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The Board of Directors of National Futures Association (NFA) has elected Christopher K Hehmeyer, Non-Executive Chairman at Penson GHCO, to serve a one-year term as Chairman. The Board also elected Paul J Georgy, President of Allendale, Inc, to serve as Vice Chairman.
In addition, the Board re-elected the following individuals to serve two-year terms as public directors:
Ronald H Filler, Professor of Law and Director, of the Center on Financial Services Law at New York Law School;
Douglas E Harris, Managing Director, Promontory Financial Group LLC;
Michael H Moskow, Vice Chairman and Senior Fellow on the Global Economy, The Chicago
A prominent Miami investor and philanthropist has filed a lawsuit against the adviser and the administrator of one of the world’s largest hedge funds, claiming that they ‘recklessly’ bought a large position in a Chinese timber company that has been exposed as a ‘potential fraud’.
Hugh F Culverhouse brought the lawsuit against Paulson & Co, Inc and Paulson Advisers LLC of New York, claiming that they caused the Paulson Advantage Plus fund to purchase stock in Sino-Forest Corporation.
Culverhouse’s lawyers, Harvey Gurland of Duane Morris LLP and Lawrence Kellogg of Levine Kellogg Lehman Schneider + Grossman LLP – both in
By Shay Lydon (pictured) and Phil Lovegrove – The financial crisis has precipitated a series of corporate governance reforms at both EU and national level. In April 2011, the European Commission published its Green Paper on Corporate Governance, and further corporate governance proposals relating to limits on number of mandates, risk committees, board diversity and remuneration were included in July 2011 proposals to amend the Capital Requirements Directive (2006/48/EC and 2006/49/EC), the so-called CRD IV legislation.
In keeping with these developments, the Central Bank of Ireland indicated that the development of corporate governance codes for the financial services sector was
By Chris DeNigris – Ireland’s role as a hedge fund domicile and service centre continues to strengthen despite the country’s wider economic woes and the problems of its banking sector, as well as the general uncertainty surrounding the solvency of EU countries and the global economic environment.
According to the Irish Funds Industry Association, the assets of Irish-domiciled investment funds set a new record of EUR1,008bn in November 2011, a 4.7 per cent increase over the previous 12 months. This extremely positive sign for the country’s financial industry reflects the sheer competitiveness of its nature, its commitment to innovation, and
The Scotia Capital Canadian Hedge Fund Performance Index was up 0.65% on an asset weighted basis and up 1.24% on an equal weighted basis in January. The Index underperformed broader equities and global hedge fund peers on both asset and equal weighted bases.
Broader equity markets rallied in January, starting 2012 on a strong note as volatility subsided. Key themes driving performance included a continued improvement in US economic indicators, better than expected indicators from China, and the ECB’s long-term re-financing operation that was designed to bring some stability to the ongoing European sovereign debt issues.
The rally in US
By Don McClean and Gavin Byrnes – Service providers in Ireland have consistently provided the asset management industry with the sophisticated solutions required to support the continued development of the business. As the industry has developed and matured over the past 20 years, Ireland has evolved from a small jurisdiction specialising in servicing niche strategies to the market-leading jurisdiction for offshore and domestic alternative funds.
Ireland has also established itself as a leading domicile for the establishment of Ucits funds thanks to a favourable corporation tax regime attracting global service providers, strong government commitment to the fund industry, a progressive
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.
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