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European mutual funds are increasingly driving short-term volatility in credit markets, as they have increased their investments in credit assets to approximately EUR1trn at the end of 2010, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings.
Although European insurance companies hold around double the amount of private debt assets, mutual funds have become a driving force in credit markets, as they represent a much greater proportion of daily market activity. However, insurers’ decisions will continue to influence structural changes in demand for and the pricing of credit, according to Fitch.
"Credit has become more "retail" in nature, in Fitch’s view,
Vertex Capital Management Ltd, the London-based investment advisory firm, has launched a new UCITS fund via the SEB Prime Solutions UCITS platform.
This is the fourth launch on SEB’s UCITS platform since its inception in September 2010. The Vertex Evolution UCITS Fund, launched on the SEB Prime Solutions platform, is an adaptive multi-asset class fund with a sub portfolio of external systematic trading managers.
The fund consists of diverse building blocks that play different roles and complement each other. The blocks are built around four objectives – broad risk-controlled market exposures, amplifying returns in equity bull markets, augmenting returns in
Global currency overlay and currency alpha manager, Millennium Global, has appointed Monica Fan (pictured)as its new Head of Business Development. Fan will join the firm on 16 May 2011 and report to CEO Mark Astley.
Previously global head of currency product engineering at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), Monica led the strategic positioning of currency products globally and was heavily involved in the business development of SSgA’s funds. Prior to that she was a consultant at Oliver Wyman Financial Services and earlier was global head of currency research at RBC Capital Markets. She has worked in EMEA and Asia and
All Salus Alpha funds recorded positive returns in April with the Salus Alpha Managed Futures fund leading the way with performance of +7.04% for the month, outperforming the S&P 500 Index by +4.19%.
The fund’s performance was also 6.07% better than the performance of the HFRX Macro Index for the period.
The CTAs, Global Macro and FX Managers in the Salus Alpha Managed Futures portfolio profited by continuing trends in Softs, Precious Metals, Industrial Metals, Financials, FX, Energy and Interest Rates.
The Salus Alpha Multi Style had a performance of +4.83% for the month to date, outperforming the S&P
IMQubator, the hedge fund seeding platform backed by APG, will transform its current Multi Manager Fund into a limited‐life vehicle, while simultaneously developing a second fund, which also will invest in hedge fund start-ups. Both vehicles will be open to other institutional investors next to pension asset manager APG. IMQubator (IMQ) intends to attract an additional EUR100m to its first fund from institutional investors. In a continued endorsement of the funds seeded by IMQ, APG has extended the EUR250m commitment with a term of 3+1+1 years as of December 31, 2011.
The transformation of the current Multi Manager Fund
Arnaud Chrétien (former quantitative manager for the sovereign fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and later the Global CTA desk at SGAM AI) has created Aequam Capital, an independent, quantitative fund management company.
The first company to be incubated by the Institut Louis Bachelier, the Institute of Finance Paris-Europlace, Finance Innovation and la Fondation du Risque, Aequam Capital has established itself in Paris, in the heart of the Palais Brongniart, to take advantage of the excellence of the French academic sector’s modeling and quantitative management capabilities.
Comprising nine experienced staff, Aequam Capital offers a complimentary range of quantitative and systematic
GFI Group Inc has launched its Short Term Interest Rate Futures and Options (STiRs) desk. The new desk will execute a variety of contracts including Eurodollar Futures and Options, US Treasury Futures and Options, 30 Day Fed Funds and the execution of UK and European short and long end derivatives.
The new desk, with operations in Chicago and New York will be run by John Wagner and Simon Gittins. The group has a combined experience of over 50 years in brokering Eurodollar and Treasury futures and options.
The Chicago team will be led by John Wagner, who will be
Funds managed by CB Asset Management will from now on be marketed under the name CB Funds (CB Fonder in Swedish) with a new website www.cbfonder.se.
The company is an independent asset manager and offers its concept through three funds. The change is an important part of our efforts to increase our funds availability for both small and large investors. All funds can be bought on a daily basis. Of course our values remain the same; to invest long term in high quality companies and funds. The funds are managed by a team of three portfolio managers.
The funds are: CB Hedge – A
Independent fund administration company Apex Fund Services is to open its first office in Australia. The Apex Sydney office has been launched following the acquisition of Lazorne Fund Administration Service from Lazorne Group Pty Ltd.
Apex also intends to open an office in Melbourne during the second half of this year which will be a specialist independent administration business aimed at servicing superannuation funds. Apex intends to grow its Australian offices to 100 people within five years.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Apex will begin providing fund administration services to Lazorne’s existing investment managers and at the same time
Mulvaney Capital Management has appointed Dudley Fishburn (pictured) as Non-Executive Chairman. Fishburn has broad experience in corporate governance across the world having served on the Board of HSBC Bank plc from 2002 to 2009 and is currently a director of Philip Morris International Inc.
He also has served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and was a Member of Parliament for Kensington from 1988 to 1997. Previously he had been Executive Editor of The Economist for nine years.
Given a longstanding interest in higher education, he chairs the Visiting Committee to the Cambridge University Library and
