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The exodus of former Walkers and Maples and Calder partners to burgeoning boutique law firm Thorp Alberga continues. Linda Martin, Anne Todd and Matthew Stocker, have joined five of their former colleagues to practice Cayman Islands and BVI law from their offices in the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong.
Recently recognised in the Asia Hot 100 Law Firms, Thorp Alberga now comprises some eight former Maples and Walkers partners.
Thorp Alberga is a boutique offshore law firm providing Cayman Islands and BVI
legal and structuring advice for all types of offshore transactions including asset finance, capital markets, private equity, hedge
Independent fund services provider Butterfield Fulcrum, and Luxembourg Investment Solutions SA (LIS), a regulated (UCITS-licensed) management company, have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to provide a complete suite of management company and fund administration services in Luxembourg.
This relationship offers non-European fund initiators a quick and cost effective solution to launch Luxembourg-domiciled funds with a single point of contact for fund administration and corporate secretarial needs. With a focus on alternative investment funds and structures, this strategic partnership will help investment managers, institutional investors and family offices realise their investment ideas through a unique plug and play solution.
Butterfield Fulcrum
Singapore Exchange (SGX) says derivatives and commodities activity rose while securities trading fell in September from a year earlier.
Securities turnover fell 21% year on year to SGD30 billion, in line with global markets, due to economic and fiscal uncertainties. Securities daily average value was SGD1.4 billion, down 25% from a year earlier. However, exchange traded fund turnover more than doubled from a year earlier to SGD1.1 billion and structured warrants trading more than doubled to SGD928 million.
Total derivatives volume increased 33% year on year to 7.2 million contracts; derivatives daily average volume was 349,378 contracts.
Nifty futures volume
Daiwa Securities Global Asset Services, the fund servicing arm of the Daiwa Securities Group has retained its Statement of Auditing Standards (SAS) 70 Type II report from its independent auditors, KPMG, in respect of Daiwa Europe Fund Managers Ireland Limited, its Fund Administration operation in Ireland.
The report was issued in final form in August and covers the 12 month period ending 31 May 2011.
Daiwa’s previous SAS70 Type II report was issued in January 2011, but in response to developing industry trends and the wish to give clients and fund auditors the highest level of continuous assurance , Daiwa
Following a period of strong inflows, the Directors of the Melchior European Fund (MEF) have taken the decision to hard close the fund, which is managed by Leonard Charlton. The closure took effect from 1 October.
MEF, a Cayman Island-domiciled European equity long short fund for which Dalton Strategic Partnership (DSP) is the sub-investment manager, was launched in October 2006 since when it has delivered a return of +54.19% vs. the MSCI Pan European index return of -19.99%. This has been achieved with an annualised volatility of only 6.48%
The closure of the Melchior European Fund follows the
Dematco, Inc a specialist in dematerialising and converting insurance instruments from paper form to electronic form, has announced a 50% revenue sharing agreement with Toronto-based hedge fund manager Quantus Investment Corp.
Investment instruments and derivative products will be created from dematerialised Senior Life Insurance Policies. Dematco and Quantus expect to bring Variable Stripped Units, Senior Life Settlement Units, bonds and distinctive instruments to market in acceptable dematerialised form for Institutional participation. A 50/50 sharing of fees arising from introductions by each party to the other has been entered into.
Robert Stevens, Dematco Chairman and CEO, says: "In a market traditionally
Jim Rogers, the professional investor, has been appointed to the board of the farmland investment firm Genagro Ltd as a Non-Executive Director.
The appointment is part of a reorganisation of the board following the sale of a majority controlling interest in Genagro’s first farmland investment, Agrifirma Brasil, to a Brazilian private equity group. Genagro, which was founded by Ian Watson and Jim Slater in 2008, expects to make further investments in early stage farmland or farming-related businesses in advance of a planned listing of its shares, provisionally targeted for 2013.
In addition to managing his own money as chairman
Lyxor Asset Management announces the launch of a new personalised website designed to optimise portfolio construction and enhance transparency for professional investors on its leading managed account platform (MAP).
The new online environment will provide professional investors the ability to track their investments amongst more than 100 managed accounts, with access to an extensive set of risk and performance indicators within a totally secure and confidential framework.
This new dedicated service specifically responds to professional investors’ current key decision criteria: security, transparency, risk management and liquidity. At any moment, investors may now easily access comprehensive risk information on their managed
Guernsey’s commitment to meeting international standards of transparency and exchange of information in tax matters was further underlined last week, with the signing of a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with the Republic of Slovenia.
Iztok Jarc, Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia, and Lyndon Trott (pictured), Guernsey’s Chief Minister, signed the agreement at a ceremony in the Island’s capital, St Peter Port, on Monday 26th September.
The Chief Minister says: “I was honoured to welcome His Excellency, Iztok Jarc, to Guernsey for the signing of this important agreement. The signing of this TIEA is yet another example of Guernsey’s
Scipion Capital (Scipion), the frontier market investment specialist, has appointed Chris Jenkins to lead a global marketing drive as the firm targets new investment following the fourth anniversary of its flagship Commodity Trade Finance Fund (CTF).
In a newly expanded COO role, Jenkins will be responsible for managing the firm’s day to-day operations. Notably, his role will also include a strong focus on business development as Scipion looks to expand its investor bases across Europe, the US and Asia. Formerly Head of Sales and Marketing at Carrousel Capital and Managing Director of Equity Finance Trading at Bear Stearns, Jenkins
