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Matrix Group is celebrating the two year anniversary of the Matrix Asia Fund managed by Rupert Foster.
Launched in August 2008, it has outperformed the MSCI Asia Pacific Index by 55.6 per cent and has returned 52.70 per cent up to 6 August 2010.
This performance, both relative and absolute, has also been achieved with around three-quarters of the volatility of the index.
Foster has 16 years’ experience in managing Asian long/short dated funds.
The fund’s long/short strategy aims to reduce risk by targeting a lower level of volatility.
In May 2010, Matrix launched its first Ucits III fund, the
BTIG, a broker dealer specialising in institutional trading and related brokerage services, has appointed Michael Nethercott as a director in equity sales trading.
Nethercott joins BTIG from Lighthouse Financial Group where he was part of the firm’s agency focused execution desk.
Prior to Lighthouse Financial Group, Nethercott was with Bear Stearns for eight years. While at Bear Stearns, Nethercott was part of a group that started an internal agency only desk for the firm’s clients.
He started his career at Olstein & Associates, where he spent two years as a trader.
"We are happy Michael chose BTIG’s platform to continue
Twenty nine per cent of investors plan to allocate more capital to hedge funds over the next 12 months, according to a survey of 50 hedge fund investors by Preqin.
Fifty six per cent plan to invest the same amount in the asset class and just 15 per cent plan to make cuts to their hedge fund portfolios.
The survey also found that 26 per cent of institutional investors are below their target allocation to hedge funds. Sixty four per cent of those surveyed are at their current targeted exposure and ten per cent are currently over-exposed to hedge funds.
Nigel Strachan, Head of New Business for corporate clients at Kleinwort Benson (pictured above left), has been appointed Chairman of the Jersey Funds Association and Edward Devenport (pictured above right), partner at Mourant Ozannes, takes on the role of Vice Chairman.
The Jersey Funds Association (JFA) is a trade association representing companies with Jersey offices operating in the funds sector. The Association has over 70 members; membership spans from small Jersey-owned companies to global leaders such as State Street and JP Morgan.
Strachan and Devenport have been active members of the Jersey Funds Association committee for several years, working on
Law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has promoted Ying Z. White to partner.
White leads the firm’s investment funds practice in its Beijing office.
Prakash H. Mehta, co-leader of Akin Gump’s firm-wide investment funds practice, says: “Ying’s command of the China funds market, her solid public-sector credentials and her extensive international experience have been invaluable to our clients. We are very pleased to welcome her to the partnership.”
White advises Asia and China focused private equity and hedge funds on their establishment and operation in Greater China, Chinese sovereign wealth funds and state-owned banks on their outbound
Regional fund placement veteran Ed Greene has established Diamond Dragon Advisors as the first independent general partner advisory and fund placement firm headquartered in Asia with global distribution and product sourcing capability in the alternative assets space.
The firm aims to play an integral role in the development of the alternative investment landscape throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Adopting a highly selective approach through intensive due diligence, Diamond Dragon Advisors represents a small number of top-tier alternative asset managers (general partners) across private equity, real estate, real assets and hedge fund structures seeking to raise global institutional capital.
The firm
Technology company Convergex Group has expanded NorthPoint Trading Partners, its recently acquired prime services business, with four new hires.
Michael McLoughlin and Jay Mercier have signed on with NorthPoint’s electronic execution group and Raoul Scott and Erik Fuchs have joined NorthPoint’s client serving team.
All are based in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Since joining forces with Convergex, we have been signing on new clients at a record rate while continuing to provide the same level of customer service that we are known for throughout the industry. We have been very pleased with this pace and attribute it to the significantly expanded
The Salus Alpha RN Special Situations VT heads the list of Salus Alpha funds with a 5.13 per cent month to date return as of 30 July 2010.
The fund’s performance for the period was 4.23 per cent higher than the performance of the HFRX Event Driven Index.
The fund’s result surpassed the result of the Dow Jones/Credit Suisse All Hedge Event Driven Index by 4.57 per cent, which had a return of 0.56 per cent.
The fund is up 7.53 per cent since the beginning of the year 2010.
The Salus Alpha Real Estate rose 2.77 per cent for
The hedge fund industry posted an estimated outflow of USD3.7bn, or 0.2 per cent of assets, in June 2010, following an inflow of USD4.9bn in May and an outflow of USD2.5bn in April, according to TrimTabs Investment Research and BarclayHedge.
The industry posted negative returns of 3.2 per cent in May and 1.1 per cent in June, the first two-month losing streak since January and February 2009.
“Redemptions probably persisted through July, and they could pepper the remainder of the year,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge. “Even if performance hadn’t been poor in May and June,
Investment bank Houlihan Lokey has acquired Red Pine Advisors, a New York-based financial advisory firm that specialises in the valuation and pricing of illiquid structured product portfolios.
Red Pine will be part of Houlihan Lokey’s portfolio valuation and advisory services practice, which values illiquid instruments held by alternative asset managers and other financial institutions.
Red Pine’s principals bring decades of experience in various asset classes, including structured products, real estate loans and illiquid corporate credit instruments.
Red Pine’s three principals and 20 employees join Houlihan Lokey as part of this transaction.
“Red Pine has developed a compelling platform and a
