State Street Global Advisors has been appointed by the Pegaso Pension Fund of Italy to manage more than EUR60m in active fixed income assets. Fondo Previdenziale Pegaso is a public pension scheme for employees of Italian gas and electric utilities.“We are pleased to be working with Pegaso, one of the premier pension funds in Italy, to provide them with a solution that specifically addresses their investment objectives,” says Marco Fusco, managing director for State Street Global Advisors in Italy.
On 7 September 2010, In Alternative Investments, Hedge Funds, By staff
On 7 September 2010, In Alternative Investments, Job & Careers, By staff
Asset manager GLG Partners has nominated Mark Diab as portfolio manager. Diab will take responsibility for Mena equities within the GLG emerging markets team and will report into Bart Turtelboom and Karim Abdel-Motaal, GLG’s co-heads of emerging markets.“We are delighted that Mark is joining GLG – his knowledge of the Mena region, as well as his broad investment and financial services experience will be an added strength to the GLG emerging markets team. He has a fantastic investment track record and we look forward to the significant contribution that Mark will bring to the firm going forward,” says Turtelboom.
On 7 September 2010, In Alternative Investments, Hedge Funds, By staff
Dublin-based Bloxham has presented the Midas Global Absolute Return Fund, a euro-based fund targeting UK investors. The low/medium risk fund uses Bloxham’s Midas system, which makes an overnight search of over 2,000 stocks and sectors globally. The system identifies technically overbought and undersold opportunities and detects emerging trends, well ahead of more traditional techniques.
On 7 September 2010, In Alternative Investments, Job & Careers, By staff
HSBC has nominated Amy McNally as global marketing manager for HSBC Alternative Investments, reporting to Florence Picon. McNally joins from Barclays Wealth where she was a product specialist covering alternative investments. Her role involved the marketing and distribution of hedge funds, private equity and real estate products both in the UK and across EMEA. Prior to joining Barclays Wealth, McNally worked in JP Morgan Treasury Services on the sales and distribution side.
On 7 September 2010, In Alternative Investments, Job & Careers, By staff
Matrix Group, the privately owned UK financial services business, has appointed Alkesh Chohan as an analyst in its fund of hedge funds group. Chohan joins from TCP Asset Management where he worked as an investment analyst for three years. He will further strengthen the five-strong fund of funds team at Matrix and will be responsible for conducting thorough due diligence on prospective managers and developing existing relationships with fund managers and prime brokers.
On 7 September 2010, In Alternative Investments, Job & Careers, By staff
Insparo Asset Management has nominated emerging markets veteran Graham Stock as chief strategist. Stock will join the core management team, led by chief investment officer Mohammed Hanif, which will be responsible for plotting the firm’s investment direction as it enters its third year. Primarily, Stock will be responsible for generating trading ideas and thematic strategies to capture the opportunities presented by Africa and the Middle East. Stock spent the last 12 years at JP Morgan in a range of senior roles with responsibility for areas such as Ceemea FX strategy in London and Latin American sovereign strategy in New York. For the last three years at JP Morgan, he has led an expansion of the research output and business activity in frontier markets in Africa.
On 6 September 2010, In Alternative Investments, Business Opportunities - Global Investments, By staff
Axa Private Equity has invested in JIT Solaire, a specialist player in photovoltaic energy. Based in the Poitou-Charentes and Rhône-Alpes regions of France, the group installs turnkey electricity generating solar systems for individuals, companies and local authorities, with solutions designed to meet each client’s roofing specifications. The EUR3m fundraising gives JIT the resources needed to maintain its growth and accelerate the development of its business of installing solar panels and running power plants for its own account.
On 6 September 2010, In Alternative Investments, By staff
UK asset management firm City Financial has presented the City Financial Asian Absolute Growth Fund, its first foray into the Asian fund of funds market and its first fund primarily targeted at institutional investors. Capitalising on the strong maturation of the Asian hedge fund market in recent years, the fund is designed for investors seeking hedged exposure to Asian markets, with low fees and a high degree of transparency. In contrast to many of its peers, the performance fee only applies once 10 per cent performance has been delivered, with no catch up. This, coupled with a management fee of only 80 basis points, puts the fund in an exclusive group aimed at offering high returns without characteristic high costs.
The City Financial Asian Absolute Growth Fund offers a concentrated portfolio of 10 high-conviction funds with exposure to growth in China, India and other Asian markets. These funds are meticulously selected by Aoifinn Devitt and the Clontarf team from a field of over 1000 and evaluated for transparency, track record and returns, complimented by personal meetings with a team that spends one month in three in Asia.
On 6 September 2010, In Alternative Investments, Hedge Funds, By staff
Threadneedle plans to present the UK Absolute Alpha Fund in quarter four, reinforcing its absolute return fund range. The Ucits III fund will give co-managers Mark Westwood and Chris Kinder increased flexibility in strategy and fund positioning. Westwood says: “This is an exciting time to leverage our expertise in delivering absolute returns for our clients. With the dislocations of the past few years still fresh in investors’ minds, the opportunity to add value through fundamental and valuation analysis on a long/short basis remain considerable. The Threadneedle UK Absolute Alpha Fund will use the process and techniques that we have successfully employed over the years in our Cayman-domiciled absolute return fund.” The fund is expected to launch in early quarter four 2010.
On 6 September 2010, In Alternative Investments, By staff
Stenham Asset Management has developed its investment team with the acquisition of Montier Partners, a discretionary investment management provider. The deal was concluded on 1 September 2010. Dominique Montier, founder of Montier Partners, with 33 years’ investment experience, and Jeremy Alun-Jones, chief investment officer of Montier Partners with 26 years’ investment experience, will join Stenham’s investment committee, which will now comprise nine investment professionals. Alun-Jones will assume the role of managing director, which will allow Kevin Arenson, currently managing director and chief investment officer, to focus exclusively on investment management and risk control. The rest of the Montier team joining Stenham include two senior research analysts and four business development/client service professionals.
