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By James Williams – Given that around 90% of the hedge fund industry is dominated by smaller managers running between USD100milllion and USD1.5billion in AuM it is perhaps little surprise that smaller, boutique prime brokerage firms are holding their own against bulge bracket prime brokerages owned by European and US banks.
Banks are now under enormous pressure to strengthen their balance sheets under Basel III. As a result, their prime brokerage divisions are becoming ever more ruthless in terms of the size and quality of hedge fund managers they are willing to support. This is opening up a huge opportunity
French bank Societe Generale announced in early November that it was buying the 50 per cent stake held by Credit Agricole in leading derivatives broker Newedge and in doing so assume full control. Subject to regulatory approval the deal is expected to be completed before the end of 2013 and will, according to Duncan Crawford (pictured), Global Co-Head of Alternative Investment Solutions, Prime Clearing Services, be highly advantageous as Newedge looks to diversify its offering.
“Newedge is well known for supporting managers in the managed futures space but it’s by no means the only space we cover. Prior to 2008,
“As we’ve matured and the industry’s needs have grown, we’ve continued to make investments aimed at providing solutions to emerging and more established managers as opposed to solely supporting the start-up market,” explains Jack Seibald (pictured), managing member at Concept Capital Markets LLC. “Start-up managers remain a core pillar of our business. However, given the increasing regulatory requirements and the demands for greater transparency by investors a lot of the solutions we’ve built answer the needs of managers who might otherwise not have thought of us.”
The clearing and custodial relationships Concept Capital has with JP Morgan, Pershing/BNY Mellon, and
For Liquid Holdings Group, a comprehensive technology and services firm that focuses on supporting small- to mid-sized hedge funds, the time has never been better to redefine the ‘mini-prime’ model with a stable environment for managers to generate investor and operational alpha.
Whereas mini-primes focus mainly on execution services, Liquid Holdings leads the discussion with its highly flexible platform, which supports managers beyond mere trade execution. The Liquid platform is cloud-based and combines managed back-office services with mission critical capabilities across order, execution, and risk management as well as portfolio management, compliance, investor reporting, and shadow NAV.
“This is
By Marianne Scordel – A year ago, we explored what hedge fund investors might be looking to buy during the following twelve months, what their attitude towards managers at the smaller end of the spectrum was, and what investment strategies appealed the most.
This year, Bougeville Consulting and Global Prime Partners decided to team up in this survey produced for Hedgeweek to try and understand what has changed, whether plans have come to fruition, and what, in the light of recent events and as a result of more structural factors, would determine investors’ appetite towards emerging managers in the near future.
For award-winning boutique prime brokerage Global Prime Partners this year has seen the firm go from strength to strength, laying further foundations to their reputation as one of the hedge fund industry’s ‘go to’ service providers to small and medium sized hedge funds.
“It’s been an incredible year for us,” enthuses Kevin LoPrimo (pictured), Global Head of Hedge Fund Services at GPP. “Even before mid-2013 we had equaled all of last year’s revenue.”
Part of the reason behind GPP’s success is the quality of partnerships it is building within the marketplace. With counterparty risk high on the agendas of
Alceda has appointed Silvia Wagner as managing director of Alceda Fund Management in Luxembourg subject to the approval of the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).
She will be responsible for structuring & portfolio management, finance & controlling and central administration.
Wagner has over 30 years of experience in the financial services sector. Prior to joining Alceda, Wagner was head of DWS Distribution Services and member of the managing board at DWS Finanz-Service GmbH. She spent 20 years with Deutsche Bank Group, where she started as head of custody operations and was then responsible for organisation and project
Sterne Agee, one of the oldest and largest privately held financial services firms in the US, has closed its purchase of London-based brokerage firm Yorvik Partners, which has been renamed Sterne Agee UK.
The acquisition establishes Sterne Agee's first overseas presence at 11 Ironmonger Lane, London, from which Sterne Agee plans to expand its services internationally.
"We envision an immediate impact in Europe and are excited that the door to international growth has been opened," says Eric Needleman, head of fixed income for Sterne Agee in New York. "This is undoubtedly an exciting step toward not only expanding but
BATS Global Markets’ pan-European trade reporting service, BXTR, became the industry leader in its first month of operation, while BATS Chi-X Europe remained Europe’s largest stock market in November.
BATS also continues progress towards approval and closing of the merger with Direct Edge Holdings, with completion of the transaction now expected in the first quarter of 2014. The company received clearance from the US Department of Justice in late October and its primary focus now is on receiving approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“November marked another month of tremendous growth for Europe as the team continues to
A continuing rally in equity markets remains a prominent theme as we head into December, but there are also other sizeable trade ideas today across hedge funds, says Anthony Lawler, portfolio manager at GAM.
“Hedge fund managers continue to like US and select European equities from both a fundamental long, as well as a long/short perspective, given the Fed’s accommodative stance and the European Central Bank announcing a surprise rate cut in early November. But other high-conviction trades remain in place, including the Japanese reflation theme expressed through short Japanese yen and JGBs and long Japanese equities.
“Continued concern
