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Northlight European Credit Fund, the credit hedge fund launched in December last year, has appointed Andrew Pucher as a director of its active and independent board.
Pucher is the former chief executive officer of HSBC’s private bank operations in the Channel Islands and currently also serves as non executive director on the boards of several select investment funds.
He previously held the position of executive vice president at the Republic National Bank of New York and has been general manager of its London branch. He has also been president of Republic National Bank of New York’s bank in Moscow.
Prior
State Street has opened its new Irish headquarters in Dublin.
By the end of this year, the new 165,000 square foot building, located at 78 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, will house more than 1,100 State Street employees across its global services and alternative investment solutions businesses.
Jay Hooley (pictured), chief executive officer of State Street who assumed leadership for the company this week, presided over the opening events in Dublin.
“The opening of this new building is an example of our expanding footprint in Europe and our strong commitment to Ireland,” says Hooley. “We are continually broadening our service offerings
The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has recommended the introduction of a pan-European disclosure regime for net short positions in shares.
The recommendation was made by CESR in a report submitted to the European Institutions (Ref CESR.10/088) on Tuesday.
In the meantime, those CESR members who already have powers to introduce a permanent disclosure regime, as detailed in the report, will begin the process of implementing the recommendations, while those members who do not have the necessary legal powers will be aiming to do so on a best efforts basis, until an EU regime is adopted.
CESR
Asia-based quantitative FX trading firm Amasis Capital and its marketing partner Signal Capital Management are intensifying their marketing efforts through new hires and institutional presentations in China, the US and the Middle East.
Amasis, which presently manages around USD220m, aims to at least double that by the end of 2010.
It says several new investors are now considering commitments in the USD10m to USD25m range, and one Middle East investor is considering a +USD100m commitment.
Amasis, which trades unleveraged spot FX on a proprietary algorithmic platform, returned 1.35 per cent before fees in February and 6.37 per cent YTD.
There is huge performance dispersion between strategies in Asia hedge funds, according to research by GFIA, the Singapore based specialist in skill-based managers in Asian and emerging markets.
GFIA reviewed the performance of emerging markets hedge funds in 2008 and 2009, and found that Asia hedge funds not only outperformed benchmark indices, but with a much lower volatility.
It also found that there is huge performance dispersion between strategies within the Asiahedge Composite index.
However, the big differentiator was the underlying asset class: equities or other assets.
Peter Douglas, principal of GFIA, says: “The Asian hedge fund industry is
Maples Finance, a fund services provider, has expanded its European service offering in Luxembourg following the recent grant of its Registrar Agent licence by Luxembourg’s financial supervisory authority.
Tom Davies, senior vice president and head of the Luxembourg office, says that following the launch of the Luxembourg office in 2007 Maples Finance now offers a full range of fund administration, registrar and transfer agency services.
“Luxembourg’s position as Europe’s largest fund domicile makes this an important market for Maples Finance and we are pleased to offer locally listed or domiciled funds a comprehensive fund services solution,” he says.
Maples Finance
Brown Brothers Harriman has assigned Robert Lees and Richard Meek to its Hong Kong office, assuming the respective roles of head of securities lending trading and head of securities lending relationship management for the Asia Pacific region.
Lees reports to Jeff O’Neill, global head of securities lending trading, and Meek to Elizabeth Seidel, global head of securities lending relationship management, business development strategy and marketing.
Both work closely with Andrew Tucker, partner, who is responsible for the Asia Pacific region and BBH’s markets business, which includes global securities lending.
Chris Donovan, global head of BBH securities lending, says: “We
Cowen Group has formed Ramius Trading Strategies, a subsidiary of Ramius Alternative Solutions, and launched the RTS Global Fund.
The multi-manager RTS Global Fund offers clients exposure to hedge funds focused on active trading strategies, primarily managed futures and global macro, through Ramius Trading Strategies’ newly developed managed account platform.
RTS is headed by William Marr, formerly global head of hedge fund research and portfolio construction at Merrill Lynch.
Senior members of the investment team include Alexander Rudin as director of investment research and Nadine Haidar as head of business due diligence.
Marr has built and managed a wide spectrum
Citigroup has appointed Sanjiv Sawhney as global head of fund services for Citi’s securities and fund services business.
In this new position, Sawhney will provide leadership for Citi’s hedge fund, private equity and mutual fund administration businesses globally within Citi’s suite of investor services solutions.
Sawhney will report to Neeraj Sahai, global head of Citi’s securities and fund services, and joins from JP Morgan.
Sahai says: "We are very pleased that Sanjiv is rejoining Citi in this key leadership role. His extensive industry expertise and global experience will be instrumental as our fund clients cross borders and jurisdictions to explore
Natixis Global Associates and Absolute Asia Asset Management have launched a multi-cap stock fund, the Absolute Asia Dynamic Equity Fund.
The fund invests in the Asian equity markets (excluding Japan) and offers an opportunity for investors to participate in Asian investments through a US ’40 Act mutual fund.
The fund is the first offered in the US by the Singapore-based management team, which has been headquartered in the region for over a decade. The team’s portfolio managers average more than 20 years of investment expertise.
"The economic vitality of the Asia Pacific region is quickly converting one of the world’s
