Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge fund Provider, Fidelity ActionsXchange, has appointed Laura J. Pollard as executive vice president and head of the company. Pollard will report to Larry C. Renfro, president of Fidelity Developing Businesses, a new division that comprises a number of growing businesses and strategic initiatives for Fidelity.
“Working in partnership with ActionsXchange’s management team, Laura has done an outstanding job of leading the company over the past several months, and I am confident that her industry experience, proven strengths as a leader and ability to build strong relationships with clients will position her for success in her new role,” said Renfro. “Laura will lead a talented and experienced management team that will continue its focus on providing the most accurate, timely, and comprehensive global corporate actions information to our clients.”
Pollard, a 19-year Fidelity veteran, will lead all aspects of ActionsXchange’s day-to-day operations. Prior to her new role, Pollard spent the past two years as ActionsXchange’s senior vice president of client services, product development and implementation. Before joining ActionsXchange, Pollard spent four years at Fidelity Charitable Services and 13 years in a variety of leadership roles in Fidelity’s 401(k) retirement services and benefits outsourcing divisions.
ActionsXchange was formed in 1997 to offer corporate actions processing software and outsourcing solutions to financial institutions. Operating as an independent company, ActionsXchange partners with more than 50 major global financial institutions such as banks, asset managers, hedge funds and broker-dealers.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Jacksonville, Florida-based Advantage Capital Equity Solutions is set to unveil its new asset based lending hedge fund at the end of this month according to an article published in FINalternatives.
The Advantage Capital Equity Fund II will locate nonperforming assets and purchase them at a discounted rate such as real estate taken over by banks following foreclosures. Since the subprime fallout hit states like Florida and California the hardest, the fund will start focusing on those geographical areas initially.
“We see a bottoming of the real estate market six to 18 months out but that doesn’t really affect us,” said Bob Parsons, Senior Vice President. “As far as California and Florida are concerned, I live in Florida and we’re starting to see some stabilization in pricing in Jacksonville. There’s no bottom in sight yet for high-rise condos in south Florida but we don’t lend on high rises.”
ABL funds are gaining popularity, mostly because they tend to thrive in the current market conditions. Florida and California have record numbers of foreclosures and show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The foreclosures left an array of opportunity for investors to purchase the properties far below face value. Other asset based lending hedge funds focus on providing loans to developers who are in a pinch and cannot get quick financing from a bank. The hedge funds then tack on high interest rates and build up their pool of capital. If the borrower fails to pay back the debt, the property is then seized by the hedge fund.
The hedge fund has a $100 million target. It follows the launch of their private equity fund, Advantage Capital Equity Fund I, which was launched in May. The firm is seeking a seed investor for the p.e. fund, hoping to raise $74 million.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds! Be sure to check out our sister sites. For more information, visit www.hedgeconetworks.com
Gulf Daily News – A fund designed to tap into the potential for development of molecular and atomic-sized particle technology was launched at the 4th Annual World Islamic Funds and Capital Markets Conference yesterday.
Arbah Global, a Bahrain-based investment arm of Arbah Capital, announced the launch of the Arbah Nanotechnology Fund, which aims to raise around $100 million and run for five years.
The fund’s senior vice-president James Berlino said that nanotechnology could see the kind of growth in technology not seen since the arrival of the Internet in the 1990s and could herald a new industrial revolution.
Nanotechnology is already in use in extremely fine filters used to remove sulphur from oil and has tremendous applications across a wide range of industries, he said.
Mr Berlino said with the world currently suffering from capacity shortages and limitations in everything from food to energy to network and storage compute, the Arbah team intends to invest in companies that can breakthrough these barriers with nanotechnology, and deliver superior products at attractive prices to markets and industries suffering from shortages and capacity limitations
"The opportunity to unleash and capture global demand in so many different industries is remarkable."
Asian Investor – Hedge fund manager CQS has hired Michael Schulz and Laura Hui from the prime broking department of Lehman in Hong Kong.
Schulz is taking the post of risk manager for Asia at CQS. In Lehman’s prime broking unit, he was senior vice-president for portfolio financing and risk management. Between 2000 and 2005, he was senior vice-president for risk management at Lehman in New York, where he was head of market risk for global equities, and in Tokyo, where he was responsible for market risk regionally. Sandwiched between his two spells at Lehman, he helped set up Hong Kong fund of hedge funds firm Alphatraxx.
Joining him is Hui, who will be working as a relationship manager within CQS’s marketing and investor relations team. Hui was previously a vice-president in prime brokerage sales at Lehman Brothers Asia, having joined Lehman Brothers Tokyo in 2005.
With its remarkable output of hedge fund and fund of funds success stories in the last five years, Lehman Asia is very much becoming a ‘billionaires factory’ for breeding alternatives talent. Schulz and Hui follow in a long and distinguished list of Lehman executives joining the fund management industry in Asia, which includes Steve Diggle, Charle Peza, Huy Hoang, Paul Cuthbert-Brown, Paul Sheehan and ‘Billionaire Tom’ Picard.
