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Money market funds are a relatively new development in South Africa having first appeared in the country in 1995. And already the sector has attracted ZAR240 billion; this figure amounts to just under a quarter of the South African unit trust industry and is a similar ratio to that in Europe and the USA. According to Sean Segar, Head of Product at Nedgroup Investments, Cash Solutions, this popularity is because of the convenience of money market funds and the many benefits that they offer over traditional bank deposits…
As interest rates remain stubbornly low at near 40-year lows, investors are
Investment specialist Dalton Strategic Partnership (DSP) has appointed Eleanor Lee as an analyst to work on its European equities team.
Lee is based in London and reports to Leonard Charlton, head of the European equity team and fund manager of the Melchior European and Melchior Selected Trust European Absolute Return Funds.
She joins David Robinson, Benjamin Billiard and Keith Busuttil working on the Melchior European equity long short strategies.
In addition to absolute return products, DSP’s European equities team also manages the Melchior Selected Trust European Opportunities Fund, a top decile long-only European equity fund that has outperformed the
The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index increased 0.97 per cent in August and is up 3.82 per cent year-to-date.
The S&P 500 gained 1.98 per cent in August (+11.85 per cent YTD), the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.63 per cent (+7.15 per cent YTD), and the Nasdaq Composite Index increased 4.34 per cent (+17.73 per cent YTD).
Bonds were also up, as the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index increased 0.07 per cent (+3.86 per cent YTD) and the Barclays High Yield Credit Bond Index increased 1.17 per cent (+10.58 per cent YTD).
“Hedge funds benefited from the rally in risk
Hedge funds posted gains for the third consecutive month in August, as the Euro advanced on optimism for a resolution of the European sovereign debt crisis.
The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index posted a gain of 0.8 per cent for the month, with leadership across equity hedge, event driven and relative value strategies, with each of these also posting their third consecutive monthly gain, according to HFR.
Equity hedge funds had the strongest contribution to overall industry performance, with the HFRI Equity Hedge Index gaining 1.2 per cent for the month. Gains were broad-based across the strategy, with quantitative directional,
SS&C GlobeOp has filed the initial Form PF for clients using its Form PF service offering.
Wednesday 29 August was the first deadline for funds of over USD5bn in regulatory assets under management to file Form PF with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We decided to offer a premium service combining our deep regulatory expertise, comprehensive research and development and a cloud-based technology infrastructure. This strategy has proven to be very effective in this first phase of compliance,” says Bill Stone (pictured), chairman and chief executive officer, SS&C Technologies. “In response to further demand from firms who will be
Several well-known hedge fund managers have backed new reinsurance vehicles, with the aim of using stable premium flows in lower-risk underwriting business to support higher returns on the companies’ asset portfolios.
The business model sounds simple, but achieving these goals may prove to be challenging, according to Fitch Ratings.
Making money on the asset portfolio has always been a fundamental part of the (re)insurance business model, although the protracted low-yielding environment has significantly reduced this source of earnings for most players, making it harder to offset technical losses.
One difficulty for reinsurers that are reliant on hedge fund returns will
The Hedge Fund Association, an international organisation that represents investors, hedge funds and service providers, has appointed Don Steinbrugge, chairman of Agecroft Partners, to its board of directors.
Steinbrugge (pictured) will join the segment of the group’s board which represents the interests of hedge fund investors.
The HFA also selected Joel Schwab, managing director of Hedge Fund Research (HFA), to be its new Midwest chapter director and Kislay (Sal) Shah of McGladrey to fill the newly created role of Connecticut chapter director. Shah also continues to serve on HFA’s board of directors representing the interests of hedge fund service providers.
Auriel Capital, a European equity long/short manager, has partnered with Inflection Point Capital Management (IPCM), an asset management boutique focused on sustainability solutions, to create a new joint venture, Inflection Point Partners (IPP).
The new joint venture delivers an absolute return overlay strategy for European equities which integrates traditional financial research together with sustainability analysis.
IPCM was formed by Matthew Kiernan, who has over 20 years’ experience in sustainability research and investing.
IPCM’s predecessor firm, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, sub-advised on USD1.5bn in sustainability-enhanced strategies.
Prior to founding Innovest, Kiernan served as director of the World Business Council for Sustainable
Six out of seven of IndexIQ’s investable benchmark hedge fund replication indices produced positive returns in August, according to figures released by the company.
IQ Hedge Long/Short Beta Index was the top performer returning 2.23 per cent for the period, while the only index in negative territory was IQ Hedge Emerging Markets Beta Index (-0.01 per cent).
The Global Macro Beta Index rose 0.24 per cent, the Event-Driven Beta Index 0.30 per cent, the Market Neutral Beta Index 0.42 per cent, the Fixed Income Arbitrage Beta Index 0.82 per cent, and the Composite Beta Index 0.67 per cent.
Designed as
Wells Fargo’s hedge fund administration and middle-office service provider, LaCrosse Global Fund Services, has been re-branded as Wells Fargo Global Fund Services.
The newly-named firm will continue to provide a complete service offering to the hedge fund administration market including traditional fund administration services, operational support, derivatives processing, bank debt processing and cash/collateral management.
“Our new name reflects Wells Fargo’s commitment to supporting our suite of hedge fund and private equity industry offerings,” says Christopher Kundro, co-head of Wells Fargo Global Fund Services. “In addition, our clients are now able to leverage Wells Fargo’s many other offerings for alternative investment
