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EMERGING MANAGERS SUMMIT
Start-up and emerging hedge funds must increasingly look towards creative techniques and solutions when it comes to getting in front of allocators and raising capital.
Speakers at last week’s HedgeweekLIVE North America Emerging Managers Summit outlined how the manager-investor dynamic has altered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with networks and relationships now fostered across a “hybrid” model that encompasses face-to-face meetings and digital conferencing.
“The game has changed,” said Nick Pepe, managing partner and COO of Mill Hill Capital. “The hurdles to get in front of top-tier allocators in my opinion are much lower right now, but the road to
EMERGING MANAGERS SUMMIT
COMPLIANCE
A thick broth of global regulation is putting added pressure on investment managers to institutionalise their compliance programmes.
NEWS
Axiom Alternative Investments, the USD1.7 billion French investment manager, has launched its first global long/short credit fund in a UCITS format, which aims to capitalise on investment opportunities arising out of credit dislocations following the coronavirus pandemic.
Axiom Long/Short Credit, run by portfolio manager Gilles Frisch, trades US and European high yield debt instruments, specifically cash bonds along with vanilla high yield derivatives.
Launched with an initial EUR30 million in assets, and targeting a 4 per cent annual return with a volatility target below 5 per cent over the credit cycle, the new fund positions itself around a core view
EMERGING MANAGERS SUMMIT
The Covid-19 pandemic is opening up a deeper discussion around more business functions becoming permanently outsourced, particularly among start-up and emerging hedge funds battling against budgetary constraints.
Speakers at the fourth annual HedgeweekLIVE North America Emerging Manager summit this week discussed how approaches towards outsourcing – traditionally the next step on the emerging manager journey after launch – have dramatically changed as a result of the coronavirus crisis and remote working.
Jack Seibald, managing director and global co-head of prime brokerage and outsourced trading at Cowen, believes the pandemic has accelerated what had already been a meaningful upward trajectory in terms of outsourced
NEWS
Hedge funds are holding off from closing their short positions in crisis-hit e-payments firm Wirecard AG – with some even increasing their bets – in expectation that its share price will tumble yet again, boosting short sellers’ returns even further.
SURVEY
Most US hedge funds and other alternative managers expect to return to work before year-end, but a majority predict sweeping changes to work-from-home policies and office layouts, with close to a third of New York-based managers mulling a reduction in office space, a deep-dive industry study by Seward & Kissel has found.
SPECIAL REPORT
Cowen Outsourced Trading: Best Outsourced Trading Solution Provider – The past year has witnessed a growing acceptance of outsourced trading as a credible alternative solution by investment managers. As a result of the global pandemic, larger players acknowledged that working with traders remotely works well, which in turn opened the door to the outsourced solution.
NEWS
Switzerland-headquartered global asset manager GAM, home to Cambridge-based quantitative hedge fund unit GAM Systematic, saw its assets under management drop to CHF35.5 billion in Q1, down from CHF35.9 billion at the start of 2021, as its embattled systematic business also shed assets during the three-month period.
GAM Systematic – which earlier managed a range of quantitative hedge fund and long-only investment strategies that span equities, debt and multi-asset classes – recorded net outflows totalling CHF400 million, though FX and other market movements added CHF300 million, the group said in a statement on Wednesday morning.
That brought systematic assets to CHF2.8 billion
FUNDS
Equity market neutral hedge fund strategies could be set for a reversal of fortunes, as trading conditions normalise towards 2020’s midway point.
RISK MANAGEMENT
Hedge funds and asset managers must design portfolios to successfully weather volatile markets, and “invest heavily” in technology, rather than focus on predicting the next downturn, says Man Group chief investment officer Sandy Rattray.
