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Gross exposures remain well below historical levels among funds of hedge funds, according to Standard & Poor’s latest update on the sector.
“Many funds of hedge funds are still dealing with liquidity issues beyond the recovery in equity and credit markets,” says S&P Fund Services lead analyst Randal Goldsmith.
“Underlying net market exposures within FOHFs are also below historical levels, but have increased during the third quarter. In general, net exposures have moved up only gradually because hedge fund managers held in FOHFs portfolios have not been convinced on the sustainability of the rally in markets and
Chi-X Europe’s Chi-Delta non-displayed order book was Europe’s largest dark pool in November, according to Thomson Reuters’ Equity Market Share Reporter.
Chi-Delta represented 27.28 per cent of all reported European dark liquidity by turnover in November.
Liquidnet Europe held 25.02 per cent of the dark order book market share, while BATS Europe held 17.65 per cent, Turquoise 10.68 per cent and ITG Posit Europe 8.4 per cent.
In November 2009, EUR2.95bn was traded on Chi-Delta, representing a ten per cent increase over October’s turnover.
Additionally, trading participants achieved an average price improvement of 5.74 basis points in November by
Advent Software, a provider of software and services for the global investment management industry, has further expanded into the Asia Pacific region with the opening of an office in Beijing.
Staffed with more than 50 employees, the Beijing office is Advent’s largest office outside of North America and will play an important role in establishing the company’s presence in mainland China.
The employees in the Beijing office were previously part of Advent’s contract workforce with a Beijing software outsourcing firm, and have been working on the research and development of Advent’s portfolio of products for the past four years.
Mourant, a provider of offshore legal and administration services, has signed an agreement to sell Mourant International Finance Administration to State Street.
MIFA is the division of Mourant which handles fund and company administration.
Completion of the transaction remains subject to regulatory approval but is expected to close early next year.
Jonathan Rigby (pictured), managing partner of Mourant du Feu & Jeune, the Mourant legal practice, says: "This is an exciting development for MIFA. It should enable the administration business to reach its full potential. The partners of Mourant du Feu & Jeune will now be focusing exclusively on
SIX Swiss Exchange and SmartPool intend to deliver Swiss Block, the non-displayed liquidity service for Swiss blue-chip equities.
Swiss Block, formerly powered by Nyfix Euro Millennium, is owned and operated by SIX Swiss Exchange.
Following the recent acquisition of Nyfix by NYSE Euronext, subject to contract the service will now be powered by SmartPool, the European dark liquidity pool created by NYSE Euronext in partnership with HSBC, J.P. Morgan and BNP Paribas.
Complementing the existing public limit order book service operated by SIX Swiss Exchange, Swiss Block provides an infinite pool of liquidity, matching buyers and sellers in a non-displayed
The Kenmar Group is expanding its Signature Advisors business unit with the hiring of Stephen Kingham as managing director of global distribution for Signature and submission of its application to the UK Financial Services Authority.
Signature provides global investors with access to individual managers that fill a niche within the alternative investment universe.
As head of Signature, Kingham will bring extensive structuring and business development expertise, having held senior positions at several well-known asset management and investment banking firms, most recently at RBS (ABN Amro) and Zurich Capital Markets (UK).
Marc Goodman and Ken Shewer, co-chief executive officers and co-chief
The former co-heads of the reinsurance and risk-linked securities team of Stark Investments, a multi-strategy hedge fund, have spun off to launch an independent investment manager focused on collateralized natural event reinsurance.
The Chicago-based investment manager is named Elementum Advisors and is owned by founding principals Anthony Rettino and John DeCaro and principal and chief operating officer Michael France.
The remaining former members of Starks reinsurance and risk-linked securities team, Jacob Weber and Nicholas Jagoda, will also be part of the venture.
Additionally, Elementum has hired Benjamin Somers to be its head of business development and investor relations. Somers was
Merlin Securities, a prime brokerage services and technology provider for hedge funds and managed account platforms, has expanded its trading capabilities to include 24-hour international and domestic coverage.
Troy Prince and John Perna will oversee the expanded trading desk.
“Our clients increasingly seek to trade around the clock and around the globe. We have launched our 24-hour international and domestic desk to provide comprehensive access to the world’s markets,” says Eric Morgan, senior partner and head of trading at Merlin Securities. “Our clients now have the capability to execute in 96 countries across six continents – a level of
Sigma Partnership says it is becoming increasingly apparent to US, Asia and non-EU based managers and advisers that the EU directive is more protectionist than ever.
The key decision makers in Europe are influencing revisions that favour a “Fortress Europe” stance, such as the deletion of certain restrictions, it says.
As these reports stand, there continues to be much confusion about the Ucits fund regime and the Alternative Investment Fund Managers regime. Sigma says while the former is suitable, despite the different national tax consequences for institutional and retail investors, the funds in the AIFM regime are really for
Luxembourg Financial Group and Ganymede Partners have launched the Luxembourg Alternatives Ucits Platform.
LAUP is a one-stop independent and open-architecture platform for hedge fund managers to set up a Ucits III hedge fund or fund of hedge funds.
More than half of European hedge fund companies either plan to launch regulated, onshore versions of their strategies or have already done so, according to HedgeFund Intelligence, a research group.
Luxembourg is the largest fund centre outside of the US and almost 70 per cent of Ucits III funds which are authorised for cross-border distribution in the European Union are domiciled in
