs) and not enough plain language, as indeed they are required to do.
A survey of 110 advisers at the end of 2013 by Kii Hub found that 67 per cent of advisers believe most or all KIIDs continue to use jargon. They did, however, agree that the documents are clearer and “more concise” than other fund documents.
It has been 18 months now since asset managers were required to offer KIIDs to investors in every share class of UCITS funds offered to European investors.
Major institutional investors are poised to increase their allocations to alternative investments, with a bias towards real estate and real assets, during 2014, according to a survey by BlackRock.
Approximately half of institutions surveyed – 49 per cent – expect to increase their real estate allocation and over 40 per cent indicated they will increase their investment in real assets this year.
At the same time, about one-third of the institutional investors surveyed intend to reduce their cash holdings in 2014.
“Institutional investors are seeking to build portfolios better suited for an investment landscape characterised by low yields,
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