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Alternative investment manager Aquila Capital has appointed Stuart MacDonald as managing director to assist in developing Aquila’s growing institutional business.
MacDonald joins Aquila Capital from Gems Advisors, having previously worked in a senior capacity at firms such as Henderson Global Investors, West Merchant Bank and Buchanan Partners.
In addition to many years of developing UK and international institutional clients, MacDonald hosts the investment radio show, “The Naked Short Club”, on London’s Resonance 104.4FM.
Roland Schulz, managing director at Aquila Capital, says: “I am delighted to welcome Stuart to the team. Stuart is a highly respected leader with extensive industry knowledge
Investment into global farm production has not only generated high returns for investors over the past year, but will be increasingly necessary in the fight to avert global food shortages.
Extreme weather has led to a fall in food production this year, leading to dramatic increases in food prices, and the UN has called for increased sustainable food production to avert a global crisis.
The GAIA Farming Index calculated by Indxis, an independent provider of bespoke indices, allows investors to support agricultural production through a long-term investment.
The index invests in listed companies that mainly operate farms producing meat,
NYSE Euronext and the Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore bilateral business opportunities and connect their respective customer bases in Asia, Europe and the US through NYSE Euronext’s order routing system.
This alliance will support the development of the exchanges’ futures and options markets.
The agreement will serve as a framework for closer cooperation between the exchanges in order to develop products, establish a two-way order routing partnership to facilitate reciprocal order flow and explore distribution channels for key products. The exchanges also intend to share information, best practices and resources.
“Taiwan
St Julians, Malta, 15 October, 2012 – Hedgeweek, the hedge fund industry’s leading news portal, has just released a special report “EXANTE 2012”. It profiles the strategies of six top performers in the EXANTE Hedge Fund Index, which is currently composed of the 20 best performing hedge funds listed on EXANTE‘s Automated Trading Platform (ATP).
EXANTE’s fund platform is a potential game changer for the industry as it gives investors the opportunity to invest directly in hedge funds. When asked about the selection of managers, Gatis Eglitis (pictured), one of EXANTE’s managing partners, emphasizes that the critical factor is the
Interdealer broker and provider of post trade and information services ICAP has launched a joint credit derivatives rating service with Rapid Ratings, an alternative rating, research and analytics firm.
The new product brings together two independent sources of information to deliver a unique view of the credit derivatives market.
“Partnering with ICAP for this unique view of the credit market will provide transparency and intelligence for financial market participants who require independent sources of data for valuations, as well as regulatory, accounting and risk management purposes,” says James Gellert, chairman and chief executive of Rapid Ratings.
Kevin Taylor,
SS&C Technologies, a provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, has launched GoTrade+, a flexible middle-office service for complex investment portfolios.
GoTrade+ supports post-trade activities of complex traded transactions including bilateral and cleared OTC derivatives, listed derivatives, loans and other securities.
The services can be flexibly fitted into existing client infrastructures to flow seamlessly with current processes. The technology receives trade data from front office systems and delivers post trade life cycle support, valuations, collateral management, cash services, accounting, reporting and data delivery all wrapped in a personalized relationship management framework.
Carmine Ricciardi of Mizuho Securities USA, a
The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index finished up 1.04 per cent for the month of September.
Eight of the 10 strategies recorded positive performance for the month with emerging markets (2.21 per cent) and event driven (1.67 per cent) the best performers.
Dedicated short bias (-3.78 per cent) and managed futures (-1.37 per cent) were the strategies in negative territory.
Managed futures lost 0.69 per cent in September, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
The index remains up 0.51 per cent year to date.
“A second month of rising equity prices generated profits for momentum-based managers, but losses in commodity and interest rates markets had a greater impact on portfolio returns in September,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Seven of Barclay’s eight CTA indices had losses in September. The Barclay Agricultural Traders Index gave up 1.66 per cent, systematic traders were down 0.86 per cent, diversified traders lost 0.84 per cent, financial and metals
2100 Xenon Group, an affiliate of Old Mutual Asset Management (OMAM), is to acquire the majority ownership interest in its business from its parent company OMAM.
The transaction, the value of which was not disclosed, is expected to close by the end of 2012, at which time, 2100 Xenon will be 100 per cent employee owned.
The management team, led by Jay Feuerstein (pictured), will continue to operate the business in the same manner as it is currently conducted and no changes are planned in connection with its investment strategy, executive team, or operating procedures.
"With our assets under management
Gamma Finance, a provider of advisory services to the alternative investment sector, has been awarded advisory mandates of USD500m by clients seeking to optimise exits from a diverse range of lower-liquidity assets, including real estate and private equity positions.
Placement agents and research companies are reporting that real asset and private equity investors are currently looking to raise additional capital and may deploy up to USD200bn prior to the end of 2013.
According to Gamma Finance, some of the beneficiaries of this increased activity may indirectly be the investors in hedge funds that have experienced low liquidity in the post-crisis
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