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Law firm Carey Olsen says restructuring work carried out by its corporate team in Jersey has revived the fortunes of Close Global Funds, Close Brothers’ flagship offshore investment vehicle, lifting the suspension of trading of the main fund on the CISX.
Close’s Rex Cowley says 2009 saw an unprecedented retraction in liquidity in capital markets.
This created significant issues for the firm’s flagship multi-asset fund of fund range within the property and hedge fund sectors due to high suspensions and closing rates which has not been seen before.
“Our objective was simple; we had to protect the interests of our
Hedge funds gained 1.31 per cent in April, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
The index has gained 4.58 per cent in the first four months of 2010.
“Rising fears of default in the Euro zone were a negative for European equity markets,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
In contrast to hedge funds trading in other equity markets, the Barclay European Equities Index was up just 0.05 per cent in April.
“On the other hand, increasing political risk for US financial institutions in the face of SEC fraud charges brought against Goldman Sachs
Schroders has launched a second fund on its Global Alternative Investor Access platform, a regulated platform for Ucits funds designed to give investors easier access to hedge funds.
The new fund, Schroder GAIA Sloane Robinson Emerging Markets, will launch on 30 June 2010 and will be managed by Sloane Robinson, a long/short equity manager with expertise in emerging markets.
Founded in 1993 by Hugh Sloane and George Robinson, Sloane Robinson is a London-based private asset manager managing around USD8.2bn in international equity markets outside of North America.
The new Schroder GAIA fund will be managed by its emerging markets team,
Guernsey’s Chief Minister Lyndon Trott has been reinforcing the island’s position as a leader in tax transparency during meetings with officials in Washington.
The Chief Minister last week met with Michael Mundaca, assistant secretary of the US Treasury Department, to discuss the continuing cooperative efforts of the two jurisdictions on tax transparency and information exchange.
Appointed by President Barack Obama in March 2010, Mundaca is the senior executive officer in the US government responsible for tax policy. The meeting builds on similar meetings between the two jurisdictions that began almost a decade ago and produced Guernsey’s first-ever tax information exchange
HazelTree Fund Services, a New York-based provider of middle and back office technology solutions for hedge funds and investment companies, has launched the Operations Portal and Treasury Suite.
“Increased regulatory and investor scrutiny require system enhancements for many funds,” says Matthew Johnson (pictured), chief technology officer, HazelTree Fund Services. “We are leveraging live, in-production technology to build the next-generation platform for hedge funds delivering an unprecedented value proposition.”
The products aim to increase operational efficiency, minimise errors and reduce operational risk, achieve significant cost savings and enhance portfolio returns.
They have been in production and operational for more than three
Highland Funds, managed by Highland Capital Management, has appointed Cummings Bay Capital Management as the sub-adviser to the firm’s Healthcare Fund.
Highland has changed the fund’s name to the Highland Long/Short Healthcare Fund in connection with changes to the fund’s investment strategy.
The fund will be managed by Michael D. Gregory, who has ten years of experience with long/short equities strategies in the healthcare sector. Previously, Gregory launched Cummings Bay Capital, a long/short healthcare hedge fund, and was a partner at Sands Point Partners where he managed a long/short healthcare-focused fund.
"Michael significantly enhances Highland’s considerable expertise in the healthcare
Reyl Asset Management, the asset management arm of Geneva-based wealth management firm Reyl, has launched an Irish fund of hedge funds that specialises in seed and early stage investments in hedge funds.
The Reyl Accelerator Fund will be advised by FRM Capital Advisors.
Designed by Fabrizio Ladi Bucciolini (pictured), head of alternative investments at Reyl Asset Management, the Reyl Accelerator Fund will provide seed capital to emerging hedge fund managers selected by FRM Capital Advisors.
The newly-launched fund will target a diversified portfolio including directional trading, relative value, equity long short, specialist credit and idiosyncratic strategy managers.
Advent Software, a provider of software and services for the investment management industry, has launched the next version of Tamale RMS, its research management solution.
Version 5.0 introduces new configurable templates, dynamic reports and views combined with a new framework for seamless data integration that help firms streamline and optimise their investment processes.
"We are very pleased with the enhancements in the latest version of Tamale. The new customisable workflow features bring together all of our most important information in a format that allows for thoughtful collaboration," says Porter Durham, chief operating officer, global endowment management. "Version 5.0 will also
100 Women in Hedge Funds, a non-profit organisation for professionals in the alternatives industry, is celebrating its 200th educational session.
The milestone will be celebrated with a panel-led discussion on the most pressing issues in today’s environment, including lessons learned from the financial crisis and how the past has impacted current practices in the investment and allocation processes.
The session will be moderated by 100 Women in Hedge Funds board member Sandra Urie (pictured), president of Cambridge Associates.
The panel will be comprised of: Jane Buchan, chief executive of Pacific Alternative Asset Management; Raudline Etienne, chief investment officer of
Hedge fund strategies’ performance posted mixed results for April, with the Lipper Hedge Fund Composite Index ending the month almost flat at 0.02 per cent.
Other hedge (+1.65 per cent) was the best performing strategy for the month, benefiting from volatility spikes.
Convertible arbitrage (+0.54 per cent) was the runner-up, sustained by benign equity market sentiment and volatility patterns edging higher.
Meanwhile, managed futures (+0.41 per cent) delivered a healthy return at the end of the month as commodities markets continued to trade higher.
Global stock markets went up a mere 0.07 per cent for April as measured by the
