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It’s nearly a year since the ICARA regime was first introduced in the UK by the FCA, replacing the ICAAP framework that was part of the previous prudential regime.
With the increasing popularity of alternative investments, in particular in the areas of private equity, private debt and real estate, we have witnessed that there is more demand in realising such investments via Luxembourg alternative investment fund structures (the “AIFs”) by international eligible investors. In the EU, AIFs were introduced by the Alternative Investment Fund Manager Directive (Directive 2011/61/EU, the “AIFM Directive”), which regulates managers of funds other than those under the Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities Directive (Directive 2009/65/EC).
The alternative investment industry is developing new ways of sharing data across the whole value chain – from portfolio companies and holdings to funds and investors – and from asset servicers to asset managers and asset owners. Luxembourg, as a fund domicile, has been building its niche of expertise in this space and evolving to better serve the whole eco-system as the appeal of particular asset classes continues to grow.
Luxembourg’s alternative investment fund sector has grown significantly, with fund numbers rising from 4,568 in 2018 to 6,932 in 2021. More specifically, the private debt and real estate segments have experienced upticks in light of growing investor appetite for these assets, driven by the current market turbulence and uncertain environment.
In a crowded market where fund-raising is challenging, hedge fund managers need to make sure they are clearly articulating their investment story. Professional supporting materials to get their thesis across to potential investors are also critical to raising funds. Strategic partnerships are also becoming more common in the industry as hedge fund managers look to leverage the distribution power of larger, more traditional money managers.
Millennium has recruited Jack Tang as a senior credit strategist based in New York, according to a report by eFinancialCareers. Tang joins from JPMorgan where he spent over a decade and was an MD and head of several quantitative research teams including credit trading and public finance.
Vlado Spasov, a managing director at Blackstone Inc, has become the latest executive to depart the alternative asset manager’s hedge fund division, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Windham Capital Management has launched the Windham Quantitative Commodity Fund which will be offered as a private fund vehicle consisting of three commodity investment strategies that have been implemented by the firm’s principals for more than a decade – commodity roll yield, commodity momentum, and commodity value.
Long and short positions in commodity futures and SWAPs will be the instruments used to implement the portfolio.
Windham says the new fund will seeks to generate returns that have a low correlation to both traditional and alternative assets to provide improved diversification as well as inflation protection for investor portfolios.
The Quantitative
The average confidence of hedge fund managers in the prospects for their businesses over the coming 12 months has hit a new two-year low, according to data released by the Alternative Investment Management Association.
The Vienna Stock Exchange’s new market data distribution infrastructure has gone live providing over 270 customers with stock market data from 11 markets four times faster than before.
The software as well as the hardware and the operating system of the ADH data feed (Alliance Data Highway) have been upgraded to the latest technical standards, further increasing the stability of the system and lowering latency. The parallel operation, which will run until 3 April, makes it easier for customers to switch. The introduction of a permanent simulation environment as well as a production-like test environment will enable customers to run
