Latest News
George Osborne, the youngest Chancellor of the UK Exchequer in over a century, has had to produce a budget in some of the toughest times in recent years. Kinetic Partners outlines the key headlines from the budget, including an increase in the rate of capital gains tax to 28% for high rate taxpayers.
Income tax: The personal allowance which provides an amount of tax free income will be increased by £1,000 from £6,475 to £7,475 from 6 April 2011 to benefit lower rate tax payers. There will be a reduction in the basic rate limit above which the
Prisma Capital Partners, an alternative investment manager providing multi-manager hedge fund solutions, has appointed Anne Wynne as general counsel and James Welch as managing director and member of the firm’s portfolio management group.
Wynne will assume the role of in-house counsel at Prisma and coordinate all legal activities on behalf of the firm.
Welch will focus on product development and coordinate the response of the firm to enquiries from institutional clients who seek a variety of hedged equity and credit strategies.
“Consistent with our business model, we continue to add senior team members with significant track records and expertise in
The world’s population of high net worth individuals is growing at 17.1 per cent, according to Capgemini and Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management’s 14th annual World Wealth Report.
The report indicates that emerging wealth recovery has nearly recouped 2008 losses, returning to levels last seen in 2007.
High net worth wealth has increased by 18.9 per cent to USD39trn.
The BRIC countries are continuing to drive regional growth, with Asia Pacific leading emerging wealth recovery.
High net worth individuals are favouring predictable returns and cash flow, as evidenced by a rise in allocations to fixed income instruments.
High net worth
Law firm Bingham McCutchen has expanded its investment management group to Hong Kong with the addition of Anne-Marie Godfrey as partner.
Godfrey has experience advising investment managers in Asia on the establishment and regulation of hedge funds, mutual funds and private equity funds.
She advises investment advisers, fund administrators, trustees and other fund service providers on investment fund-related issues.
"Anne-Marie will add significant value to our US fund clients with ties to Asia," says Roger Joseph, head of Bingham’s investment management group and co-leader of the financial services area. "Her arrival underscores the critical role Asia plays in Bingham’s growth
Prologue Capital, an alternative investment firm that manages a discretionary fixed income strategy, has hired Manny Mifsud as a portfolio manager focusing on foreign exchange trading.
Mifsud works in the firm’s London office and reports to founding partners David Lofthouse and Graham Walsh.
“Manny’s knowledge and experience in FX will be a significant addition to the firm,” says Lofthouse. “FX is an important asset class both in its own right and also in its impact on the fixed income markets.”
Mifsud was most recently head of trading at Nylon Capital and focused on FX strategies. Prior to joining
ING’s global securities finance team has hired Colin Bugler to head its new synthetic portfolio solutions team, reporting to Richard Pryce, head of equity lending and repo.
The creation of the synthetic portfolio solutions team, which incorporates the contracts for difference offering, is part of ING’s growth plan for its global securities finance business.
Bugler’s remit will be to enhance ING’s position as a provider of securities financing products to hedge funds, as well as expanding the range of products offered.
“Hedge funds are seeking greater credit diversification among their providers of both traditional prime brokerage and synthetic products. In
Teresa Owusu-Adjei, asset management tax leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, comments on the proposed bank levy, and on the Government’s proposals for consultation on issues impacting the competitiveness of the UK in the asset management sector.
We are concerned that one of the most difficult issues associated with the bank levy will be defining which institutions should be subject to the charge. The experience with the Bank Payroll Tax demonstrated that defining what is a ‘bank’ and ‘banking type activities’ is not straightforward and asset managers will be keen to ensure that they are not inappropriately subjected to levies that are intended
Singapore Exchange has launched Asia’s first dividend futures contract, the Nikkei Dividend Point Index Futures contract.
Since its 17 June debut, the contract has achieved total volume of over JPY1.5bn as at 1.00am Singapore time today.
Bid-ask spreads have been under two per cent for transactions of at least JPY60mn on both sides, and as low as 0.2 per cent for small-size transactions.
Open interest stood at JPY600m as at 1.00am today.
Chew Sutat, executive vice president and head of market development at Singapore Exchange, says: “We are delighted with the active participation of the international investing community in the
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has started daily reporting of aggregated short positions, which will be published on the ASIC website.
Short sellers have been required to report short positions to ASIC following the introduction by the Federal Government of new reporting obligations to improve transparency of short sales in the Australian market.
In these reports, short sellers disclose to ASIC the size of their overall short positions in specified listed financial products.
Starting today, ASIC is required to aggregate this information and report for each product the total of all short positions disclosed to ASIC for each reporting
The second Channel Islands International Business Summit will focus on Investment Strategies for Diversification and the Engines of Global Growth and cover some of the major issues which impact financial sector professionals, globally.
Confirmed speakers include: Roger Bootle, City Economist; Tajinder Singh, Deputy Secretary General, IOSCO; Paul Mortimer-Lee, Global Head of Market Economics, BNP Paribas; Jon Moulton, Chairman, Better Capital LLP, Helena Morrissey (pictured), CEO Newton Investment Management.
For more information and to register go to www.cisx.com/summit
Date: 10 September 2010
Venue: Hotel De France, Jersey, Channel Islands
Time: 9am – 5:15pm
Cost: £175 per person
