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The hedge fund industry posted an estimated inflow of USD6.6 billion (0.4% of assets) in December 2010, the sixth straight inflow, according to TrimTabs Investment Research and BarclayHedge. Industry assets stand at USD1.7 trillion, the highest level since October 2008.
“The December inflow is very bullish for the industry because year-end redemptions typically produce an outflow in December,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and President of BarclayHedge. “Additionally, about 50% of hedge fund managers will collect fees for their performance last year, a much larger share than 32% in 2009, and we estimate that industry revenue in 2010 clocked in at
A survey report released by RBC Dexia and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has revealed that a majority of fund managers expect their company’s return on equity to remain below pre-crisis levels, and a significant number are increasing their focus on cost reduction and product innovation initiatives.
More than half (59 per cent) of respondents forecast a return on equity of 15 per cent or less this year; and 14 percent of those respondents expect return on equity to be less than 10 percent. Prior to the 2008 financial crisis average returns for the funds managed by survey participants was 20 percent.
International law firm Mourant Ozannes has boosted its highly-ranked Cayman investment funds team with the recruitment of Simon Palmer, Robert Duggan and Caroline Spottiswoode.
Palmer is a leading practitioner in the field of offshore investment funds, with over 14 years’ experience of Cayman Islands law. He joins Mourant Ozannes as a Partner from Maples and Calder, where he was a Partner for seven years. Simon has extensive experience of corporate and commercial law. His practice focuses on hedge funds, private equity funds and funds of funds (including distressed funds, fund restructuring and corporate governance issues), asset and structured financing and capital
Schroders has launched two absolute return currency funds – Schroder ISF Absolute Return Currency EUR and Schroder ISF Absolute Return Currency USD. Both are UCITS III compliant with daily liquidity, and aim to offer both institutional and retail investors vehicles that will deliver low-risk cash plus returns from actively managed currency portfolios.
Clive Dennis, Head of Currencies at Schroders, and Hardeep Dogra are the fund managers and will use a broad range of global cash instruments and currencies to generate absolute returns. The Schroders Currency Team will use both long and short exposures and their investment universe includes over 30
JP Morgan is the only tri-party collateral manager to accept physical gold as collateral to satisfy securities lending and repo obligations with counterparties. This comes as more clients look to use gold as a hedge against inflation and to post as collateral.
“The ability to finance and leverage the broadest range of asset classes is important to our clients. Many clients are holding gold on their balance sheets as an inflation hedge and are looking to make these assets work for them as collateral,” says John Rivett, Collateral Management Executive, J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities Services. “By combining our collateral
The asset management division of Merchant Capital is teaming up with institutional currency trading electronic communication network (ECN) Hotspot FX, to launch a FX proprietary trading package this month, Merchant Capital FX .
Merchant Capital FX will provide proprietary trading teams with a solution that differs from those offered by fund managers and trading arcades currently in the market at a particularly opportune time for FX traders, who are facing an uncertain future. Merchant Capital FX offers independence with institutional-level backing.
Merchant Capital will build FX trading businesses for team principals looking to establish independent firms where they
The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFM Directive) is hugely complex. Many have reservations on this contentious European initiative, a final draft of which was passed by the European Parliament on 11th November 2010.
The Directive is an attempt to bring the alternative investment sector under a single market framework. It applies to both EU AIFMs running one or more funds and non-EU AIFMs managing one or more EU-domiciled funds and will give fund managers the right, once they’ve received authorisation to sell their fund(s) from one Member State, to “passport” their funds freely across all other Member States in
SEI has been selected by absolute return manager 36 South Capital Advisors LLP to provide full-service operational outsourcing for the firm’s recently re-domiciled volatility funds.
SEI’s ability to provide institutional-quality technology and industry-proven solutions to support growth plans were key factors in the selection process for 36 South.
SEI’s comprehensive fund solution encompasses fund administration, accounting, investor servicing, and trust and custody services. At the centre of this solution is SEI’s Manager Dashboard, which provides flexible, transparent, and aggregated views of data across multiple product lines from the fund or portfolio level to investment detail via the web. The
Algorithmics, a provider of risk solutions, has been awarded a patent for its operational risk capital modeling framework. The patent recognises Algorithmics’ investment in its operational risk solutions at a time when operational risk management is receiving considerable regulatory attention.
The patented capital modeling framework will be offered as an extension to Algorithmics’ Algo OpVar operational risk management software. It represents a framework and technology for calibrating, simulating and measuring operational risk and provides robust data analysis combined with sophisticated tools for modeling loss events. The framework provides a method for aggregating loss estimates, using a combination of the
US Bancorp Fund Services LLC has named Michael Secondo senior vice president and alternative investment business development officer. Secondo specialises in alternative investment administration and custody services and works at the company’s New York City office.
“We are excited Michael joined our growing sales team. His depth of experience in hedge fund accounting, administration, custody and investor servicing complements our consultative support to our alternative investment management clients,” says Bob Kern, executive vice president and director of sales and marketing at US Bancorp Fund Services.
Secondo brings more than 20 years of sales, relationship management, business development and managerial experience
