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The London Metal Exchange will delist its plastics contracts and the last prompt date for all existing contracts will be 29 April 2011.
The formal decision to delist was taken by the board of the London Metal Exchange following a recommendation by the executive committee.
The exchange has decided that the costs of withdrawing outstanding warrants from the LMEsword depository will be waived. Current open interest for all plastics contracts is 228 lots, out to March 2011.
Plastics futures trading was introduced on the LME on 27 May 2005. Despite a number of changes to the contracts and
Numerix, a provider of cross-asset analytics for derivatives valuations and risk management, has opened a regional sales office in Sydney, Australia.
The new Sydney office increases the total number of Numerix Asia Pacific offices to seven.
The office will be managed by Jack Drewe, regional sales director, who is responsible for the Australian and New Zealand regions. Drewe will report directly to Erdem Ozgul, vice president, Numerix Asia south sales operation.
“We are pleased to now be in a position to provide permanent local support for our Australian clients,” says Numerix president and chief operating officer Steven R. O’Hanlon. “Given
Estlander & Partners has launched the Ucits III compliant Estlander & Partners Freedom Fund UI.
The German domiciled fund is a Ucits III compliant version of the non-Ucits Estlander & Partners Freedom fund.
The fund realises a combination of the company’s managed futures strategies Global XL and Alpha Trend.
The fund uses a total return swap that is provided by Newedge Group’s Ucits III compliant platform and participates in the performance of the Estlander & Partners Global Systematic Index.
The strategies have the freedom to allocate risk exposure to four asset classes: equity indices, interest rates, currencies and
Asset management firm Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group has made the CC&L Small Cap Market Neutral strategy available to individual investors.
Investors will be able to access the strategy via a fund distributed through investment dealers.
Previously, direct investment in the strategy has only been available to institutional investors and partners of Connor, Clark & Lunn.
"We have been fortunate in developing strong partnerships with a number of the top investment advisors in the country at select full-service investment dealers," says Tim Elliott, who heads Connor, Clark & Lunn’s distribution efforts into this channel.
"By making the CC&L Small
FrontPoint Partners, which was acquired in 2006 by Morgan Stanley, has restructured its relationship with Morgan Stanley whereby its portfolio managers and senior management, including co-chief executive officers Daniel Waters and Michael Kelly, will collectively own a majority of the equity ownership interests in FrontPoint.
Under the terms of the agreement, Morgan Stanley Investment Management will retain a minority equity stake in FrontPoint. No other terms were disclosed.
The restructuring is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010.
"During the last four years we have continued to expand our investment capabilities,
LGT Capital Partners has appointed Jaime Castán, formerly of Man Investments, to the executive team of its hedge fund business.
Castán has been appointed co-head of the firm’s hedge fund investment management team, responsible for LGT Capital Partners’ research competence centres.
Thomas Weber, partner at LGT Capital Partners, says: “the addition of Jaime to our team further strengthens our hedge fund business. Jaime brings a wealth of experience to our global manager selection process and will be a very effective leader of our team of research analysts.”
“I have been very impressed with the team, the investment culture and stability
Castle Alternative Invest, a fund of hedge funds investment company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and London Stock Exchange, has completed the second line share buyback programme initiated on 21 June 2010.
The second line on the SIX Swiss Exchange will be closed after market hours on 22 October 2010.
Pursuant to this programme, Castle Alternative Invest has repurchased 2,225,464 shares with a total consideration of CHF31.9m representing 5.78 per cent of the shares currently in issue. The average purchase price per share was CHF14.34. This represents 11.29 per cent of the shares that will be in issue after
The Alternative Investment Management Association says there has been considerable progress on the content of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive following the compromise reached yesterday by EU ministers.
Aima had previously expressed grave reservations about some of the directive’s content. It thought there were many provisions that would have negatively impacted both the alternative asset management industry globally and also European investors.
Andrew Baker, chief executive of Aima, says the text of the directive that has now been agreed by European finance ministers is a considerable improvement not only for its members but in terms of its impact on
Fidessa group, a provider of trading systems, market data and connectivity to buy-sides and sell-sides, has appointed Dorothy Friedman as vice president of marketing for the Americas.
Friedman will be responsible for heightening Fidessa’s exposure in the US, Canada and Latin America, and will help drive the company’s growth by rolling out creative programmes and maintaining a strong public presence within the region.
Prior to Fidessa, Friedman held a variety of senior level marketing positions with both SunGard and Broadridge Financial Solutions where she was responsible for developing and managing strategic communications campaigns.
Martin Hakker, Fidessa’s executive vice president of
Ucits hedge funds ended the third quarter with a progression of 1.09 per cent in light of the strong rebound of the equity market, according to the Ucits Alternative Index Quarterly Industry Report.
The best performing index for the period is the Emerging Markets Index followed by the Event Driven Index with respectively 3.43 per cent and 3.11 per cent.
The worst performing indices are commodities and equity market neutral which fell 1.51 per cent and 0.48 per cent respectively.
On a year to date basis, the Fixed Income Index is still the best performing one with 3.75 per cent
