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Hedge fund administration provider HedgeServ is opening a Cayman Islands office.
Greg Bennett, managing director, will head a team of 12 professionals to provide full fund administration and middle office services to both hedge funds and funds of hedge funds from the new location.
Bennett joins HedgeServ from Butterfield Fulcrum’s Cayman Islands office where he was managing director responsible for business development and client relations.
James Kelly, founder of HedgeServ, says: “Our decision to expand in the Cayman Islands comes after the overwhelmingly positive response and demand we have received since our inception last year. We are delighted to welcome
The Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was down 0.33 per cent in December, bringing its year-to-date performance to +5.15 per cent.
The top performing strategies over the month were L/S credit arbitrage index (+2.92 per cent), L/S equity long bias index (+2.33 per cent), and merger arbitrage index (+1.46 per cent).
The worst performing strategies were CTAs short term (-4.66 per cent) and CTAs long term (-3.35 per cent).
The Lyxor Hedge Indices are investable, asset-weighted hedge fund indices. They are based on Lyxor’s hedge fund platform that covers all the major hedge fund strategies.
HSBC has launched a Sterling Class and a Sterling Institutional Class of its HSBC Ucits AdvantEdge fund of hedge funds.
The Sterling classes of the HSBC Ucits AdvantEdge Fund will comply with the new reporting tax regime for offshore funds, allowing UK investors to be taxed at capital gains rather than income tax rates on disposal of their interests.
This makes an investment in the fund attractive to UK investors, especially given that the top income tax rate for individuals goes up to 50 per cent from April 2010 (as compared to the CGT rate of 18 per cent).
FTSE Group and Edhec -Risk Institute have launched an index series which uses a risk-adjusted strategy to that of traditional market capitalisation-weighted indices, to deliver investors with an optimal risk return ratio.
The FTSE Edhec-Risk Efficient Index Series, can be used by asset owners and investment consultants to capture equity market returns with improved risk/reward efficiency.
This efficiency is achieved by maximising the Sharpe ratio, by weighting the constituents of the indices accordingly.
This enhanced methodology, combined with a constituent base deriving from the FTSE All World Index Series, allows investors to develop new passive investment strategies.
Professor Noël Amenc,
Finisterre Capital, an emerging markets total return specialist, has launched the Finisterre Emerging Markets Fund with USD250m of initial capital from the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
The fund enables investors to gain exposure to the Finisterre strategies in emerging market sovereign and corporate debt, local currency debt, foreign exchange, special situations and equity.
"The purpose of developing the Finisterre Emerging Markets Fund is to enable institutional investors to express their growing interest in emerging markets in a variety of asset classes,” says Paul Crean, chief investment officer of Finisterre Capital.
“The investment from the New
Tom Holland has been appointed as a partner in Cube Capital, the London-based alternative investment and advisory firm.
Based in Hong Kong, Holland runs Cube’s Asia activities and is portfolio manager of the QBridge Fund, Cube’s award winning specialist Asia distressed and credit fund.
He is the first Cube employee to be made partner, joining the three founding partners of the investment company.
Holland started at Cube in early 2006 after working with Income Partners, an Asian credit fund, as a portfolio manager for private and liquid credit products. A US national, he came to Asia in 1997 with JP
Final performance for the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index has been confirmed up 0.88 per cent in December and 18.57 per cent for the year, the best annual return for the index in ten years.
The event driven sector was the highest performer for the month, returning 2.28 per cent, while convertible arbitrage and emerging markets were the strongest overall performers for the year, returning 47.35 per cent and 30.03 per cent respectively.
Dedicated short and managed futures funds continued to struggle. The sectors were the only two to finish 2008 in positive territory and are now the only two
New York-based Signal Capital Management has entered into an alliance with Swiss/Asian-based quant forex firm Amasis Capital Management.
Signal, a hedge fund and investment firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Australia, and Beijing, China, will introduce ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices and institutional investors to Amasis.
Amasis uses quantitative trading programmes and algorithms to trade spot forex on an unleveraged basis.
The firm currently has USD220m of assets under management on a separately managed account platform. In the full year 2009 the firm generated returns of over 45 per cent after fees, with a Sharpe ratio of
InfoSpi is to create a green hedge fund focusing on the carbon credit market.
InfoSpi believes that demand for carbon offset credits will grow and there is a niche to generate investment revenue.
Newly appointed Prince Carlos, who is heading up the fund, says: "We will fund the development of our projects from the revenue generated by the sale of the carbon credits that we have created by our technology for companies that need them to offset their emissions, almost like a closed loop.
"This differentiates us from other hedge funds, as we control the production of the CO2 credits
Asset manager Marshall Wace has launched the MW Tops Global Alpha, the first equity market neutral exchange-traded fund.
It is the first ETF targeting an absolute return from a single investment strategy and the first ETF in Europe to be run by a dedicated alternative asset manager.
The new vehicle will give investors a combination of access to a proven alpha stream, daily liquidity, targeted low volatility and the ability to deal at NAV in a Ucits-compliant security.
MW Tops Global Alpha will track the performance of the MW Tops Global Alpha Index, which itself will be based on a
