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Qbasis Invest, the Liechtenstein-based managed futures specialist, is expanding its London marketing operations with the appointment of Alistair Evans as director sales, UK.
Evans has eight years’ experience in the alternatives sector.
Most recently, he was partner and co-founder of GLS, a hedge fund marketing business.
Prior to that he worked at UBS and Merrill Lynch, where he focused on the intermediary and wealth manager market.
He began his career in 2002 at the US investment bank Laidlaw and then moved to the ECU Group, a former subsidiary of ED&F Man.
Evans will concentrate on promoting Qbasis’ new exchange-traded fund,
Law firm Ashurst has hired Nick Terras to join its derivatives products group.
Terras specialises in hedge funds, Ucits funds, exchange-traded funds and related derivatives.
His clients include European and US financial institutions as well as hedge funds and mutual funds.
Terras joins Ashurst from Schulte Roth & Zabel International where he was a partner in the investment management group.
Prior to joining Schulte Roth, Terras was a partner and co-head of structured finance and investment funds at another US firm.
Erica Handling, Ashurst’s head of structured finance, says: "Nick is widely regarded as a leading adviser in respect of
Koger, a provider of software and services for the fund administration industry, has launched the next version of NTAS, its transfer agency solution.
NTAS 10.1 introduces a number of enhancements and new features that expand the tools available to the administrator making the fund administration process faster and more automated.
“We are very pleased with the enhancements and new features in NTAS 10.1. Our customisable workflow screens make NTAS even more user-friendly,” says Ras Sipko, chief operating officer. “Introducing integrated real time accounting capabilities of IKAS into NTAS for the first time makes NTAS that much comprehensive in its reach
The City of New Haven’s Employee Retirement Fund has invested USD8m in IndexIQ’s multi-strategy hedge fund replication separately managed account vehicle.
This allocation represents the first time the City of New Haven’s Employee Retirement Fund has invested in a hedge fund-like strategy.
The IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy SMA seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy SMA Index.
The index attempts to replicate the risk-adjusted return characteristics of the collective hedge funds using multiple hedge fund investment styles, including long/short equity, global macro, market neutral, event-driven, fixed income arbitrage, and emerging markets.
IndexIQ does not
The Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index lost 2.76 per cent in May, its lowest performance since November 2008.
Nine out of ten strategies in the index posted negative returns in May as market volatility increased amid continued European sovereign risk fears.
Dedicated short bias gained 5.84 per cent and was the only strategy to post positive returns for the month. This positive performance was characteristic for the short-oriented strategy which typically outperforms when markets are down.
Global macro was the second-best performer, finishing down 0.63 per cent for the month as managers benefited from their ability to perform tactical trades
Deutsche Bank and Winton Capital Management have launched a Ucits III compliant version of Winton’s flagship Diversified Program.
The Ucits III fund, called the DB Platinum IV dbX Systematic Alpha Index Fund, will be launched on Deutsche Bank’s Platinum platform and is linked to the performance of the dbX Systematic Alpha Index.
The index, whose components are selected by Winton, reflects exposure to approximately 100 global exchange-traded futures, forwards and options markets on commodities (including energies, base and precious metals and crops), equity indices, bonds, short-term interest rates and currencies.
The strategy is primarily trend-following, attempting to take advantage of
NewAlpha has launched NewAlpha Genesis 4, a contractual fund currently being established with a view to invest in French and foreign hedge funds run by early-stage fund managers.
NewAlpha aims to raise EUR200m from European institutional investors, family offices, private banks and sovereign funds. The closing date is scheduled for end-October 2010.
NewAlpha Genesis 4 plans to take advantage of favourable supply and demand conditions on behalf of institutional investors.
According to the firm, increasingly stringent regulations and consolidation in the asset management industry are encouraging many fund managers to branch out on their own. At the same time, institutional
The government of Gibraltar has published the text of the new, amended and consolidated Income Tax Act, which ends all distinction between “onshore” and “offshore” business.
The Act lays the foundations for the reduction of company tax in Gibraltar from 22 per cent to ten per cent from 1 January 2011, to coincide with the definitive abolition of the historical tax exempt company regime.
This legislation ends all distinction between “onshore” and “offshore” business. Together with the tax information exchange agreements being entered into by the government, and Gibraltar’s integration in the EU and compliance with EU financial services regulation,
Hungry for alpha, hedge funds are turning to equity swaps and synthetic prime to access emerging markets offering attractive spreads and easily identifiable risk arbitrage opportunities.
According to forecasts by Tabb Group in a new research report, The Alternative Emerging Market: Equity Swaps and Synthetic Prime, trading in emerging market equity swaps is forecast to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 22 per cent by 2011, reaching USD330bn in outstanding notional amounts as funds turn to synthetic solutions over cash equities.
During this same period, Tabb expects developed market equity swaps to grow at a CAGR of 15
Managed futures lost 0.77 per cent in May, according to the Barclay CTA Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
“The slowing of growth in China, fears of a double-dip recession in the US, and a European liquidity crisis precipitated a sharp decline in global equity prices,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Three of Barclay’s six managed futures sectors had losses in May, while the other three sectors made gains. The Barclay Diversified Traders Index was down 1.31 per cent, systematic traders lost 0.67 per cent, and discretionary traders slid 0.57 per cent.
“The Reuters-CRB Commodity Index fell by more
