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Alternative investment manager Elementum Advisors has been appointed by The Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation to manage a catastrophe-linked investments portfolio.
The initial size of the mandate will be USD125m and is ultimately targeted to be USD250m.
This is GNZS’s maiden allocation into catastrophe linked investments. It was attracted to the asset class because of the diversification benefits and due to its potential to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns.
“GNZS selected Elementum as its partner because of Elementum’s significant experience managing such investments and its track record of performance,” says the Guardians’ general manager, private markets, Matt Whineray.
This is one
MF Global, an intermediary offering solutions in global cash, derivatives and related markets, has appointed David P. Bolger and David Gelber to its board of directors.
Gelber will replace Lawrence Schloss as chairman of the compensation committee.
Schloss was recently appointed as deputy comptroller for pensions and chief investment officer for the City of New York and has stepped down from the board, effective immediately, to dedicate his time to his new position.
Bolger was chief operating officer of Chicago 2016, a not-for-profit entity that sought to bring the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games to Chicago. From 2003 to
Russian brokerage Otkritie Securities has appointed two Russia and CIS market figures to its new financing services group team.
Temo Jorbenadze and Dmitry Perman will join the firm’s investment banking financing services group as head and director respectively.
The financing services group will provide the firm’s clients with a broad spectrum of financing solutions, including access to public and private capital markets.
Jorbenadze has extensive experience in the CIS region and Russia. Prior to joining Otkritie, Jorbenadze was a director for investment banking at VTB Capital in London, where he was responsible for the development of the European financial sponsor
Eurex Repo and Clearstream have launched a new currency segment within the GC Pooling market, Eurex Repo’s secured money market.
This new segment – USD GC Pooling – comprises US dollar cash trading and extends the secured funding possibilities for the current 35 market participants already active in this market by introducing a second global currency.
Marcel Naas, managing director of Eurex Repo, says: “With our new USD GC Pooling segment, we broaden our market from a dedicated euro environment to a multicurrency environment. As in our existing Euro GC Pooling segment, we provide access to secured US dollar
Instinet, a provider of electronic trading and agency-only brokerage services, has established Instinet Australia, a full Australian Securities Exchange member.
With the membership, which is effective immediately, Instinet is now able to service its domestic Australian clients through a new onshore sales and trading desk, located at 88 Phillip Street in Sydney.
Previously, Instinet was able to trade for domestic Australian institutions through its Hong Kong-based Instinet Pacific subsidiary by virtue of its remote ASX membership. Instinet was the first firm to be granted such a membership when it obtained the license in 2007.
Additionally, Instinet has been a member
The Life and Longevity Markets Association has been formed to promote the development of a liquid traded market in longevity and mortality-related risk, of the type that exists for insurance linked securities and other large trend risks.
The association will support the development of consistent standards, methodologies and benchmarks to help build a liquid trading market, necessary to support the future demand for longevity protection sought by insurers and pension funds.
The LLMA has been established by Axa, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Legal & General, Pension Corporation, Prudential, RBS and Swiss Re.
John Fitzpatrick, a director of the
RWC Partners is launching the RWC Advance Absolute Alpha Fund on 16 February, to be managed by Priya Kodeeswaran.
Kodeeswaran joined RWC Partners in November 2009 from Cheyne Capital where he was responsible for a similar strategy.
The RWC Advance Absolute Alpha Fund is a Ucits III global long short equity absolute return fund. The fund will focus on companies and industries that are undergoing rapid change or stand to benefit, or lose, from innovation.
RWC Partners recently launched the Ucits III RWC US Absolute Alpha Fund managed by Mike Corcell and has raised USD600m for the strategy
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has obtained an emergency federal court order freezing the assets of defendants Jay C. Nolan of Wilmette, Ill. and his company Lodge Capital Group, an Illinois limited liability company based in Northfield, Ill.
The court’s order, entered by the Honorable Charles R. Norgle, Sr. of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, also prohibits the destruction of books and records.
The order sets a hearing on 9 February 2010 on the CFTC’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
The court’s order stems from a CFTC civil enforcement action filed on 25 January
Hewitt Associates, a consulting and outsourcing company, says that with hedge funds posting the strongest returns in over a decade its manager research team performed more than twice the number of hedge fund manager searches during 2009 than the previous year.
From late 2008 to early 2009, the hedge fund industry was hit by significant redemptions from investors, resulting in a number of fund closures.
However, after this difficult period broad based hedge fund indices were up by around 20 per cent during 2009.
Guy Saintfiet, senior hedge fund researcher at Hewitt Associates, says: "The industry now seems to have
Tetragon Financial Group has acquired Lyon Capital Management from Calyon New York branch and certain of its affiliates.
Under the transaction, Tetragon acquired both Lyon Capital Management, to be renamed LCM Asset Management, and certain collateralized loan obligation securities with an aggregate face amount of USD39m for a combined purchase price of USD10m.
The transaction also provided that all management fees earned by LCM, and cash flows received by Calyon from the CLOs, from 16 August 2009 through the closing of the transaction, less certain expenses of LCM, accrued for the benefit of Tetragon.
LCM was established by Calyon, the
