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Capital invested in the global hedge fund industry surged to a record in the fourth quarter, finishing a strong year of capital growth as hedge funds posted the best performance in three years.
Total capital increased in 4Q by USD120 billion on USD10.5 billion of net inflows to USD2.63 trillion, the sixth consecutive quarterly record, led by a surge in investor interest in Event Driven strategies, including Special Situations and Distressed/Restructuring funds, according to the latest HFR Global Hedge Fund Industry Report.
For the full year, total hedge fund capital increased by USD376 billion on USD63.7 billion of net inflows,
Mariner Investment Group has closed on two new client mandates, launching Mariner Infrastructure Investment Management (MIIM), Mariner's bank deleveraging and regulatory capital management investment business.
MIIM serves as portfolio manager for two investment vehicles: the International Infrastructure Finance Company Fund (IIFC), a USD350m comingled fund, and Mariner Breakwater, a USD100m fund-of-one.
MIIM aims to take leveraged exposure to loans, bonds, and other debt instruments associated with global infrastructure, energy, and transportation assets. Target investments are designed to enable banks to manage their balance sheet in light of new financial regulations, providing them with risk-transfer tools that optimise and enhance
Renegade Petroleum has issued an open letter advising shareholders to reject an attempted takeover of the firm’s board by FrontFour Capital Group, a dissident group headed by US hedge fund manager Zachary George.
The letter was mailed to shareholders of record as of 9 December 2013 and a copy of the letter is available under Renegade's profile on SEDAR and on Renegade's website.
Renegade is a light oil focused development and production company with assets located in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and North Dakota. Renegade's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol RPL.
New regulatory requirements are improving the quality of the European market for asset-backed securities, according to Swiss & Global.
Current new issues are being structured more conservatively, for example, issuers must now hold a minimum percentage of their securitised assets on their own balance sheet for the entire term, and they must ensure greater transparency.
Since the financial crisis investors also have become more sophisticated, analysing transactions more rigorously rather than relying on ratings agencies only. This has led to a reduced number of debt-financed market participants, such as banks, in the ABS market.


Demand among institutional
Altin, the USD230m multi-strategy fund of hedge funds listed on the London and Swiss stock exchanges, has disclosed its entire hedge fund portfolio holdings as part of its policy of transparency to investors.
The portfolio, featuring more than 40 underlying hedge funds and representing over 10 investment strategies, is well diversified and has a NAV performance of +191.36 per cent since its inception in December 1996.
A number of hedge funds were added to the Altin portfolio in the last quarter of 2013 as follows.
In the global macro strategy there were three additions: ABD Managers plc – Tactical
James Oussedik has joined Sidley Austin’s London office as counsel.
He will be a senior member of the firm’s investment funds practice, which is dedicated to structuring and advising investment funds and advisers.
Oussedik’s appointment follows that of Stephen Ross, who joined Sidley’s investment funds practice as partner earlier this year and heads Sidley’s London investment funds group.
Oussedik has significant experience in advising fund sponsors on the establishment and maintenance of investment funds and managed accounts, as well as in advising institutional investors in relation to proposed investments. He has represented a broad range of investment fund
UBS Fund Services has signed agreements with SunGard and HazelTree to offer UBS Frontier Platform – a front and middle office solution.
Developed in conjunction with SunGard’s Hedge 360 and HazelTree, UBS Frontier Platform will be offered in the Americas, APAC and Europe to enhance UBS Fund Services’ product suite.
This provides extended portfolio management, real-time P&L, desk level risk, treasury cash and collateral management solutions, trade administration, data management, pricing and reporting either as a software solution or as a managed service.
Michael Rucci, head of UBS Fund Services, Americas, says: “Working with SunGard and HazelTree will
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
