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The Hedge Fund Association (HFA) has appointed Thalius Hecksher as regional director for the HFA’s Southeast Chapter, and Robert G Sawyer in the newly created role of regional director for the HFA’s Boston Chapter.
The industry professionals have been chosen to direct the HFA’s local event programmes, and contribute to the organisation’s mission of advancing transparency, development and trust in alternative investments.
Hecksher is global managing director of business development for Apex Fund Services. Apex Fund Services, a provider of total fund solutions to the asset management community with 33 offices worldwide is one of the fastest growing independently
“There is what I call a Holy Trinity for hedge funds. They’ve got to be able to raise capital, they’ve got to be able to deliver performance, and they’ve got to be able to control costs,” says Paul Compton (pictured), head of strategy in SunGard’s asset management business. Within the context of managed accounts, the last point on cost control is especially important.
One of the clear drivers of interest in managed accounts among institutional investors is the need to demonstrate to their own stakeholders that they have all the checks and processes in place to mitigate the risk of
By Stephen McGoohan, head of managed account lifecycle and transparency, FRM (Man Group) – FRM, now part of Man Group Plc, is one of Europe’s established alternative investment specialists and runs an extensive buy-side managed account platform with USD7.9billion in assets (as of 1 October 2013).
FRM treat their managed accounts as more than just operational tools; they provide benefits in the investment process. Improvements to the research, risk management and portfolio management processes are expected to result in improvements in the overall investment performance for clients; a point FRM are keen to stress is their foremost concern.
Examples
By James Williams – As more hedge fund managers, particularly start-ups and emerging managers, accede to offering managed account mandates it would appear that buy-side institutions, be they fund-of-hedge-fund firms or investment advisory firms, are trying to steal a march on the big publicly-owned banking platforms. The general premise is that these institutions are more closely aligned to investors, they understand their needs and are more solution-driven than distribution-driven.
To that extent, we are seeing something of an evolution in the managed account space as more and more institutional money gets allocated to hedge funds. In the past, investors in
By Dermot Butler, Chairman of Custom House Global Fund Services Limited – Managed accounts are not a new phenomenon, despite some of the media hype which would lead readers to assume that they are a recent addition to investors and investor’s armoury. In fact historically most CTAs would never have opened a fund if they had not started life offering managed accounts, which they did as a way to corral Assets Under Administration (“AUM”).
But, as soon as they had sufficient AUM they then formed a fund and encouraged their smaller investors to switch. This was because it was much
At Deutsche Bank Fund Services, one of the industry’s leading alternative fund and managed account administrators (the bank also boasts two leading MAPs in the form of dbSelect and dbAlternatives), putting the tools in the hands of its clients to meet the unique reporting challenges of managed account mandates is a priority.
This is critical in today’s marketplace where regulation is shaping the way fund managers approach investment management. Whilst the likes of Form PF and AIFMD are aimed at hedge funds, they naturally impact the way data is processed and delivered in managed accounts.
“You have to be
“It is most welcome to have a dedicated regulatory framework for alternative funds than no framework at all,” comments Lionel Paquin (pictured), head of Lyxor Managed Account Platform (MAP), when discussing the potential impact of the AIFM Directive on the alternatives industry.
“Offshore hedge funds have traditionally been viewed as “black box” investments. The directive changes this. It gives institutions the opportunity to invest in offshore complex strategies in an onshore regulated format.”
It is eminently possible that market regulation could prove to be an unexpected fillip for the hedge fund industry and, by extension, leading platform providers like Lyxor.
By James Williams – As a solution for investing into hedge funds the managed account model is nothing new. As a way to access liquid hedge fund strategies with greater transparency and risk controls in place to help investors make more informed investment decisions, managed accounts play a vital role. And according to a recent AIFM industry survey, managers are becoming all too aware of this.
In the State Street 2013 Alternative Fund Manager Survey, released a couple of months ago in collaboration with Preqin and which involved speaking to 400 global alternative fund managers, 26 per cent of all
Oaktree Capital Group and China Cinda Asset Management are to jointly invest in distressed assets in China and to cooperate with respect to distressed assets investments in markets outside China.
The memorandum of understanding states that Oaktree and Cinda will establish a strategic relationship and pursue business cooperation opportunities using Cinda’s experience in China and Oaktree’s experience elsewhere.
Both parties anticipate forming a joint venture that will be equally owned by Oaktree and Cinda to invest in distressed assets in China, subject to negotiation and execution of definitive documentation.
John Frank, managing principal of Oaktree, says: “We are
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued an order filing and settling charges that Daniel Shak of Las Vegas, Nevada and SHK Management attempted to manipulate crude oil futures contracts.
The contracts in question were Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).
According to the charges SHK Management also violated intraday spot month speculative position limits applicable to WTI futures contracts on two days in 2008.
The CFTC Order requires Shak and SHK to jointly pay a USD400,000 civil monetary penalty, permanently bans Shak and SHK from trading in
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