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.
Wall Street Journal – Hedge fund subscriptions have returned to pre-financial crisis levels and redemptions slowed markedly in August, GlobeOp Financial Services SA, a hedge fund administrator, said Thursday.
The company, which runs middle- and back-office functions for 180 hedge fund firms and other asset managers, including keeping track of money coming in and out of funds, said client subscriptions were more than $2 billion in July and nearly that much in August, marking the first month since September 2008 to exceed that level.
Redemptions of client funds are only $700 million so far in August, sharply down from $6.4 billion in July, and GlobeOp’s schedule of forward redemptions shows “a substantial reduction compared to 2008 and early 2009 levels.”
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Deutsche Bank’s Alternative Fund Services, part of the bank’s Global Transaction Banking (GTB) division, has ranked second among top administrators in Global Custodian magazine’s 2009 Hedge Fund Administration Survey.
This is the first time Deutsche Bank has participated in the survey, which is published annually and includes responses from 1,370 clients of hedge fund administrators around the globe. It is intended to measure service quality and value in 12 categories including client service, fund accounting and middle office services, across a full range of fund characteristics such as size, strategy and location.
“In our first appearance in the Hedge Fund Administration Survey we are very pleased to have ranked second and scored highly in a range of categories,” said Christopher Nero, Managing Director and co-head of Alternative Fund Services within Global Transaction Banking.
In a write-up accompanying the results, Global Custodian commented, “(GTB) has a long pedigree in hedge fund administration too, with operations scattered across Cayman, Delaware, the Channel Islands, Dublin, Luxembourg, Mauritius and Singapore. But in January last year Deutsche transformed its presence in the industry by the acquisition of California based hedge fund administrator Hedgeworks. With staff in Boston and Cayman as well as the Golden State, Hedgeworks helped Deutsche double the size of its business. As it did for the prime brokerage business, the credit standing of the bank has attracted clients.”
Last month, Deutsche Bank announced that its Global Prime Finance business within its Global Markets division received 127 “Best in Class” and 16 “Top Rated and Commended” awards, the most among all global prime brokerage providers, in the Global Custodian 2009 Prime Brokerage Survey.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
alex@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!
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – International financial services provider TMF Group has expanded into boutiqe and hedge funds in Australia through the acquisition of Sydney administrator, Kingsway Taitz Fund Administration Pty Ltd,.
Recognised as a leading provider of boutique and hedge fund administration services in the Asia‐Pacific region, Kingsway Taitz has been top ranked in its peer group for the past two years by the annual Global Custodian Hedge Fund Administrator Survey.
"The increasing demand for our services made it apparent that the next phase of growth required the backing of a global fund administrator with strong financial resources." Brian Taitz, managing director of Kingsway Taitz said “This transaction provides the opportunity to align with a like‐minded global fund administration company that shares our values and culture."
“This transaction brings together two highly successful companies – one global and one local with complementary skills and values, and a shared focus on client service and staff development," managing directors of TMF Eric Koolen and Catherine Caradus, said. TMF has over 175 fund administration clients.
Eric Koolen, who has 20 years of fund administration experience, will lead the combined organisation in Australia. Brian Taitz will continue to be involved on a day to day basis for up to six months to ensure a seamless integration of the two organisations. The company says there will be no immediate changes.
Kingsway Taitz has retained Capital Advice as its financial adviser in relation to this transaction.
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!
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Golden Hedge Umbrella Sicav has launched a multi-strategy hedge fund and is currently looking for seed investors.
The Golden Hedge Multi-Strategy Fund, Malta domiciled, is the first subfund of the umbrella structure, run by Andreas Koettner and Dr. Bernhard Goetsch, the new hedge find specializes in relative value commodity trading and stock index arbitrage strategies.
Targeting an annualized return of 15% with volatility at 8%.The quantitative strategies are designed to generate returns with low correlation to traditional CTA and hedge fund styles. Inception of trading was in May 2009.
Minimum investment starts at EUR100,000 ($142,000) with monthly liquidity. The auditor is Ernst & Young, prime broker MF Global and fund administrator Valletta Fund Services.
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!
Boston Globe – State Street Corp., which specializes in serving institutional investors and wealthy customers, said Thursday it has been selected to provide hedge fund administration services for about $6 billion in assets advised by Caxton Associates.
State Street’s hedge fund administration company International Fund Services will provide accounting, fund administration, tax and risk services to five master-feeder fund structures managed by New York-based Caxton Associates and affiliates.
"Our decision to select IFS as our independent fund administrator was based on their long and significant experience servicing highly sophisticated and complex hedge funds in the industry," said John G. Forbes, chief operating officer of Caxton Associates.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – The second phase of a hedge fund business model case study has been finalized by the Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. GlobeOp is the first hedge fund administrator to be featured in a case study developed for classroom use by Stanford.
‘GlobeOp: Structuring for Hedge Fund Growth, 2003-2008’ follows the initial study that documented GlobeOp’s foundation, strategic decisions and activities during the first three years following its foundation in 2000.
The new chapter documents GlobeOp’s five-year growth from a young business with 400 employees and 82 hedge fund clients, representing more than $26 billion in assets under administration (AuA), to a publicly-listed company with a global service network on three continents. Today GlobeOp employs 1,600 people in 10 facilities worldwide and serves more than 180 clients representing $91 billion in AuA.
"The five-year period discussed in the new chapter details strategic milestones for GlobeOp that were also important learning experiences for us as entrepreneurs and as a service provider." Hans Hufschmid, CEO of GlobeOp, said, "As it concludes at the beginning of a year of unprecedented turmoil for our clients and financial markets in general, we hope this latest installment will provide students with useful insight into the vision, nimbleness and innovation needed as market opportunities and challenges develop. With new market fundamentals now emerging, we believe the focus on client service and transparency detailed in the case study will position us well for the future."
Professor Glenn R. Carroll, who led the study, noted that, "This second GlobeOp case provides an exceptional opportunity to see how an entrepreneurial start-up in financial services was transformed into a mature global organization without losing its technological advantage. We are very grateful to GlobeOp for allowing us access and know that students everywhere will gain from studying the case.”
The case study was supervised by Professor Carroll, Laurence W. Lane professor of Organizations in the Graduate School of Business and (by courtesy) professor of Sociology in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University; and written by Victoria Chang, a Graduate School of Business researcher.
This latest case study segment documents how GlobeOp established a significant presence in India to provide clients with 24/5 services through scale and time zone optimization; hired a chief operating officer to create structured people and process management; and became a publicly-listed company. It also discusses the development of GlobeOp’s focus on people, processes and technology and the creation of new revenue streams through unbundled services in response to new market opportunities.
The study can be accessed on the on the GlobeOp website, it will be distributed by Harvard Business School Publishing.
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!
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Along with an award for Hedge Fund Administrator of the year for their alternative investment services (AIS), the Bank of New York Mellon received 6 other awards at the International Custody & Fund Administration (ICFA) Global Awards 2009 in London.
BNY Mellon also received the award for White Paper of The Year for ‘Inside the Engine Room’, published in June 2008, which examined the operational challenges and opportunities for Nordic institutions.
The Global Awards judging panel included Dr Werner Frey, CEO of the European Securities Forum and Angela Knight, CEO of The British Bankers Association.
"Receiving both the Hedge Fund Administrator and Broker Dealer Custody & Clearing Provider awards shows that the industry has a profound appreciation of how we continue to meet the needs of our clients as their business models converge and evolve." Art Certosimo, Head of Alternative Investment & Broker-Dealer Services, said, "We are offering a unique combination of administration, custody, collateral management and liquidity services that enables our clients to deliver the services and transparency that investors are seeking."
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: alex@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!
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Two new legislations were introduced in Bermuda January 1, requiring regulated financial institutions to comply with various obligations under the recently updated legislative framework, according to Cayman Islands law firm Conyers Dill & Pearman.
The firm said that the updated legislation defines ‘Financial Institutions’ as persons who, among other things, carry on the business of a ‘fund administrator’, or are ‘operators’ of investment funds.
The BMA expects Financial Institutions, under its supervision, to address their management of the relevant risks in a thoughtful and considered way, and to establish and maintain systems and procedures which are appropriate and proportionate to the risks identified.
Investment fund operators and fund administrators are required to appoint a Money Laundering Reporting Officer (“Reporting Officer”) to whom reports should be made and who shall have responsibility to make reports when suspicious circumstances require.
It is a requirement for “non-licensed persons” to register with the BMA by 30 June 2009 using the BMA’s prescribed form and paying the relevant fee. Failure to comply will result in their inability to carry on business activities, the firm said.
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!
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – The recent wave of scandal related to hedge funds and funds of funds has made investors think twice about investing in self-administrated funds, see ‘Andrew Schneider on Nadel Funds’.
Dermot Butler, Chairman of alternative fund administrator, Custom House Group, said, “In today’s new investment environment, more than ever hedge funds and funds-of-funds must have independent outside administrators as a foundation to help rebuild investor confidence and attract new investment capital.”
Fund administrators, such as the $35 billion Custom House Group, provide a range of services to funds and fund-of-funds including (but not limited to), fund accounting, portfolio valuation, NAV calculation and shareholder services as well as anti-money laundering services and reconciliation services and record-keeping functions.
“In anything less than an independent fund administration relationship, there is at the very least a perception that a conflict of interest may exist that could prevent objective verification of a fund’s investment activities and even the existence of underlying assets in a given fund, let alone an objective and accurate valuation of the fund’s assets,” Butler said. “This perceived conflict may occur when an outside administrator is affiliated with a financial institution, with an investment manager, or when the administrator is associated with a hedge fund itself.”
“As stand-alone companies, independent administrators have no affiliations to any outside financial entities, et ergo, no such conflicts exist,” he concluded.
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!
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – In an example of how hedge funds and CTAs are turning to third-party administrators with an eye on offering their investors improved transparency, hedge fund and FoHF provider Spectrum Global Fund Administration has teamed up with with AlphaMetrix LLC, a managed futures investment platform.
AlphaMetrix says it chose Spectrum for their "ability to easily provide estimated daily NAVs and to facilitate semi-monthly liquidity, critical differentiators at a time of heightened investor sensitivity regarding alternative investments." The platform will provide investors with access, research and real-time performance reporting to managed futures funds and commodity trading advisors (CTAs).
“The AlphaMetrix value proposition is built on what we call ‘TLC,’ which stands for transparency, liquidity and custody,” said Aleks Kins, founder and CEO of AlphaMetrix. “In partnering with Spectrum, we have selected the only fund administrator that can produce the estimated daily NAV reporting our clients demand, and handle the increased complexity associated with more frequent liquidity.”
Currently, client assets allocated over the AlphaMetrix Platform total approximately $1.7 billion, which includes both direct investments and managed account tracking.
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!
