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By Simon Gray – Should one tempt fate? In May 2008, Deutsche Bank’s sixth annual Alternative Investment Survey forecast that despite the unfolding meltdown of the US sub-prime mortgage market and the bearish global economic outlook, cautious investors were poised to eliminate their cash holdings and pump more than USD200bn in fresh allocations into the industry over the coming months.
That was before a succession of catastrophic events across the financial industry culminated in the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September (topped off with the uncovering of the Bernard Madoff fraud three months later), turning a year full of apparent
Emerging markets distressed debt fund manager Commercial Intelligence Funds Group (CI), aims to raise USD100 million for its Global Distressed Alpha Fund III (GDAF III) to invest in emerging market commercial and sovereign-backed debt and other claims.
CI recently announced a first close of over USD18 million. Investors included a global investment management organisation renowned for its exposure to emerging markets together with a range of family offices, private wealth managers and several high net worth individuals.
The firm, which has nearly 25 years of experience of debt recovery, will invest in debt claims, judgments and arbitration awards
By Simon Gray – After more than 18 months of often-heated debate and a succession of drafts, frequently in contradiction with each other, in a process that sought to reconcile strongly-held opposing positions, European Union economic affairs and finance ministers and then the European Parliament finally agreed last November on a (nearly) final version of the Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers. The directive is now set to take effect around mid-2013 after being incorporated into the legislation of EU member states.
The eventual outcome has left many of the participants dissatisfied to a greater or lesser extent. Industry members
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged Gary D Martin and his wife, Brenda K Martin of St. Augustine, Fla. (collectively, the Martins), and their company, Queen Shoals Consultants, LLC (QSC), of Charlotte, NC, with defrauding customers of more than USD1.44 million through a retail foreign currency (forex) trading scheme. None of the defendants has ever been registered with the CFTC.
The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on March 15, 2011, alleges that, since at least June 18, 2008, to August 7, 2009, the defendants fraudulently solicited approximately $22,310,452
Sean Capstick is to assume added responsibility for EMEA Equity Research Sales at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML). In addition, Charlotte Burkeman is joining the company as managing director and co-head of EMEA Prime Brokerage alongside Capstick. Burkeman is expected to join in late June.
Both Burkeman and Capstick will report to John Addis, head of EMEA Global Markets Financing and Futures, and together they will be responsible for further developing BAML’s Global Markets prime brokerage offering in the region. Mike Ward, head of EMEA equity sales, will be announcing his broader EMEA Equity Sales management team shortly. Capstick,
Offshore firm Appleby acted as Bermuda counsel for eStats Funds Management Pty Limited (“eStats”) in relation to its establishment of a new Master-Feeder fund structure domiciled in Bermuda.
The Appleby team was led by Jeffrey Kirk, a Corporate Partner in Appleby’s Hong Kong office, assisted by Mark Cummings, Senior Associate. Australian counsel was DLA Philips Fox, Syndey, led by Martin Jamieson.
The funds will utilise their own purpose-built proprietary models that seek profit potential in the microstrucuture dynamics of certain international electronic financial and commodity markets and liquidity pools and targets. The funds ultra-high frequency trading techniques are targetted
Aimed at investors who want to profit from and have a portfolio hedge from rising energy prices, MarketRiders (www.marketriders.com) is offering its own all-Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) energy hedge fund.
The MarketRiders Energy Hedge Portfolio (http://www.marketriders.com/energy-hedge-portfolio ) provides greater diversity to the energy sector for about .5% versus the average 1.5% for energy mutual funds like Blackrock Energy & Resources and Invesco Energy.
MarketRiders built this portfolio as a template in its web-based portfolio manager, so anyone who wants to allocate some investment dollars to take advantage of the run up in oil prices can do so.
"Most investors
Capco, the global business and technology consultancy dedicated solely to the financial services industry, has appointed Gary Goldberg as a Director in the company’s UK Capital Markets team. Gary will focus on growing Capco’s presence in the hedge funds and prime services segments of this market.
Gary Goldberg, Capco Director, says: “The alternative investments sector is growing rapidly and undergoing extraordinary change. I am excited to be working with Capco to develop solutions that cater to the specific needs of hedge funds and prime brokerage firms. We have a great opportunity to build on Capco’s deep industry expertise in
Hedge funds, as measured by the Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index, continued to capitalise on opportunities across most global markets in February as equities, credit and commodities markets rallied.
The Index was up 1.38%, with eight out of ten strategies posting positive performance for the month.
Convertible Arbitrage was the best performing sector in February up 2.90% as managers gained from the continued valuation richening in the space as well as from long-biased positioning with gains coming from special situations and idiosyncratic trades.
Managed Futures managers also posted positive performance of 2.60% as trend followers made gains
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has obtained a federal court consent order requiring defendants Brookshire Raw Materials Management, LLC (BRM), of Barrington, Ill, and its principals, John M Marshall and Stephen Z Adams, Brookshire Raw Materials Group, Inc (BRMG) and Brookshire and Company, Ltd (BCL), all of Toronto, Canada, to pay more than USD15.8 million in disgorgement and a civil monetary penalty for defrauding commodity pool investors.
The consent order, entered on March 9, 2011, by Judge Amy St Eve of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, requires the defendants jointly and severally to
