Latest News
Hermes BPK Partners (Hermes BPK), the USD1.6 billion alternative advisory boutique and fund of hedge funds, has appointed Robert F Wescott as its new Chairman.
With a highly distinguished career spanning more than 30 years, DrWescott is Founder and President of Keybridge Research LLC, an economic analysis firm based in Washington, DC. Keybridge has served G-7 governments, major financial institutions, and Fortune 500 companies since 2001, with Dr Wescott focusing on global macroeconomics, financial risks, and public policy research.
From 1999 until 2001, Wescott served as Special Assistant to the US President for Economic Policy at the White House.
Agcapita Partners has opened the Agcapita Farmland Fund III to investors.
Agcapita Fund III is the only RRSP eligible farmland fund in Canada and is a CAD20 million offering.
Farmland has been demonstrating its unique features as an asset class since the financial crisis with solid absolute returns coupled with low volatility. Western Canadian farmland continues to trade at a discount to other global markets.
Agcapita believes farmland is a safe investment, that supply is shrinking and that unprecedented demand for "food, feed and fuel" will continue to move crop prices higher over the long-term.
The United States District Court for the District of Utah has entered a final judgment, dated 16 September, 2011, against Erin O’Malley, f/k/a Erin O Mowen. O’Malley is the former spouse of convicted felon and securities law recidivist, Jeffrey L Mowen.
On 4 May 2011, Mowen pleaded guilty to committing wire fraud in a related criminal action, United States of America v. Mowen, Case No. 2:09-cr-00098-DB (D. Utah). In pleading guilty, Mowen acknowledged operating a Ponzi scheme from around October 2006 to around October 2008, wherein he received over USD18 million from investors for use in a purported foreign
The London Metal Exchange (LME) has appointed Trevor Spanner as managing director of post-trade services, a key step in the LME’s project to take greater control of its clearing business.
Spanner is currently chief operating officer at European Central Counterparty Ltd (EuroCCP) and it is anticipated he will join the LME in early November.
“Trevor joins the LME at an exciting time, as we examine options in clearing to maximise efficiencies and value for our members,” said LME CEO Martin Abbott.
The LME’s feasibility study into self-clearing is at an advanced stage and Mr Spanner will take charge of the
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (Commission’s) Division of Market Oversight (Division) has issued a letter providing temporary relief from the requirements of the Commission’s regulations regarding large trader reporting of physical commodity swaps (§§20.3 and 20.4).
Because this is the first time that swaps data is being collected, this temporary relief is intended to provide sufficient time to enable both the industry and the Commission to develop and refine systems and processes that will be able to report these complex transactions.
On July 22, 2011, the Commission published large trader reporting rules for physical commodity swaps and swaptions. The rules require
On 16 September 2011 judgment was handed down by the BVI Commercial Court in a number of cases that have been brought by the liquidators of Fairfield Sentry Limited (Fairfield), a "feeder fund" into Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities Limited (BLMIS), against a number of investors that historically redeemed out of the fund (the Fairfield judgment).
Subject to any appeal, the Fairfield judgment should put an end to the liquidators’ claims in the BVI. The answer to that question will, however, ultimately depend on how the Commercial Court rules in the defendants’ reverse summary judgment application, which has been
Hedge funds generated negative performance in August, falling 2.30% for the month versus a loss of 7.69% for the Dow Jones Global Index.
Oliver Schupp (pictured), President of Credit Suisse Index Co., LLC, says: "The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index fell 2.30% in August, although three out of ten sectors posted positive performance for the month. Overall, the index outperformed global equities by more than five percentage points with Dedicated Short Bias delivering the strongest performance, gaining 6.56% as short positions across equity markets proved profitable amidst broad market downturns. Global Macro also gained 1.91% as managers employed
The fourth fund on Matrix’s UCITS platform was launched this week: the Cantab Quantitative UCITS Fund, a systematic global macro fund.
London-based LNG Capital is preparing to launch a UCITS-compliant version of its flagship LNG Europa Credit Fund reported HFMWeek this week.
Old Mutual Asset Managers is preparing to launch a new UCITS fund for manager Simon Murphy in the fourth quarter this year, subject to regulatory approval.
