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The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was up 3.1 per cent in 2012 with a 1.1 per cent rise in December.
Twelve Lyxor Strategy Indices out of 14 ended the month in positive territory, led by the Merger Arbitrage Index (+3.0 per cent) and the Long/Short Credit Arbitrage Index (+2.6 per cent).
Over the year, 11 Lyxor Strategy Indices out of 14 posted positive performances, three of them being up double digits: Long/Short Credit Arbitrage Index (+12.1 per cent), Long/Short Equity Long Bias (+11.2 per cent) and Fixed Income Arbitrage (+10.5 per cent).
Hedge funds benefited from comforting
Heritage International Fund Managers (Malta) has appointed Nicholas Warren as head of office.
Locally educated at St Edward’s College and the University of Malta, Warren will be responsible for the client service delivery and day to day operations as well as assisting with business development initiatives and growing the business in Malta.
Warren has worked in the financial services industry since 2004 initially with Deloitte & Touche in Luxembourg moving on to take a role within the regulatory unit of the Malta Financial Services Authority.
Warren joined a Tier 1 law firm responsible for providing counsel to international clients on
The Securities and Exchange Commission has secured final judgments against hedge fund manager Chetan Kapur and his firm, ThinkStrategy Capital Management, ordering them to jointly and severally pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest of USD3,988,196.59 and civil penalties in the amount of USD1m.
The final judgments stem from a civil injunctive action filed by the Commission on 10 November 2011. The SEC’s complaint alleged that over nearly seven years, Kapur and ThinkStrategy engaged in a pattern of deceptive conduct designed to bolster their track record, size, and credentials.
In particular, Kapur and ThinkStrategy materially overstated the performance of their ThinkStrategy Capital
NewAlpha Asset Management, the Paris-based hedge fund incubation specialist, has made its 20th strategic investment with LindenGrove Capital, a recently launched London-based hedge fund management firm focused on global macro strategies.
LindenGrove was founded by Borut Miklavcic, who had been heading Nomura’s Liquid Markets Proprietary Trading group since 2009. At Nomura, Miklavcic established the business from inception, and built and managed a team of 14 portfolio managers spread over three offices. The team had approximately USD1bn of hedge fund equivalent capital.
Prior to Nomura, Miklavcic led the Lehman Brothers global inflation trading business between 2002 and 2008. He set up
Risk parity strategies have delivered strong risk-adjusted returns in the recent years of uncertainty, but some investors are concerned about the effect on them of possible interest rate rises.
A recent paper from Aquila Capital, one of Europe’s alternative investment managers, “To Bond Or Not To Bond, That Is The Question” suggests that these concerns are overblown.
The study’s authors, Harold Heuschmidt and Torsten von Bartenwerffer evaluate the effects of interest rate developments on the performance both of bonds and risk parity strategies. This follows Aquila’s recent Europe-wide survey of 255 institutional investors, in which 60 per cent of respondents
Despite 2012 being a year coupled with risks and rewards the year ended on a positive note. All strategic mandates were in the black for December, with multi-strategy hedge funds posting the strongest gains of 2.37% for the month and 8.55% for the year. Hedge funds across all regions witnessed positive returns for the month with Asian hedge funds posting the best performance numbers.
December was a strong month for Japan as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took to office highlighting an agenda of economic recovery through fiscal stimulus and monetary easing. The Tokyo Topix was up 10.02% last month and
KNG Securities has appointed Thomas Saler and Gabriele Balducci to its fixed income team, as part of the firm’s growth strategy.
Saler will focus on increasing the firm’s geographic footprint in the Swiss and German markets, while Balducci will develop KNG’s solutions platforms with a particular focus on interest rates and ALM strategies for the insurance sector.
These hires follow the appointment last year of Andrea Podesta from Bank of America Merrill Lynch as a managing partner and head of fixed income and of Alessandro Vargiu and Filippo Gromo to the fixed income team.
Saler joins KNG having spent
By Simon Gray – Switzerland’s southernmost canton of Ticino has been a centre for international financial services for nearly two centuries, since the establishment of Lugano’s first bank in 1833. Closer to Milan than to Zurich, the Italian-speaking region is ideally placed geographically and culturally as a gateway to business from southern Europe.
Today Ticino and in particular Lugano is becoming a major centre for hedge fund managers drawn not just by the physical beauty of the region’s mountains and lakes and its impressive quality of life but key business advantages: a first-rate communications infrastructure, a flexible but solid and
By Simon Gray – One of the most striking developments in the European fund industry over the past five years has been the emergence of Malta as a credible and respected fund domicile and servicing centre. While the industry as a whole has been afflicted by liquidity issues, economic and market turbulence and investor skittishness, keeping both fund numbers and asset growth constrained, the Mediterranean island has steadily expanded its business volume along with its range of providers and skills.
Members of Malta’s fund industry attribute its rapid development to a combination of factors – a low cost base compared
By Simon Gray – The British Virgin Islands may be most famous in the international financial services industry for its corporate business, but for more than a decade it has been the world’s second-ranking offshore fund domicile. Comprising law firms, accounting and audit practices, fund administrators, asset managers and banks, the sector has played its part in sparking a construction boom on reclaimed land around the picturesque bay setting of the BVI capital, Road Town.
Today the territory’s fund service providers are examining the opportunities arising in a global environment characterised by a drive toward greater regulation and transparency, just
