Och-Ziff Capital Management made a GAAP net loss of USD80m, or USD1.02 per basic and USD1.06 per diluted class A share, for the third quarter ended 30 September 2009. This compares to a GAAP Net Loss of USD69.4m, or USD0.94 per basic and USD1.07 per diluted class A share, for the 2008 third quarter. The primary drivers of the year-over-year increase were a decline in management fees due to lower assets under management and higher compensation expenses. The GAAP net loss in the 2009 third quarter primarily resulted from non-cash expenses of USD417.5m, associated with the Company’s reorganisation in connection

Standard & Poor’s has published the composition and weights for the 2010 S&P GSCI. The S&P GSCI is a world production-weighted commodity index which, in 2010, will be composed of 24 liquid, exchange-traded futures contracts. The S&P GSCI includes energy, industrial metals, precious metals, agricultural and livestock products. There will be no substantive modifications or new contracts added to or removed from the S&P GSCI in 2010. The weights become effective with the January roll period. Standard & Poor’s also announced that the investment support level, which is the level of investment in the S&P GSCI and other commodity indices

Abbey Capital, the Irish owned alternative investment manager, has taken its global macro multi-manager fund passed the USD100m milestone. The Abbey Capital Macro Fund, which reached its two year track record in October this year, recently moved to weekly liquidity. The fund currently allocates to eight underlying managers exclusively via managed accounts, giving Abbey Capital full transparency on all underlying positions.   Tony Gannon, Abbey Capital’s chief executive and founder, says: “Reaching USD100m for the Abbey Capital Macro Fund is very encouraging and demonstrates the demand and appeal of a diversified and liquid approach to the global macro investment style.

The S&P GSCI increased 5.87 per cent in October as all five major sectors improved on the month, according to Standard & Poor’s. The S&P GSCI Energy Index led the way with a 7.05 per cent gain in October, boosting the S&P GSCI year-to-date gain to 10.82 per cent. “Continued US dollar weakness, and the first monthly decline in the S&P 500 (-1.86 per cent TR) since February, left the S&P GSCI playing some catch-up to equities in October,” says Michael McGlone, director of commodity indexing at Standard & Poor’s. Led by strength in zinc and copper, the S&P GSCI

Kinetic Partners, a global professional services firm focused exclusively on the asset management industry, has launched a service that can help traditional and alternative managers implement robust and effective risk management systems. The global financial crisis exposed significant weaknesses in the risk management practices of many funds. Investors and regulators are now demanding that funds implement far stronger risk management processes. In addition to performance attribution, VaR analysis and stress testing, regulators want funds to address specific issues, such as OTC valuation, liquidity, leverage and counterparty risk, all areas which were exposed as being inadequately monitored during the recent global

Barclays Capital’s natural resource investments team has partnered with Richard Hall and Rory Edwards to create an oil and gas development company, Nio Petroleum, which will focus on undeveloped discoveries, marginal fields and late-life assets in South East Asia. Hall and Edwards’ 25 years of experience includes the formulation and execution of a number of value enhancing schemes in the North Sea and offshore South East Asia, which have enabled the monetisation of small fields or extended the life of mature fields. Nio Petroleum is seeking to acquire undeveloped discoveries or mature late life assets to add value through the