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Fund administrator HedgeServ has expanded its ability to offer real-time valuation of illiquid and complex over-the-counter derivatives using market data from SuperDerivatives, the derivatives benchmark in FX, interest rates, commodities, energy, equity and credit.
"By incorporating SD into our core technology platform, we have enhanced our ability to provide on-demand valuation directly to clients’ desktops," says Jim Kelly, chairman of HedgeServ. "Our administrative solutions provide intra-day trade processing, valuation and risk for complex transactions. With SD’s volatility surfaces, we have increased our capacity to price and value our clients’ diverse portfolios in a transparent T+0 environment."
The joint HedgeServ-SuperDerivatives solution
Rydex SGI has launched four mutual funds that aim to help investors weather the ups and downs of challenging market environments.
The funds are the Rydex SGI Event Driven and Distressed Strategies Fund, Rydex SGI Long Short Interest Rate Strategy Fund, Rydex SGI Long Short Equity Fund and Rydex SGI Alternative Strategies Fund.
With the addition of these new funds, the company’s alternatives line-up includes 12 mutual funds and nine exchange-traded products.
"Investors are increasingly demanding accessible alternative investment exposures to help them diversify their investment portfolios and provide improved risk/return characteristics," says Richard Goldman, chief executive of Rydex SGI.
Prime Management, a provider of fund administration services to the alternative investment industry, is to service three new risk-linked investment portfolios for Elementum Advisors.
Elementum, a Chicago-based alternative investment manager specialising in risk-linked investments, will manage the portfolios and Prime will provide portfolio accounting and fund administration services.
John Whiley, a principal of Prime, says: "We are delighted to have been selected by Elementum to support them in the continued growth and expansion of their RLI business. Prime has been servicing RLI portfolios since 2002 and we are committed to being the administrator of choice for the RLI industry."
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Threadneedle has appointed Mark Burgess as its chief investment officer.
He joins Threadneedle in the first quarter of 2011 and will work closely with Sarah Arkle (pictured), Threadneedle’s current chief investment officer, as she hands over her role and responsibilities to him.
Arkle is retiring in 2011 after a City career spanning over 30 years and will become Threadneedle’s vice chairman.
Twenty seven years ago Arkle joined Allied Dunbar Asset Management, one of the two businesses which merged to form Threadneedle. In 1994 she was one of Threadneedle’s founding members and in 2000 was appointed chief investment officer.
Mutual fund, hedge fund and private equity managers fear the impact of inflation but are optimistic about the prospects for US and Asian equity markets over the next 12 months, according to survey data published by RBC Capital Markets.
The 102 asset management respondents, who manage a combined total of approximately USD4.1trn of assets, also project a slow global economic growth recovery and express scepticism about commercial real estate.
Thirty-eight per cent of respondents selected currencies as the asset class they are most likely to increase in light of the sovereign debt crisis, 37 per cent chose equities and 35
BGC Partners and China Credit Trust’s money broking joint venture, China Credit BGC Money Broking, is the first Sino-foreign joint venture inter-dealer broking company to have been granted a business license by the China Banking Regulatory Commission to operate in Beijing.
Pending approval of product licenses by the People’s Bank of China, China Credit BGC expects to offer interest rate swaps, bonds, and interbank cash deposit products to Chinese and foreign banks in Beijing.
Len Harvey, executive managing director and general manager, Asia Pacific for BGC, says: “Beijing is the heartbeat of the market, as most Chinese banks are headquartered
Alternative assets under management on behalf of pension funds by the world’s largest alternative investment managers remained unchanged in 2009 compared to the year before at USD817bn, according to research by professional services company Towers Watson in conjunction with the Financial Times.
The research also shows that around half of all assets managed by these alternative investment managers are managed on behalf of pension funds.
The Global Alternatives Survey covers five alternatives asset classes: real estate; private equity fund of funds; fund of hedge funds; infrastructure; and commodities.
"Institutional investors continue to diversify into the full range of alternative assets,
The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index advanced 0.20 per cent in the first half of 2010, while the broader markets had their worst half since 2008.
The S&P 500 Index decreased 7.57 per cent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 6.27 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 7.05 per cent.
Bonds have advanced, as the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index increased 5.33 per cent year-to-date, due to increases in treasuries, investment grade and high yield bonds.
“Hedge funds experienced their fourth worse six month start since 1987, when Hennessee Group started compiling the Hennessee Hedge Fund Index,” says Charles Gradante,
Frontier Capital Management, a UK-based investment management company, has named Colin Hodges chief executive officer.
Hodges (pictured) previously held the position of chief operating officer.
Michael Azlen, who founded the company in 2004, becomes executive chairman.
Marc Davies has been promoted to the role of head of investments. He will continue to act as portfolio manager on Frontier Capital’s range of multi-asset funds.
The company’s index tracking hedge fund, Frontier Global Hedge, is managed by Alex Gaitan.
With global stock markets ending the first six months of the year on a shaky footing, the second half of the year poses a number of profitable opportunities for hedge fund managers, according to a report by Lipper.
The report says the argument for a double-dip recession fails to consider that the global economy has never recovered enough from the credit crisis to justify talking about a second dip. A sluggish recovery appears to be the more realistic scenario.
According to Lipper, commodity investing will continue offering interesting arbitrage opportunities to lock in profits for both macro and managed futures
