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While the past year has not been comfortable for the hedge fund industry, it has not brought any significant challenge to the position of the Cayman Islands as the world’s leading offshore he
Chief executive officers and chief operating officers were the best paid hedge fund employees in 2009, receiving total compensation of over USD1m, according to a survey by Infovest21.
Three positions received total compensation of between USD600,000 and USD999,999: director of sales and marketing, general counsel and chief financial officer.
Twelve positions – director of research, portfolio manager, compliance director, director of operations, senior analyst, assistant portfolio manager, mid-level analyst, junior analyst, director of investor relations, client services, assistant controller and operations/mid-office – had total compensation of between USD100,000 and USD399,999.
Fund accountants had a total compensation below USD100,000.
Impacted by
Investors are looking forward to 2010 as a year of moderate economic growth, benign inflation and solid returns in global equities, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch survey of fund managers for December.
Optimism about the economy strengthened this month. A net 80 per cent of respondents expect the world economy to grow over the next 12 months, compared with a net 69 per cent in November.
Two thirds of investors expect equity markets to return to traditional growth levels or better.
Expectations for corporate profits are at their highest level since December 2003, supporting demand for greater capex.
New York residents Raj Rajaratnam and Danielle Chiesi have been charged with a 17-count indictment involving conspiracy and securities fraud crimes stemming from their alleged involvement in the largest hedge fund insider trading case in history.
Rajaratnam was the managing member of Galleon Management and a portfolio manager for Galleon Technology Offshore. Chiesi was an employee of New Castle Funds, formerly the equity hedge fund group of Bear Stearns Asset Management.
According to the indictment, Rajaratnam, Chiesi and others repeatedly traded on material, nonpublic information pertaining to upcoming earnings forecasts, mergers, acquisitions, or other business combinations.
The inside information was
The partners at law firms Lovells and Hogan & Hartson have decided to merge the two firms.
The new firm will be called Hogan Lovells and will have approximately 2,500 lawyers operating out of more than 40 offices located around the world.
Subject to regulatory clearances, Hogan Lovells will come into effect from 1 May 2010.
David Harris, partner at Lovells, says the new firm will offer clients a high quality transatlantic capability with extensive reach into the world’s financial and commercial centres; particular strengths in the areas of dispute resolution, regulatory, antitrust, corporate, finance, intellectual property and real estate;
Newedge, a provider of multi-asset brokerage and clearing, has named John Fay senior managing director and head of Americas region.
Fay will be based in New York and will focus on expanding and strengthening Newedge’s business lines in the region.
Fay will be responsible for overseeing the firm’s regional performance, and will oversee local risk, compliance and regulatory issues.
Fay also joins as a Newedge executive committee member, reporting directly to Patrice Blanc, Newedge chief executive, and Nicolas Breteau, global head of sales and front office.
Fay was previously co-chief executive and co-president of Instinet. He began his financial
Deutsche Bank’s global prime finance division has launched a hybrid custody version of prime brokerage, named DB Integrated Prime Custody.
Several large European clients have signed up for the new platform and hundreds of millions of euro value in securities have already been segregated.
Although the initial launch focus is on European-based clients, the US-based business already has a strong pipeline of large clients who have expressed interest in moving assets to the platform in early 2010.
The enhanced platform allows funds to hold unencumbered assets that were typically held within their prime brokerage in a separate custody account
Fund.com’s subsidiary AdvisorShares Investments will launch the WCM/BNY Mellon Focused Growth ADR ETF in January, the first actively managed exchange-traded fund to invest in international American depositary receipts.
BNY Mellon is the provider of the BNY Mellon Classic ADR Index.
WCM Investment Management, as sub-adviser to the fund, will direct the ETF’s investments in a limited number of non-US companies that are dominant leaders in their industries.
The fund will be AdvisorShares’ second actively managed ETF. AdvisorShares’ Dent Tactical ETF was launched in September. Fund.com owns 60 per cent of AdvisorShares Investments.
Fund.com chief executive Greg Webster says: "We believe
Partners Group, a Switzerland-based global alternative asset manager, has made two senior management promotions as well as some organisational changes.
The firm has promoted the following two members of the management team from senior vice presidents to managing directors: Roland Käslin, head finance, and Denis O’Malley, head Guernsey.
Partners Group has made some changes in the organisational structure of the firm, which will take effect as of 1 January 2010.
Following the successful development of the private real estate business to become a global asset management practice, it has become an independent department reporting directly to the executive board.
The
The Newedge Volatility Trading Index fell by an estimated 0.47 per cent in November, compared with a rise of 0.34 per cent the previous month.
Year-to-date the index is down 0.83 per cent. Since inception it has returned 10.94 per cent.
From 1 November 2009, the MM Capital Select Fund has been included in the Newedge VTI calculation, taking the number of constituent funds to 11.
The other ten are: Acorn Derivatives – Absolute Return Offshore; AM Investment Partners V Fund; BAM Opportunity Fund; Bay Hill Capital Fund; CAAM Funds Volatility World Equities; JD Capital – Tempo Volatility Fund;
