Latest News
In recent years one of the biggest success stories of the Asia hedge fund industry has been the rise of Singapore, whose financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, belied the c
There are no two ways about it – Asia has ambitions to become one of the fastest-growing regions in the alternative investment market.
GFI Group has launched a tax receivables desk, providing brokerage services in the secondary market for all forms of tax receivables.
The desk provides tax lien investors with liquidity enhancement through market knowledge, access to a range of potential counterparties and a focus on efficient execution.
The new group will be headed by Thomas R McOsker and Howard C Liggett who have a combined experience of over 38 years in the field.
Liggett currently serves as executive director for the National Tax Lien Association.
Ron Levi, chief operating officer of GFI Group, says: “We believe our new tax
Resolute Asset Management has launched to offer clients asset management and consultancy services focussed on distressed debt and equity positions underpinned by real estate portfolios in European and former CIS countries.
Resolute will work with lenders, investors and institutions who own distressed real estate related financial assets that present significant complexity or geographical complications.
In particular, Resolute assists when clients do not have sufficient specialised resources to manage their positions.
The team is led by ex-Credit Suisse banker Bill Hancock and Robert Kingsmill, a former real estate lawyer with Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance.
Most recently, the pair
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed a complaint against Arizona resident Helmut H. Weber, doing business as Weber Capital Management, charging Weber with operating a fraudulent off-exchange foreign currency scheme.
The CFTC complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of Arizona, Phoenix Division on 9 March 2010, alleges that Weber, through personal solicitations and his websites fraudulently solicited customers to invest at least USD280,000 in forex trading.
The complaint also alleges that, contrary to Weber’s representations, only a fraction of customer funds were actually traded and that the majority of the funds were misappropriated to
The implementation of the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Arrowhead trading system has resulted in a reduction in the costs of trading Japanese equities, according to analysis by ITG.
According to the research, January 2010 saw a 36 per cent drop in Japanese trading costs compared to the previous month. This is the largest month on month per cent drop in Japanese trading costs in over a year and a half.
This differed from trading cost trends in other Asian markets over the same period – for example Hong Kong saw a smaller 17 per cent drop and Korea saw an increase
The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index recorded a positive performance of 0.33 per cent in February 2010.
The top performing strategies over the month were fixed income arbitrage (2.09 per cent), CTAs long term (1.35 per cent), and credit strategies (0.67 per cent).
The worst performing strategy was equity short bias, which fell 4.68 per cent, followed by convertible bonds and volatility arbitrage, which fell by 1.12 per cent.
Ucits III is attracting growing numbers of hedge fund managers and investors, according to a survey by Preqin.
In February 2010 Preqin carried out a survey of 50 institutional investors to determine the current demand for Ucits-compliant hedge funds.
Preqin also surveyed 60 fund of funds mangers to ascertain the present supply of Ucits funds in the hedge fund industry.
The investor survey found that eight per cent of all institutional investors surveyed allocate capital to Ucits funds, and all are European-based.
Thirty five per cent of institutional investors, including investors based outside Europe, are considering adding a Ucits vehicle
Recent indications of growth in the Channel Islands funds sector are rooted in alternative investments, bespoke closed-ended funds and confidence in the islands as reliable jurisdictions, say practitioners – and there are signs that further expansion is in prospect.
According to the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, the aggregate asset value of funds domiciled or serviced on the island increased by GBP2.7bn (1.5 per cent) during the final three months of last year, a second successive quarter of growth that took the total value of funds business in the island to GBP184.2bn at the end of December.
Although there was
Australian hedge funds rose by an estimated 0.18 per cent February with 29 per cent of results in, but there are clear signs that many managers took risk off the table following the Australian equity market’s sharp loss of over six per cent in January.
Australian Fund Monitors says that as a result there has been disappointment in some of the more risk averse managers’ returns, and with reporting season in full swing during the month, some were also caught on the wrong side of any surprises in company outlook or earnings.
Choppy markets are notoriously difficult for absolute return
