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Polar Capital is preparing to launch a convertible bond fund reported FTadviser this week. The Polar Capital Global Convertibles fund will be domiciled in Dublin, subject to regulatory approval, and is to be managed by David Keetley and Steve McCormick.
Both Keetley and McCormick co-manage the USD40million Polar Capital ALVA Global Convertible hedge fund, a Cayman vehicle that launched in November 2010 and which has delivered 10.7 per cent returns in the last 12 months.
The UCITS fund will have a long bias and aims to deliver equity-like returns as well as income by investing in convertible bonds. The yield
By Douglas Shulman, Director, Regulatory Compliance, Kinetic Partners – The Madoff fraud was a turning point for the regulatory environment and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or the “Commission”).
The Commission suffered great damage to its reputation, as it was roundly criticized in the media for missing the long-standing Madoff fraud.
The frustration of the public grew as Madoff’s firm was: (i) registered with the SEC, (ii) the subject of several complaints and tips regarding the Ponzi scheme and (iii) had undergone an SEC examination. Questions abounding in the news media included: How could the SEC miss the
Meridian Fund Services Group has appointed Fergus Healy as chief executive, effective 15 August 2013.
Healy was most recently at JP Morgan Chase in New York as an executive director of the alternative markets group.
Healy has enjoyed a distinguished career in the hedge fund and private equity industries, which he commenced in 1996 at the global fund services division of the Bank of Bermuda (now HSBC) as a legal counsel. Healy later moved into a business development role at the Bank, first in Bermuda and then in New York. Healy eventually moved back to his native Ireland
SS&C GlobeOp has expanded its European presence with a new Luxembourg office.
SS&C GlobeOp supports diverse fund structures across multiple domiciles and jurisdictions and has expertise in traditional and alternative investment vehicles.
Asset growth of funds domiciled and/or administered in Luxembourg grew more than 16 per cent in the past 12 months to USD2,584,099bn assets under management, according to the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI).
SS&C GlobeOp’s Luxembourg office offers fund administration and middle-to-back office services, including fund accounting and reporting, share registry and transfer agency services, and investor communications. Managed account platforms, UCITS funds
The Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index finished up 0.88 per cent for the month of July, with six of the 10 sub-strategies recording positive returns.
Equity market neutral led the way a return of 2.02 per cent, followed by long short equity (1.95 per cent), event driven (1.51 per cent), and multi strategies (1.16 per cent).
Dedicated short bias was the month’s biggest loser down 5.74 per cent while managed futures (-1.06 per cent), emerging markets (-0.09 per cent) and convertible arbitrage (-0.08 per cent) also ended the month in negative territory.
The following funds were dropped
Recent falls in the gold price have generated significant increases in demand, most notably from consumers in China and India – by far the biggest markets for gold – compared with the same time last year, according to the latest World Gold Council Gold Demand Trends report.
Globally, jewellery demand was up 37 per cent in Q2 2013 to 576 tonnes (t) from 421t in the same quarter last year, reaching its highest level since Q3 2008.
In China, demand was up 54 per cent compared to a year ago, while in India demand increased by 51 per
Managed futures lost 0.57 per cent in July, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
The index is down 1.58 per cent year to date.
“Bernanke’s reaffirmation of a prolonged period of low US interest rates rallied precious and base metals while weakening the USD,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge. “Unfortunately many CTAs found themselves on the wrong side of these markets in July.”
Five of Barclay’s eight CTA indices had losses in July. The Diversified Traders Index lost 0.87 per cent, Systematic Traders gave up 0.73 per cent, and Currency Traders
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged two former traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co with overvaluing investments in order to hide massive losses.
The SEC alleges that Javier Martin-Artajo and Julien Grout were required to mark the portfolio’s investments at fair value in accordance with US generally accepted accounting principles and JPMorgan’s internal accounting policy. But when the portfolio began experiencing mounting losses in early 2012, Martin-Artajo and Grout schemed to deliberately mismark hundreds of positions by maximizing their value instead of marking them at the mid-market prices that would reveal the losses. Their mismarking scheme caused JPMorgan’s
CTA specialist RPM and asset manager Privium Fund Management are set to launch a new fund for Dutch investors.
The “Evolving CTA Fund” provides exposure to a portfolio of largely untapped smaller and innovative CTA managers across three sub strategies: trend-following, short-term and fundamental. The fund is developed in response to growing concerns over asset concentration and deteriorating returns from very large and well-known CTAs.
RPM Risk & Portfolio Management has roughly USD4bn in funds under management and advisory. RPM concluded, based on research, that CTAs in their “evolving phase” are the most promising from a risk/return perceptive.
Investors poured another USD3 billion to Asian hedge funds in the second quarter, with a particular emphasis on equity strategies and Japan-focused funds.
According to the latest HFR Asian Hedge Fund Industry Report, total capital invested in the Asian hedge fund industry increased to over USD98.4 billion in Q2 2013, the highest total since 2007.
Asian equity hedge strategies pulled in a net USD2.2 billion from investors in the second quarter while Asian-focused event driven and relative value arbitrage funds recorded net inflows of USD390 million and USD358 million, respectively. Hedge funds focused on Japan received over USD1.7 billion
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