French hedge fund industry rising:
According to InvestmentEurope, The French hedge fund industry is doing well; There is a rumour that ex-Gartmore manager will be launching a 1 billion dollars Paris based hedge fund, BNP Paribas is increasing its alternatives range and Axa IM is bringing a hedge fund specialist from a Swiss company EIM.
The hedge fund, to be named as Verrazzano will be launched by a former Gartmore fund manager, Gullaume Rambourg, who underwent a nine month investigation in the UK by FSA into his trading activities while he was at Gartmore. He was cleared of wrongdoing but his career at London ended also.
Rambourg’s fund Verrazzona will include a team of veterans: Karim Moussalem, founder of Lyxor Asset Management, Murielle Maman, senior investment officer at UBS’ hedge fund section and former Gartmore senior analyst Tomas Pinto.
THEAM (A subsidiary of BNP Paribas investment partners that manages € 50 billion with a team of 120 people) strengthens its management team by the recruitment of three seniors in alternative investments. Eric Debonnet is appointed manager of the Hedge Fund Solutions team. Based in Paris, he will lead a team of 9 people. Thierry de Rycke is named co-responsible of investment in Hedge Fund Solutions. David Gilleron is also named co-responsible of investment in Hedge Fund Solutions.
AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) announced the appointment of Francisco Arcilla to the position of Global Head of AXA Funds of Hedge Funds to manage its 4 billion euro fund of hedge funds unit. He will be responsible for all activities of the platform -fund of hedge funds of AXA IM. He will have the goal to accelerate the development of AXA Funds of Hedge Funds as a provider of tailor-made solutions.
Francisco, who takes office on October 3, 2011, will be based in London and will report to Thibaud de Vitry,the Global Head of AXA IM Investment Solutions and member of the Executive Board of AXA IM.A.
According to HFRX index ,AXA IM have lost 8.14% in performance terms this year.
France’s national seeding fund, Emergence, has been created to boost its hedge fund industry and to offer an incentive to those potential managers considering a French base. It is a joint initiative between several French financial groups, including seeding giants NewAlpha Asset Management (part of OFI asset management) and AFG (the French Asset Management Association). Emergence fund will consider any management firm based in France, and will initially focus on emerging hedge fund managers
Lyxor partners with Old Mutual Asset
Lyxor Asset Management has teamed up with with Old Mutual Asset Managers (UK) to launch the first single hedge fund on its UCITS Lyxor Dimension Platform. The Lyxor/Old Mutual Global Statistical Arbitrage Strategy Index Fund offers exposure to a pure alpha strategy managed by Old Mutual Asset Managers (UK.
Paul Simpson, head of systematic investments and senior portfolio manager at Old Mutual Asset Managers (UK) commented: “Our strategy is a quantitative equity market neutral model exploiting short term pricing opportunities and actively trading large capitalisation equities.” This investment process has been in place since 2007 at Old Mutual and it has proved resilient in difficult market conditions, including delivering double-digit returns in 2008 when equity markets were particularly affected. “It is the first time we are implementing it in a UCITS vehicle and Lyxor is a natural partner for us given our long-standing relationship and its broad distribution network.”
Oddo AM launches European bond fund
Oddo Asset Management (Oddo Asset Management- an independent asset manager in France and in Europe-with 13.2 billion euros in assets under management) has launched a fixed income fund, Oddo Rendement 2017, to provide investors with exposure to the European bond market. The key points of the fund: It will invest in investment grade bonds with a rating equal to or higher than BBB-, as well as high yield bonds graded below BBB-or not rated bonds.A discretionary management will be based on a through analysis of each security, an independent analysis from rating agencies to select companies whose rating does not reflect their quality according to the management team.
Performances since the creation of funds previously dated, launched by Oddo AM *:
Oddo Performance 2013: +30.4%
Oddo Performance 2014: +23.9%
Oddo Performance 2015: +4.9%
Man Group reported large outflows
The shares of Man Group, world’s biggest hedge fund, dropped -24.87% and closed at 180 pence in FTSE after it announced that its total funds under management at the end of September had dropped to $65bn, down from $71 billion at the end of June.
Man said investors withdrew money during a period of relentless volatility in world markets.
Half-year profits would now come in at a lower-than-expected $145m, Man said.
Elliott Advisors seem not to have much interest for Actelion
The hedge fund Elliott Advisors reduced its interest in Actelion (Swiss pharmaceutical company). It now owns less than 3% of shares in the Basel pharmaceutical, as indicated SIX Swiss Stock Exchange Wednesday in a statement.
In early May, Elliott suffered a setback at the general meeting of Actelion shareholders. Elliott intended to take control of the group, with proposing six candidates for the director posts.
Hedge fund strategies more accessible: 20 billion Euros drained by UCITS funds.
The rating agency Fitch Ratings Ltd. totalled about a hundred of credit type Ucits funds ˡ applying hedge fund policies. These types of Ucits credit funds more known as “Newcits2 ” have a goal of optimal performance. After calculation, the amount was assessed at about 20 billion €.
According to research by Fitch Ratings, 10 new funds have launched since the beginning of this year. In addition,Ucits credit Funds have had an increase of 36% since the end of 2009 and 5% since the end of 2010. Insight, Amundi, Henderson, GAM as Threadneedle share about 70% of the sector. However, the international financial rating firm Fitch said that Ucits compliance is not applicable to all credit strategies. This is explained by the levers and liquidity requirements.
ˡ: An Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) is an investment fund that meets the criteria laid down by Directive 2009/65/EC, as amended, and benefits from a passport which enables it to be sold cross-border into any other EU Member State.UCITS funds can be sold to all types of investors.
For detailed information: http://www.carnegroup.com/files/file/UCITSguide.pdf
2: Newcits are hedge fund strategies in a Ucits Investment fund, to make them widely available across the EU.
