US durable goods orders for June were the latest set of economic data to disappoint coming in at -1% against an expectation of 1% and look to have prompted some light profit-taking on recent capital moves in to riskier assets. The Federal Reserve in its beige book also pointed to a spluttering recovery with sluggish housing and weak consumer demand and this has also weighed on sentiment. (more…)
On 29 July 2010, In Alternative Investments, By staff
On 29 July 2010, In Alternative Investments, Job & Careers, By staff
Financial services industry veteran Jamie Ohl has been appointed as chief operating officer of Wilshire Funds Management. Ohl will report directly to Lawrence E. Davanzo, president of Wilshire Associates. Ohl joins Wilshire Associates from Hartford Financial Services Group, where she was a senior vice president and director of the firm’s retirement plans group. In her new role, Ohl will bring her 20 years of experience in the investment industry to Wilshire to guide the investment, operations and growth efforts of Wilshire Funds Management.
On 29 July 2010, In Alternative Investments, Job & Careers, By staff
BNY Mellon has appointed Mitchell Harris as the sole head of the company’s asset management business on an interim basis. Harris also continues in his role as chairman of the fixed income, cash and currency group of BNY Mellon Asset Management. The company is currently conducting a search for a permanent head of the asset management business. Jon Little, who had been serving as interim co-head of the business with Harris, is leaving to accept a new opportunity in the financial services industry. “Our asset management business has great management strength across our boutiques,” says Robert P. Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon. “The asset management leadership team has demonstrated resilience through challenging market cycles, continuing to provide our clients with strong investment performance and superior service around the globe. I’m pleased that we have the benefit of Mitchell’s outstanding leadership during this transition period and we wish Jon the best in his new role.”
On 29 July 2010, In Alternative Investments, Job & Careers, By staff
Silver Bridge, a wealth advisory firm affiliated with the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, has nominated Kevin M. Fretz as client adviser in the firm’s Mid-Atlantic office. Fretz, who has 20 years of experience in the wealth management industry, joins Silver Bridge from Wilmington Family Office, the multi-family office subsidiary of Wilmington Trust Company. He will be working closely with his former colleague, Benjamin Ledyard, who joined as regional director in 2009, and senior client adviser Kelley Reilly.
On 29 July 2010, In Alternative Investments, Job & Careers, By staff
The board of the Association of Investment Companies has elected Sarah Bates to be the new chairman succeeding Carol Ferguson. Bates will take up her new role from 24 January 2011 following the completion of Ferguson’s three years in office. Bates has been on the AIC’s board since December 2006 and was elected as deputy chairman in January 2008. She has also been involved in various other AIC committees including chairing the SORP review working party, chairing the AIC’s audit committee and serving on the chairman’s committee. Bates has over 30 years of investment experience and has been an analyst, fund manager, head of UK equities, joint chief investment officer and head of investment trusts, most notably at Invesco, which she left in 2003.
On 29 July 2010, In Alternative Investments, By staff
For Ireland, the headlines over the past three years may have screaming about crashing property prices and floundering domestic banks, but beneath the country’s genuine economic difficulties one of its biggest success stories, international financial services, has survived the financial crisis and economic downturn in good shape. Now, for the fund services sector in particular, the pendulum seems to be swinging back from threat to opportunity.
True, the industry has had to grapple with the sharp fall in capital markets in 2008 that depressed the level of fund assets and in consequence the fee income of service providers, but hedge fund managers made up much of their performance losses the following year. Investor capital, so skittish in the weeks and months following the crash of Lehman Brother and the uncovering of Bernard Madoff’s multi-billion-dollar fraud, has been coming back over the past 12 months, at first at a trickle, later in more substantial flows.
It might still be too early to declare the crisis successfully weathered, but fund industry professionals in Ireland are already identifying trends that they believe will reinforce the country’s position as the world’s leading service centre for alternative funds – most importantly the impetus for improved fund regulation and governance that already is strengthening its position as a fund domicile within the European Union.
On 28 July 2010, In Alternative Investments, By staff
As the German and UK 10 year yields continue to gain relative to their US counterparts, it’s important to highlight the fact that EUR and GBP are more positively correlated to their respective bond yields than is USD to the yields of the 10-year note. (more…)
On 28 July 2010, In Alternative Investments, Hedge Funds, By staff
Aviva is launching a fund in the US that operates as a cross between a mutual fund and a structured product, combining liquidity and capital protection. Aviva Investors in the US has announced plans to launch a fund that tracks the performance of four exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with capital protection provided by the purchase of US Treasuries. The Multi-Asset Preservation (Map) 2015 Fund will open for investment on August 30. The fund works like a mutual fund but includes several characteristics of a structured product, such as a special redemption date in 2015 and capital preservation. “The Map Fund has features of a structured product. However, the advisory community is much more comfortable with mutual funds than with structured products.” says Mark Cernicky, product development manager at Aviva Investors in New York. “The reaction has been very favourable. Several advisers have said they have been waiting for a product like this. We think the reason for this is that their clients are sitting in cash and advisers can use this product to get their clients back into the market again.”
On 28 July 2010, In Alternative Investments, By staff
The earnings versus macro economic data story continues to play havoc with risk appetite as capital rotated back into the greenback after yesterday’s poor US July consumer confidence figures. The figures came in at 50.4 against an expectation of 51 which prompted some profit-taking as investors became more risk-averse, sending crude oil to its biggest fall in 3 weeks. (more…)
On 28 July 2010, In Alternative Investments, Real Estate and Property, By staff
Henderson Global Investors has acquired SouthView Gables Apartments for USD40,450,000, including USD23,255,000 in favourable tax-exempt bond financing, on behalf of its Casa Partners IV fund. SouthView Gables is a 424-unit apartment complex located in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, US. The acquisition represents Henderson’s eighth multi-family community in the Twin Cities. With Casa IV currently 82 per cent invested, and expected to be 100 per cent invested by the end of this quarter, Henderson is now launching Casa Partners V. Casa V will target a USD400m total equity raise, representing up to a USD1.1bn portfolio, which would make it the largest fund in Henderson’s multi-family Casa Fund Series to date. Casa V will target an initial equity raise of at least USD100m by the end of this year.
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