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The Lyxor Global Hedge Fund index, an investable index based on Lyxor’s hedge fund platform, was down 0.6 per cent in June.
Year-to-date the index remains in positive territory as it gains 0.1 per cent.
Long/short equity managers faced a difficult environment in which to make money.
European and emerging markets surged mid-month (over ten per cent) before giving back a large portion of the gains as the month ended.
US markets traded in a tighter range and ended the month down.
Long/short equity long bias managers unsurprisingly ended the month down 1.9 per cent, as did L/S equity variable
The IQ Alpha Hedge Strategy Fund, the first no-load, open-end mutual fund designed to replicate broad-based hedge fund performance characteristics, has marked its two-year anniversary.
“The past two years have seen explosive demand for liquid, transparent hedge fund-like exposures, as investors of all types and sizes seek to mitigate market volatility while maintaining exposure to potential upward moves,” says Adam Patti, chief executive officer at IndexIQ.
“With our mutual fund now having been live for more than two years, we have established a real world track record demonstrating how the fund performs through an extraordinarily challenging time. To date, both
SkyBridge Capital has committed to make an investment in Viathon Capital’s Whitewater fund.
Whitewater is a credit opportunity fund focused on liquid debt instruments of US and European corporate issuers.
The portfolio consists primarily of single-name loans and bonds selected through a fundamental credit research and corporate finance investment process.
SkyBridge Capital’s investment is being made from its SkyBridge Capital II Fund. In addition to providing Whitewater with long-term capital, SkyBridge will seek to enhance its investment by providing business-building support.
SkyBridge Capital currently has approximately USD7.4bn under management and advisory.
Rob Comizio, chief investment officer at Viathon Capital, says: "We
Fund administrator HedgeServ has expanded its ability to offer real-time valuation of illiquid and complex over-the-counter derivatives using market data from SuperDerivatives, the derivatives benchmark in FX, interest rates, commodities, energy, equity and credit.
"By incorporating SD into our core technology platform, we have enhanced our ability to provide on-demand valuation directly to clients’ desktops," says Jim Kelly, chairman of HedgeServ. "Our administrative solutions provide intra-day trade processing, valuation and risk for complex transactions. With SD’s volatility surfaces, we have increased our capacity to price and value our clients’ diverse portfolios in a transparent T+0 environment."
The joint HedgeServ-SuperDerivatives solution
Rydex SGI has launched four mutual funds that aim to help investors weather the ups and downs of challenging market environments.
The funds are the Rydex SGI Event Driven and Distressed Strategies Fund, Rydex SGI Long Short Interest Rate Strategy Fund, Rydex SGI Long Short Equity Fund and Rydex SGI Alternative Strategies Fund.
With the addition of these new funds, the company’s alternatives line-up includes 12 mutual funds and nine exchange-traded products.
"Investors are increasingly demanding accessible alternative investment exposures to help them diversify their investment portfolios and provide improved risk/return characteristics," says Richard Goldman, chief executive of Rydex SGI.
Prime Management, a provider of fund administration services to the alternative investment industry, is to service three new risk-linked investment portfolios for Elementum Advisors.
Elementum, a Chicago-based alternative investment manager specialising in risk-linked investments, will manage the portfolios and Prime will provide portfolio accounting and fund administration services.
John Whiley, a principal of Prime, says: "We are delighted to have been selected by Elementum to support them in the continued growth and expansion of their RLI business. Prime has been servicing RLI portfolios since 2002 and we are committed to being the administrator of choice for the RLI industry."
"As
Threadneedle has appointed Mark Burgess as its chief investment officer.
He joins Threadneedle in the first quarter of 2011 and will work closely with Sarah Arkle (pictured), Threadneedle’s current chief investment officer, as she hands over her role and responsibilities to him.
Arkle is retiring in 2011 after a City career spanning over 30 years and will become Threadneedle’s vice chairman.
Twenty seven years ago Arkle joined Allied Dunbar Asset Management, one of the two businesses which merged to form Threadneedle. In 1994 she was one of Threadneedle’s founding members and in 2000 was appointed chief investment officer.
Mutual fund, hedge fund and private equity managers fear the impact of inflation but are optimistic about the prospects for US and Asian equity markets over the next 12 months, according to survey data published by RBC Capital Markets.
The 102 asset management respondents, who manage a combined total of approximately USD4.1trn of assets, also project a slow global economic growth recovery and express scepticism about commercial real estate.
Thirty-eight per cent of respondents selected currencies as the asset class they are most likely to increase in light of the sovereign debt crisis, 37 per cent chose equities and 35
BGC Partners and China Credit Trust’s money broking joint venture, China Credit BGC Money Broking, is the first Sino-foreign joint venture inter-dealer broking company to have been granted a business license by the China Banking Regulatory Commission to operate in Beijing.
Pending approval of product licenses by the People’s Bank of China, China Credit BGC expects to offer interest rate swaps, bonds, and interbank cash deposit products to Chinese and foreign banks in Beijing.
Len Harvey, executive managing director and general manager, Asia Pacific for BGC, says: “Beijing is the heartbeat of the market, as most Chinese banks are headquartered
Alternative assets under management on behalf of pension funds by the world’s largest alternative investment managers remained unchanged in 2009 compared to the year before at USD817bn, according to research by professional services company Towers Watson in conjunction with the Financial Times.
The research also shows that around half of all assets managed by these alternative investment managers are managed on behalf of pension funds.
The Global Alternatives Survey covers five alternatives asset classes: real estate; private equity fund of funds; fund of hedge funds; infrastructure; and commodities.
"Institutional investors continue to diversify into the full range of alternative assets,
