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The Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index gained only 0.1 per cent in December, but ended the year up 19.5 per cent, missing 2003’s 20.3 per cent rise by a small margin.
Similarly, the currency-hedged Morningstar MSCI Hedge Fund Index rose just 0.2 per cent in December, but finished the year up 14.1 per cent.
The second and third quarters of 2009 generated the most profit for hedge funds, as the global recovery in stocks and bonds waned toward year end.
The Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index and the Morningstar MSCI Hedge Fund Index rose 2.1 per cent and 1.9 per
Petra Joucken has joined Fund Channel as head of management company relations.
She will be responsible for developing new distribution agreements with management companies, particularly in Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands, where Fund Channel is expanding its business.
From 2003 to the present Joucken was Distribution Manager at ING. Her responsibilities included the distribution of third party funds for the private banking network.
She began her career in 1990 at BGL Luxembourg as an institutional client relationship officer, subsequently gaining experience in fund management and private banking at a number of institutions.
Set up in 2005, Fund Channel is an
Hype surrounding booming emerging market funds could trip up investors anxious to get a slice of the action from dynamic economies, warns Rob Pemberton (pictured), investment director of HNW wealth manager HFM Columbus.
2009 saw the likes of the Chinese, Indian and Brazilian stockmarkets enjoy 80 per cent rises, with Russia outgunning its rivals with 100 per cent growth over the year.
There is no doubt that all these economies are rapidly increasing their share of global GDP. They enjoy low debt levels, young and dynamic populations, and all host companies which are rapidly becoming world leaders. The
Robeco-Sage, a fund of hedge fund manager based in New York, has hired Michael Welch as director of business development.
He will be based on the West Coast in the firm’s Greenbrae, California office and will focus on institutional and consultant relationships as well as wealth management firms and private banks.
Welch brings 17 years of financial services experience to Robeco-Sage. He joins from Coast Asset Management, where he was a managing director and director of marketing, responsible for managing the firm’s relationships with financial intermediaries and institutional clients.
His previous positions in the industry were at Lazard Asset Management
European Fund Administration has signed a partnership agreement with Italy’s Asset Management Services, a company specialised in fund administration services.
As part of the agreement, AMS acquires 100 per cent of Servizi, in which EFA previously held a 34 per cent stake, while EFA obtains ten per cent of AMS’s equity with the option of raising its ownership to 25 per cent by 2012.
By acquiring Servizi, AMS will expand its customer base and its assets under administration from EUR12.7bn as at 31 December 2008 to EUR19bn, thus becoming the largest independent provider of fund administration services in Italy.
Thomas
Hedge funds have recouped 77 per cent of their 2008 losses, with 28 per cent of funds now fully recovered from their maximum drawdowns, according to a report by Credit Suisse Tremont.
While global equity markets returned 27 per cent for the year, as a whole they have regained a smaller percentage of overall losses than hedge funds and the current drawdown remains at 26.5 per cent as of 31 December 2009.
Overall, the hedge fund industry returned 18.6 per cent in 2009 marking its best annual performance in a decade and signalling the greatest performance rebound in the hedge
Advisory group Allium Capital has strengthened its relationship management function with the appointment of Lindsay Coates.
Coates, who was previously at Cofunds UK, has spent many years working in Australia in senior relationship management and training roles for companies such as Macquarie Wrap.
In this role she supported companies such as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Suncorp, plus undertook activities in support of Australia’s largest adviser groups such as Shadforth Financial Group and Professional Investment Services.
Prior to this she was at Deutsche Bank UK in sales and operational roles.
Toby Denne, director and co-founder of Allium Capital, says:
A team of investment management specialists has launched Galileo Capital Management, an investment management and advisory firm with operations in London and Hong Kong.
Founders Anders Jacobsen and Paul Thompson (pictured) have over 40 years’ combined experience in the investment management sector at firms including Goldman Sachs, Prudential Financial, Bankers Trust and Chase Manhattan Bank.
Galileo Capital Management will launch, manage and raise capital for a range of bespoke alternative asset funds. These planned funds target very under-invested business sectors or are highly innovative improvements of existing investment strategies. They will seek to offer a low correlation to traditional investments.
President Obama has called for reforms to ensure that no US bank or financial institution that contains a bank will own, invest in or sponsor a hedge fund or a private equity fund, or proprietary trading operations unrelated to serving customers for its own profit.
While it is believed any reform will likely stop short of a complete separation of power, it seems that proprietary trading operations will be resricted severely and that larger entities may be broken up. Separately, investment banks may find limits placed on assets that would force them from growing “too big to fail”.
Obama yesterday
Tim Roberts, fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management and a specialist in the North American market, comments on President Obama’s threat of a “Glass-Steagall” type of separation, which would separate the activities of deposit-taking banks from investment banking.
President Obama’s announcement goes far beyond what the markets can stomach from the volatile banking sector, and the creeping political tenor of financial debate. These new measures may be presented as advancing a progressive agenda, but to many they cement only an increasingly politicised one.
Attacking the heart and soul of Wall Street is not the answer, and will not necessarily
