Interview with Pius Fritschi – Last year, LGT Capital Partners saw its hedge funds business grow 20 per cent. This, says Pius Fritschi (pictured), Head of Hedge Fund Business Development at LGT Capital Partners, shows that demand for hedge fund strategies remains strong. But increasingly, institutional investors are searching for new sources of risk-adjusted returns when it comes to investing in hedge funds. Diversifying strategies such as insurance-linked strategies (ILS) are one of these sources gaining traction. Fritschi says that this is helped by the fact that LGT Capital Partners is spending an increased amount of time working with clients

Interview with Paul Nicholson – Vontobel Fund – Absolute Return Bond is designed to help clients overcome the challenges of uncertainty in today’s historically low interest environment. The fund’s flexible strategy is composed of four sub-strategies: one in cash management, to produce yield, and three “alpha” producing strategies covering currencies, rates and credit. The objective is to produce a straddle pay-off that allows the fund to generate consistent returns in stable market conditions, but to then generate outperformance in rising and falling markets.  “In terms of diversification we look to introduce convexity characteristics. The straddle pay-off profile is designed to

Interview with André Valente – The opportunity to leverage onshore administration services for hedge fund managers is gathering momentum in Switzerland. And UBS Fund Services in Switzerland plans to be at the forefront, according to André Valente (pictured) who heads up the business. This view is based on the premise that, despite regulatory changes, increasing interest for alternative investments will continue. And not just in hedge funds, but other “alternatives” as well. For example, as Switzerland moves its energy policy away from nuclear energy towards clean energy, this will likely create a number of private equity and infrastructure deals in

By James Williams – “Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.” Thomas A Edison. On 1 March 2013, Swiss fund managers awoke to a new dawn. Overnight, they had gone from operating in a market free of the shackles of regulation to one where the Swiss government gave its imprimatur to the revised CISA (Collective Investment Schemes Act). This, along with the Collective Investment Schemes Ordinance (CISO), means that all Swiss-based asset managers overseeing fund investments now fall under the watchful gaze of FINMA, the Swiss regulator. “Where we are in Ticino (southern-most canton), I

Last year one of the biggest themes was that Europe didn’t get fixed, yet it was provided with so much liquidity that it was inflated out of its existing stress levels,” says Fraser Lundie (pictured), who runs the credit desk at Hermes Fund Managers alongside Mitch Reznick. “The reason that was such a big trade, in particular for high yield, was because it was in no way consensus. At the start of 2012 there wasn’t a single person on the street who had European high yield returning no more than a few per cent at best. “Because everyone was caught

Graham Stock (pictured), chief strategist at Insparo Asset Management comments on China-Africa relations ahead of the China-Africa Business Summit… “China is a source of valuable inward investment for Africa and will remain a long-term source of demand for African exports. The focus to date has been on oil and base and precious metals, with Chinese diplomatic and commercial activity particularly evident in Angola, Sudan, Nigeria, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zimbabwe. We expect to see increased interest in the agricultural sector too, through demand for grain exports from southern Africa, long-term leases of undeveloped arable land across the