Latest News
Bertrand C Fry has joined the Pryor Cashman as a partner in the firm’s Investment Management Group. With Jonathan T Shepard, Fry will co-head theGroup and lead a team addressing a full range of legal and regulatory issues that affect alternative investment fund advisers.
Fry brings nearly 20 years of corporate and transactional experience to the firm, including extensive experience with alternative investment vehicles from both in-house and law firm perspectives. Fry joins the firm from the D E Shaw group, a global investment and technology development firm, where he was Senior Vice President and served for a period as
Law firm Bedell Cristin has acted on the establishment of the first Private Placement Fund in Jersey following the introduction of the streamlined regulatory regime at the end of last month.
The fund, which invests in European real estate, primarily smaller structured co-investments in real estate projects and real estate related operating companies aims to raise GBP150 million. It is the promoter’s third Jersey investment vehicle and is designed to provide investors with diversified exposure to smaller European real estate assets.
The legal team was headed by Bedell Partner Martin Paul (pictured) assisted by Associate Heather Hiram.
‘The Private Placement
CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, and Oman Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund of the Sultanate of Oman, are to increase their investments in the Dubai Mercantile Exchange to enable it to continue growing its business.
As part of the restructuring of the DME’s equity shareholding, a recapitalization arrangement will increase the stake in DME held by CME Group’s NYMEX division from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. Oman Investment Fund will increase its holding to 29 per cent; a subsidiary of Dubai Holding will retain 9 per cent; and 12 per cent will
By Paul Murray – Ireland was the first jurisdiction within the European Union to establish a regulatory framework specifically for alternative investment funds, and it is already an established domicile in this space. The country’s reputation for sophisticated and robust regulation developed from a focus on areas such as managing conflicts of interest, depositary liability and corporate governance concerns.
As such, the requirements of the Central Bank for alternative funds anticipated many of the themes of the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, which places Ireland in a particularly strong position to benefit from the opportunities that the directive represents.
By Simon Gray – Last year may have been a relatively quiet year for Ireland’s alternative fund services sector, and 2012 appears to promise more of the same, but “reports of the death of the administration industry are exaggerated”, says Dermot Butler, chairman of Custom House Global Fund Services. And Butler ought to know, as the founder of the Custom House group in 1989, right at the start of the country’s dizzying ascent to become a financial centre of international stature and a hub in particular of the global hedge fund industry.
A little over two decades later, Irish-based administration
By Simon Gray – The increase in global regulation of the alternative investment sector, notably the Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act in the United States and the European Union’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, have raised the hackles of many members of the fund industry, but the ongoing success of Ireland as a domicile and servicing centre for hedge funds and other alternative vehicles demonstrates that it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.
With the institutional investors that account for an every-increasing share of the industry’s assets broadly welcoming of more effective oversight of alternative funds and
Lombard Risk Management has addressed Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act with its Dodd-Frank Act Engine solution.
The Lombard Risk Dodd-Frank Act Engine solution is designed to address Title VII “Wall Street transparency and accountability – regulation of the OTC swaps markets” issue. This requires reporting swap data throughout the lifecycle of the trade providing real-time public dissemination (for price and volume transparency) and confidential regulatory use (to help conduct market oversight, enforce position limits and track systemic risk). The deadline for the first set of financial products covering CDS/IRS is July 2012, with other asset classes (e.g. Equities, Commodities and FX) to follow later in
The international derivatives market Eurex Exchange is further expanding its successful dividend derivatives segment by launching a total of ten new dividend futures on 2 March 2012.
These new futures are based on dividends from selected sector indices; out of the EURO STOXX sector and STOXX Europe 600 sector indices the sectors banking, insurance, oil & gas, telecommunications and utilities will be covered. Consultation revealed the greatest demand among market participants for these dividend sector indices.
The product specifications of the new futures are similar to the products already listed. The contracts are settled in cash and denominated in euro,
Macro Currency Group, the specialist currency investment boutique of global asset management firm Principal Global Investors, has launched the Principal Global Investors Funds Multi Strategy Currency Fund, (the Fund), a Dublin-registered, UCITS-compliant vehicle.
Managed by Mark Farrington (pictured) and Dr Ivan Petej, the Fund is available to a broader cross section of investors given its UCITS wrapper and is a sign of the growing acceptance amongst investors as to the benefits of currency as a primary portfolio component.
The Fund marks the first time a currency vehicle has combined independent alpha and beta income streams in one product offering. Designed
Appleby, the world’s largest provider of offshore legal, fiduciary and administration services, is set to expand into mainland China with the opening of a new representative office in Shanghai.
The new office, due to open on 2nd April 2012, will deliver fully integrated fiduciary and administration services and operate in tandem with the firm’s Hong Kong office, which has serviced Appleby’s local and international clients in Asia for over 20 years.
Appleby’s Global Group Managing Partner, Michael O’Connell, says: “As a business we feel that mainland China presents significant opportunities for us and for our clients. We already have a
