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Alpstar Capital, a European asset manager and investment adviser, has appointed Bertrand Pinel as partner and chief executive.
Pinel was formerly with Dresdner Kleinwort, where he held a number of senior positions, including member of the executive committee and general manager of Dresdner Bank’s London branch.
Alpstar Capital has also completed its business plan with a focus on four key business areas: credit, distressed, strategic asset allocation for private clients and independent asset managers, and real estate.
The business has also secured a significant capital increase from the partners, and the Alpstar brand will now be known globally as Alpstar
UMB Fund Services, a division of UMB Financial, and its alternative investment servicing division JD Clark have promoted two executives.
Lonnie Macdonald (pictured) has been promoted to executive vice president and director of business development for UMB Fund Services.
With more than 20 years in the mutual fund industry, Macdonald joined UMB Fund Services in September 2007 as senior vice president and manager of business development.
Since joining the company, he has been instrumental in enhancing the brand of the firm in the marketplace, improving sales results, expanding the company’s product offering, and identifying acquisition candidates, including the recently
Nordic asset management firm Alfred Berg has appointed Dr. Larry Pohlman and Amitabh Dugar to its quantitative strategies team as chief investment officer and portfolio manager respectively.
Pohlman was formerly director of quantitative research at Wellington Management, while Dugar managed US and international equity portfolios at Mellon Capital Management.
Both will be based in Boston, US.
Alfred Berg’s Oslo-based quant team remains unchanged and will continue to manage its existing portfolios.
Alfred Berg’s quant team manages over EUR2.4bn of assets in global equities and minimum-variance equity strategies for Nordic, European and Asian institutional and retail clients.
“Larry and Amitabh
World Food is investing USD10m into Ghana in the form of equipment, infrastructure and employees to revive lifeless gold mines, according to South Africa Alpha Capital Management.
In an update on the region, SA Alpha also says the IMF’s executive board has completed a review of Zambia’s economic performance under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility arrangement, allowing the immediate distribution of about USD81m.
Drought-affected countries on the Horn of Africa have been allocated EUR50m in humanitarian aid through the Humanitarian Aid department
MTN, one of Africa’s largest mobile phone networks, has signed a deal with local banks to overhaul
Citigroup has been awarded a mandate by Merritt Capital to provide a suite of fund of hedge fund administration services.
In particular, Citi will be delivering fund accounting, fund administration and investor services.
"We were making the decision to retain an administrator for the first time and during our review of service providers we made it clear how important our investors and their requirements were to us. Citi took the time to listen to us, address our concerns and develop a program based on the best practices in the marketplace," says E. Robert Cotter, managing partner, Merritt Capital
"We are
RWC Partners has appointed Lakshman Harendran to its convertible bond team.
Harendran joins from Morgan Stanley Investment Management where he was a member of its fixed income team with a focus on convertible bonds, investment grade and high yield corporate bonds.
Harendran previously worked closely with Davide Basile, head of convertible bonds at RWC Partners.
Harendran joins Esther Watt and Michelle Shi who are analysts within the team and between them they are responsible for quantitative, credit and equity research. Basile leads the team and is also the portfolio manager.
RWC Partners manages approximately USD1bn in convertible bond assets.
The Lyxor Global Hedge Fund index, an investable index based on Lyxor’s hedge fund platform, was down 0.3 per cent in December.
Since the beginning of the year the index is up 5.1 per cent.
Several long-standing trends in the financial markets reversed in December 2009, and this change helped separate trend-followers from other hedge fund styles.
Some of the best performing alternative strategies for December 2009 were ones with credit exposure or long stock exposure. The Credit index gained 2.9 per cent, and the L/S Equity Long Bias index gained 2.3 per cent.
L/S equity market neutral and variable
Credit Suisse has appointed Neil Harvey as managing director and head of Asia Pacific and head of emerging markets globally for asset management, effective 1 February 2010.
Harvey (pictured) will be based in Hong Kong and will report to Robert Shafir, chief executive of asset management, and Kai Nargolwala, chief executive of Asia Pacific.
Shafir says: "Developing the Asia Pacific region and building out our global emerging markets’ offerings and clients is core to asset management’s growth strategy across our division and businesses."
Harvey has been involved in investment banking and asset management for over 24 years and has significant knowledge
Bloxham fund manager Pramit Ghose (pictured) is bullish for 2010 and predicts possible double digit total returns as potential for global income stocks rise.
Within our global equity income portfolios we currently hold a basket of high yielding stocks – these range from inexpensive large cap defensive names, including Nestle, Procter & Gamble and Diageo, to large cap high quality cyclical plays like BHP Billiton and US home improvement company Home Depot.
This basket of stocks is currently yielding 4% – but I believe we can grow the dividend stream by 7% or more in 2010. Overall total returns may
The Managed Funds Association has formed an alliance with the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association, a regional hedge fund association representing 150 member firms with operations in Connecticut.
The new relationship allows MFA to broaden its educational efforts and continue unifying the industry voice in a region with a high concentration of hedge funds.
CTHFA will gain an understanding of industry positions and issues through its connection to MFA.
“We are pleased to begin an alliance with the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association,” says Richard H. Baker (pictured), MFA president and chief executive. “With a large number of major hedge fund advisers
