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GlobeOp Financial Services, a provider of business process outsourcing, financial technology services and analytics to hedge funds and other sectors of the financial services industry, saw its assets under administration increase by ten per cent in the first half of 2010 to USD120bn.
Assets under administration have increased by 43 per cent since 30 June 2009.
Revenues grew 13 per cent to USD89.4m versus USD79.2m in the first half of 2009.
GlobeOp’s adjusted operating profit rose by 60 per cent to USD25.4m at 30 June 2010.
The adjusted operating profit margin expanded to 28.4 per cent of revenues versus 20.0
In this article Elaine Gray (pictured), Partner in AO Hall – Legal Specialists, looks at a key opportunity offered by Guernsey’s new patent regime to international patent portfolios: the ditching of the domino effect and the potential ‘Bilski bonus’.
Across the world, countries offer different levels of legal protection for developments in technology. For example, software developers in the USA can often obtain patent protection for their new software, whereas such protection is unlikely to be available within the UK and Europe.
Guernsey is leading the way in developing a range of cutting-edge intellectual property (“IP”) legislation. Its latest offering will
Apex Fund Services, a fund administration business, has opened its Luxembourg office.
Apex will begin providing administration services from Europe’s largest fund domicile.
The Luxembourg office opens with ten Ucits and regulated SIF Sicav funds.
In addition to offering services for all types of public and private Luxembourg funds, the Luxembourg office has also been appointed as fund administrator for three fund platforms. These are:
1. Luxembourg Fund Partners Platform for the re-domiciliation of offshore funds, alternative investment fund manager activities and the set-up of non-Ucits vehicles;
2. Amiri Shariah Equities Platform, a plug and play solution for establishing a Luxembourg Shariah
Deer Park Road, a registered investment adviser which invests in distressed mortgage and asset backed fixed income securities, has named Scott Burg as associate portfolio manager.
He reports to Michael Scheckman, portfolio manager and owner of the firm.
In addition to assisting with the management of the firm’s distressed MBS/ABS portfolio, Burg will assist with the risk management of the portfolio.
“I worked closely with Scott while at Clayton IPS and always found his analytical skills and in-depth knowledge of asset-backed securities to be very impressive,” says Scheckman. “We expect Scott to have an immediate and significant positive impact on
Hedge fund investors developed a central focus on Chinese foreign exchange policy in quarter two 2010, as the Chinese central bank took steps toward increased flexibility of its currency policy.
In anticipation of this, investors allocated over USD360m in new capital to Asian hedge funds, reversing the net asset outflow in quarter one, according to Hedge Fund Research, a provider of information on the hedge fund industry.
Total capital invested in Asian focused hedge funds declined to USD74.4bn, as performance-based losses offset the impact of new investor capital.
Investors allocated broadly across hedge fund strategies and regions, with primary interest
Interdealer broker Tradition’s London-based biofuels desk closed the world’s first rapeseed oil swap between Totsa, based in Geneva, and a continental based fuel distribution company on 3 August.
The deal was for 1,000 metric tonnes for settlement in August 2010.
The swap will be settled against the rapeseed oil FOB Dutch Mill Euro/T quote in Argus Biofuels, published by Argus Media.
Kees Schipper, senior broker, biofuels at Tradition, says: “With the ongoing growth in biodiesel and grain derivatives market, trading of rapeseed oil swaps is a natural progression. Tradition is a full service energy broker and biofuels are the latest
Returns for the Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Indices suggest that hedge funds produced positive returns across strategies in July generating their strongest performance to date in 2010.
The Credit Suisse Liquid Alternative Beta Index was up 3.12 per cent in July, marking the best performing month for hedge funds this year and bringing year-to-date performance to 2.99 per cent.
Gains were generated across all strategies with each of the five sector indices posting positive returns for the month.
The LAB Event Driven Liquid Index was the strongest performer, up 4.22 per cent for the month, followed by the LAB
Instinet, a provider of electronic trading and agency-only brokerage services, has launched Instinet Options CBX, a dark liquidity pool for US listed options.
The platform, which is currently live, has a base of liquidity providers and complements the agency-only broker’s existing options product offering.
“We are poised to apply our experience and insights in cash equity markets to US listed options markets as they continue evolving,” says Jonathan Kellner, president of the Americas at Instinet. “While there are key market microstructure differences between equities and options, the main contributor to providing best execution to our clients in any asset class
GSO Capital Partners, the credit arm of The Blackstone Group, has appointed John Cashwell and Eric Storch as managing directors and co-heads of institutional marketing for GSO’s customised credit strategies group.
They will lead an effort to expand GSO’s presence in long-only credit products for institutional investors through both commingled funds and separately managed accounts.
Cashwell and Storch join from Seix Investment Advisers.
Bennett Goodman (pictured), senior managing director and co-founder of GSO, says: "We welcome John and Eric to our platform. They will help us deliver investment solutions that meet our clients’ needs."
The Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment on the appeals made against Justice Briggs’ judgments in an application for directions brought by the joint administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (in administration).
The administrators’ application concerned LBIE’s obligations in relation to client money held by it prior to the time of administration.
The Court of Appeal’s decision has overturned Mr Justice Briggs’ judgments on two issues.
First, the Financial Services Authority’s client money rules require identifiable client money held by LBIE (at the time of administration) outside LBIE’s segregated accounts to be pooled with the client money held
