Latest News
Benchmark Plus, a USD1.6bn fund of funds has launched a long/short equity tracking fund with an unusual "fee reserve" and clawback structure that has a 99 per cent correlation with the HFRI Equity Long/Short Index.
The Benchmark Plus HFRI Equity HedgeTrax fund is a response to two developments in the market: 1) the demand on the part of pension funds and other institutions for exposure to a broad swath of equity long/short strategies; and 2) the need for FoFs to change their value proposition in the marketplace, where institutions and others having been pulling assets from this market since the
Alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group has purchased a 55 per cent stake in Vermillion Asset Management, a New York-based commodities investment manager with approximately USD2.2bn of assets under management.
Mitch Petrick (pictured), Carlyle managing director and head of global market strategies, says: “This is an important addition to Carlyle’s GMS platform. For many years Carlyle has successfully invested in a variety of energy, agriculture and infrastructure companies. Vermillion employs a liquid, relative-value, low volatility approach to trading both physical commodities and their derivatives to produce positive, uncorrelated returns.”
Drew Gilbert, co-managing partner and co-founder of Vermillion, says: “Our team
Maples Fund Services has expanded its hedge fund capabilities with the launch of a MaplesFS Connect risk dashboard that will complement the services provided to fund administration clients with a fully-integrated solution for online risk reporting.
This dashboard will further extend the MaplesFS Connect suite of online solutions.
The new dashboard leverages the technology platform that Maples Fund Services developed for its bespoke risk reporting mandates. Leading practices developed with individual clients have been incorporated into a pre-configured risk dashboard that can be rapidly implemented. Hedge fund managers can use the dashboard to obtain insights into their portfolio, enhance
The Shanghai Hedge Fund Association (SHFA) has appointment industry veterans, Anthony D’Silva and Christian Stoiber, as members of its International Advisory Council (IAC).
D’Silva (pictured) serves as managing director of Apex Investments/Apex Fund Services in Shanghai, a global fund administrator with presence in 15 countries, administering over 300 funds and over USD15bn in AUM.
Apex Investments, a subsidiary of the Apex group, was set up in 2008 in Shanghai to specialise in China deal sourcing and due diligence. Prior to joining Apex, D’Silva was director of investor relations and business development with SHK Fund Management. Before that, he worked with
IndexIQ is to launch its latest hedge fund replication exchange-traded fund on 4 October on the NYSE Arca.
The IQ Hedge Market Neutral Tracker ETF (QMN) will be the first ETF designed to offer investors liquid, transparent exposure to the performance characteristics of market neutral hedge funds.
QMN will join an IndexIQ hedge fund replication ETF family that already offers funds focused on global macro (MCRO) and hedge fund of funds (QAI).
Neonet has added two markets to its execution services offering to further strengthen its coverage of European equities – Athens Stock Exchange and Istanbul Stock Exchange.
“Greek equities will complement Neonet’s focus on offering trading access to all markets in the Eurozone, while the Turkish addition addresses investors’ recognition that the Turkish economy has continued to grow despite global macro volatility,” says Massimiliano Raposio, vice president sales at Neonet. “Furthermore the Istanbul Stock Exchange has become increasingly important, having upgraded its connectivity and market operations.”
Access is available through Neonet’s execution services offering as of 3 October.
The London Metal Exchange (LME) experienced record volumes in September, with 14.09 million lots traded.
Average daily volume is up 8.5 per cent from 2011 with 633,702 lots trading per day.
Up to the end of September 2012, 119.1 million lots traded, the equivalent of USD10.9trn in notional turnover, which is up 11 per cent from the corresponding period last year (107.0 million lots).
The LME’s previous monthly record was set in September 2011, with 13.97 million lots traded.
Sciens Fund of Funds Management, part of the Sciens Capital Management Group and provider of single- and multi-strategy funds of hedge funds and managed account services, has launched the CCA Event Driven Fund on the Sciens Managed Account Platform (MAP).
The fund follows a liquid global equity event-driven investment strategy that seeks to generate absolute returns with low downside volatility and low correlation to the markets.
It opportunistically invests in corporate situations involving both “hard” and “soft” catalysts, including announced mergers, spinoffs, holding companies/stubs, restructuring, litigations, regulatory changes, IPOs/capital raising events, and companies exploring strategic alternatives.
The strategy maintains a
The Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative (LAB) Index was up 0.59 per cent in September according to Jordan Drachman, head of research for alternative beta strategies at Credit Suisse.
The long/short strategy was the most significant contributor to performance again, finishing up 1.34 per cent for the month.
The event driven strategy was the second-highest contributor to performance, finishing up 0.94 per cent for the month, and continues to have the highest performance year-to-date, up 8.10 per cent.
Jersey Corporate Services (JCS) has launched an outsourced business development service called Prospect.
The new services, which aims to help service providers foster relationships across the globe, has already attracted attention from foreign clients as well as those closer to home.
The new business development team at JCS manages a database in excess of 10,600 international contacts, giving Prospect subscribers access to business opportunities and specialist service providers tailored to their own specific needs, in all corners of the globe.
Vernon Breese (pictured), founder of JCS, says: “I’ve been travelling for some time now bringing new business to Jersey wherever
Special Reports
FeatureD
- Insight
