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Northern Trust and Merlin Securities have entered into an agreement to provide Merlin prime brokerage clients with fully integrated access to Northern Trust’s global custody and administration services.
The agreement with Northern Trust enhances Merlin’s existing broker-dealer custody relationships with Goldman Sachs Execution and Clearing and J.P. Morgan Clearing. Merlin’s clients now have access to all three providers through Merlin’s multi-prime reporting platform.
“In today’s market, managers and investors are seeking custodial solutions that reduce their counterparty risk and provide fully integrated, multi-custodian reporting analytics and risk data,” says Stephan Vermut, founder and managing partner of Merlin. “Our agreement
Dreyfus, part of BNY Mellon Asset Management, has introduced two fund of funds.
The first fund, Dreyfus Satellite Alpha Fund, seeks long-term capital appreciation by allocating its assets to Dreyfus-advised mutual funds that invest in non-traditional asset classes, including commodities, currencies and real estate.
"Many individual investors are seeking a professionally managed solution that enables them to invest in non-traditional asset classes that have low correlations to traditional asset classes, especially in the wake of the recent financial crisis," says Phil Maisano (pictured), vice chairman and chief investment officer for Dreyfus and chief investment strategist for BNY Mellon Asset Management.
Law firm Proskauer Rose has continued the expansion of its global private investment funds practice with the appointment of Robert Barry as a partner in its London office.
Barry, the former head of Travers Smith’s investment funds group, focuses his practice on fund formation and advising institutional investors on fund investments.
He has extensive experience working with a wide range of funds around the world, including private equity, real estate, funds of funds, venture capital and hedge, in their formation, ongoing operations and investments, and has advised on more than 150 fund investments and direct co-investments.
The addition of Barry
Linedata Services, a provider of investment and credit software, services and support, has launched version six of its Beauchamp FundManager product, a portfolio management solution for alternative investments.
New features in Beauchamp FundManager include counterparty risk reporting; increased throughput; enhanced fixed income coverage; and improved financing calculation.
Counterparty exposure reporting capabilities are now available to help managers understand their exposure to a counterparty across their portfolio. Developed in close collaboration with clients and now available as part of the core product, Beauchamp FundManager reporting includes both standard and configurable reports.
Beauchamp FundManager’s architecture improvements include parallel processing of position
Harness Liquid Macro Fund has selected Fincad Analytics to provide real time derivatives pricing and risk monitoring.
Harness is using Fincad Analytics Suite for Excel as its primary desktop derivatives pricing solution for front office applications such as trade evaluation, risk monitoring of exchange traded options and OTC derivatives pricing.
It uses the solution on a daily basis for valuing interest rate swaps, calculating net present value, generating forward curves, and running scenario analyses.
"We primarily trade derivatives and needed a valuation solution that was not only accurate and reliable, but it also had to be very easy to use
J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities Services has developed an asset allocation and manager selection analysis tool that enables clients to plan and map the risk-return implications of their current and new portfolios.
The Portfolio Construction Tool allows plan sponsors and other institutional investors to see which portfolios potentially generate the optimal risk-adjusted returns.
It is delivered as a module on J.P. Morgan WSS’ Online Portfolio Analytics Lab, launched earlier this year. The lab provides online access to various investment performance and risk measurement tools that allow users to evaluate and rank managers, break down sources of return, analyse risk factors,
South Florida Hedge Fund Managers, a regional alliance dedicated to informing and uniting the hedge fund community, is hosting a forum on the impact of changes in clearing over-the-counter products
CarryQuote a provider of integrated desktop and mobile financial information solutions, has signed its reseller agreement in the US with EmergingTraders.com, an alternative investment management company.
The partnership enables EmergingTraders.com to offer a branded version of the CarryQuote solution to its universe of managed futures traders and investors, and expands CarryQuote’s domestic presence.
The CarryQuote solution provides real-time pricing data, actionable analytics, and personalised alerts through an integrated mobile and online interface.
By offering a branded, white-label application for investors, EmergingTraders.com can increase its number of customer touch-points and generate greater visibility among its user base of more than 10,000
Lyxor Asset Management has added an additional nine hedge funds to its managed account platform since January 2009.
Over the same period, Lyxor has increased the platform’s assets under management by USD3bn.
The Lyxor managed account platform replicates over 100 of the industry’s top-rated hedge funds.
The managed accounts launched in 2009 are:
The Apollo Distressed Fund, which seeks to generate above market risk-adjusted returns by capitalising on the proprietary information generated across the Apollo platform. The fund invests across expansionary and recessionary market cycles primarily through liquid and illiquid investments in the securities of leveraged companies in North America
Eraam, a French alternative, multi-management company dedicated exclusively to European-based hedge funds, has launched Eraam Pure Alpha.
The fund is dedicated to institutional investors. It seeks decorrelated and absolute performance, with an objective of eight per cent maximum volatility.
The fund invests exclusively in European hedge fund managers in order to ensure a better analysis of underlying funds and to take advantage of an increasingly secure regulatory environment.
Funds are selected through a thorough methodology including a quantitative analysis. Particular attention is given to emerging managers.
Cyril Julliard (pictured), chief executive and co-founder of Eraam, says: “Pure
