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BlackRock’s fourth quarter 2009 net income was USD256m, up USD204m compared to 2008.
The Barclays Global Investors transaction closed on 1 December 2009 and contributed USD94m to fourth quarter net income, more than offset by a USD108m after-tax expense associated with BGI transaction and integration costs.
Operating income was USD389m and non-operating income, net of non-controlling interests, was USD17m. The operating margin was 25.2 per cent, which included the impact of USD152m of pre-tax BGI transaction and integration costs.
BlackRock’s results reflect the acquisition of BGI, continued positive business momentum, net asset growth and improvements in the external market environment.
Fidessa group, a provider of trading, portfolio analysis, compliance, market data and connectivity solutions for the buy-side and sell-side, is now ready with Koscom’s PowerBase NFS, the new high-speed interface to the Korean exchange.
The Fidessa NFS gateway provides high-speed market access and is attractive to high-frequency or algorithmic traders, enabling them to take advantage of the 98 per cent reduction in order processing time and around 200 per cent increase in throughput.
David Jenkins, business solutions manager for Fidessa in Asia Pacific, says: “This development will open up new opportunities on the Korean exchange for all traders, but
Gottex Fund Management’s total fee-earning assets were USD8.13bn at 31 December 2009, down 1.2 per cent from USD8.23bn at 30 September 2009.
This total consisted of USD7.80bn in assets under management and Gottex Solutions Services assets of USD0.33bn.
AUM fell slightly by 2.1 per cent, which was primarily caused by outflows from Gottex’s run-off share classes, but was to a certain extent offset by subscriptions and technical factors.
Total subscriptions for the quarter amounted to USD310m, whilst outflows from run-off share classes equalled USD270m and client redemptions accounted for USD250m.
Foreign exchange added USD25m whilst rebalancing and other technical
Babson Capital Management, an investment management firm based in Massachusetts and North Carolina, has been selected by the controlling class of investors to serve as successor collateral manager of two collateralized debt obligations previously managed by Tricadia Loan Management.
Under the terms of the amended management agreement, Tricadia CDO 2005-4 with USD250m in assets is renamed Ashford CDO I, and Tricadia CDO 2006-6 with USD330m in assets is renamed Ashford CDO II.
“We’re delighted to have been selected by the investors to assume management of these CDOs,” says Matthew Natcharian (pictured), managing director and head of the structured credit team
Altegris, a provider of alternative investments, has expanded its senior management team serving its client base of wealth management professionals.
Kirk Strawn, formerly director of intermediary sales at Man Investments, joins Altegris as national director of strategic relationships, to focus on registered investment advisers, trust companies, third party asset managers and broker-dealer firms.
Strawn will partner with John Scarcella, national sales director, who continues his role directing the team of alternative investment consultants serving wealth management and advisory firms that access Altegris’ platform.
"The Altegris platform of alternative investments is designed to provide access to premier managers, often at lower
Tora, a provider of trading technology and financial services, and ConvergEx, a provider of investment and execution technology solutions, have agreed to integrate Tora’s Asia-focused trading platform, Tora Compass, with ConvergEx’s order management system, the Eze OMS.
Under the agreement, clients of Tora Compass can keep their orders in synch with the Eze OMS, while benefitting from real-time profit and loss and risk management in both systems.
In addition, Eze OMS clients will gain access to new, expanded Asia-specific trading features and broker connectivity through Tora Compass.
“We are delighted to be working with ConvergEx to bring this new level
The international derivatives exchange Eurex has admitted the first Japanese broker out of the Republic of Singapore.
Mizuho Securities (Singapore) was connected on 18 January 2010 to the Singapore access point of Eurex.
“We are very pleased to welcome the first Japanese broker out of Singapore,” says Michael Peters (pictured), member of the Eurex executive board. “Through the connection to our access point, Mizuho Securities (Singapore) and its institutional customer base now have direct and reliable access to our international trading network and our full product suite.”
Eurex currently serves more than 410 members in 25 countries.
Eurex has been
One of Peak Ridge Capital’s venture capital funds, the Peak Ridge AgTech Fund, has made its first equity investment in agricultural technology company Rapid Diagnostek.
The initial investment is a USD4m series B syndicated investment, of which the AgTech Fund was the lead investor.
Rapid Diagnostek is a privately-held diagnostics company based in Hudson, Wisconsin and focused on the use of proprietary microelectronic biosensor technology for initial use in animal and food diagnostics.
The testing device is a handheld instrument that can read a specimen sample and determine the presence of a given target bacteria or illness. Results are generated
Delaware Investments, a member of Macquarie Group, has launched a mutual fund in the US: the Delaware Macquarie Global Infrastructure Fund — Class A, Class C, Class R and Class I.
The fund, which is available to both individual and institutional investors, offers investors access to Macquarie’s global infrastructure securities investment expertise within Delaware’s funds management platform.
Macquarie Capital Investment Management is the fund’s sub-adviser and is responsible for the investment management of the fund’s assets.
The fund’s sub-adviser and Delaware Investments are part of Macquarie Funds Group — the global asset management arm of Macquarie Group.
The fund, which
Hathersage Capital Management, a discretionary absolute return currency manager, has appointed Momtchil Pojarliev as director and senior portfolio manager, a newly created role.
Pojarliev (pictured) reports to and works alongside Bill Lipschutz, head of portfolio management and founder.
Pojarliev, 35, joins Hathersage with a decade of experience managing substantial currency portfolios. He has authored more than 20 academic articles, including seminal findings on alpha versus beta producing currency managers.
“Momtchil’s experience and his work in the area of currency alpha measurement and production match well with our focus at Hathersage. We are confident that our investors will benefit greatly,” says
