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Updated: 5 weeks 6 days ago

Coffey’s Kirkoswald opens Abu Dhabi office

Fri, 01/12/2024 - 10:12

Kirkoswald Asset Management, the London-based investment firm founded by Australian Greg Coffey, has become the latest hedge fund to establish a presence in Abu Dhabi with the opening of a new office in the emirate, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The report cites official records as showing that Kirkoswald established an entity within Abu Dhabi Global Market, the city-state’s international financial centre, late last month, with Matthew Press, Francois Lagrange and David Hassan listed as the company’s directors.

Coffey, who rose to prominence as one of the best performing traders at GLG Partners before setting up his own firm in 2018, joins a growing list of hedge funds operating in Abu Dhabi and neighbouring Dubai including Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates, Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management, and Michael Gelband’s ExodusPoint Capital Management.

Hedge funds adopting sell-side solutions, says FIS

Fri, 01/12/2024 - 10:03

A number of buy-side firms including hedge funds, asset managers, and insurance companies are adopting solutions from FIS that are historically aimed at sell-side clients, such as its Cleared Derivatives and Cross-Asset Trading and Risk platforms.

In a press statement, the company said that as buy-side clients face pressures to find new revenue streams, reduce risk, drive operational efficiency, and deliver new value for their customers, it is giving these firms new capabilities via its sell-side solutions.

Historically used by clearing members, FIS’s Cleared Derivatives platform has seen new adoption by hedge funds and other buy-side firms in order to access trading venues and clearing houses directly, in turn helping reduce their counterparty risk and freeing up capital.

Similarly, FIS’s Cross-Asset Trading and Risk platform, which traditionally features sell-side capabilities, is expected to improve asset diversification for buy-side firms as well as scale up new strategies for revenue growth. Buy-side clients have been using the platform for features including real-time controls for trading, order management, profit and loss, and general ledger. In the third quarter of 2023, FIS signed new client contracts for this platform with several buy-side firms.

CME to launch options on S&P 500 Annual Dividend Index futures

Fri, 01/12/2024 - 09:52

Derivatives marketplace CME Group is to launch options on S&P 500 Annual Dividend Index futures on 29 January, pending regulatory review, in response to client demand for additional flexibility to customise dividend-related strategies.

The company’s S&P 500 Annual Dividend Index futures traded more than 900,000 contracts in 2023, according to Paul Woolman, Global Head of equity products at CME Group.

The new options contracts are the latest addition to CME Group’s futures offering, which includes S&P 500 Annual and Quarterly Dividend Index futures, Nasdaq-100 Annual Dividend Index futures, and Russell 2000 Annual Dividend Index futures.

Lemssouguer’s Arini credit master fund chalks 32% annual gain

Fri, 01/12/2024 - 09:48

Hamza Lemssouguer, a former star trader at Credit Suisse, notched up a 32% return with his $2.7bn Arini credit master fund in 2023, making it one of the top performing credit strategies, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The report cites an unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter as revealing the gain along with a 26.7% gain for the $544m Arini structured credit equity fund, which Lemssouguer started in May.

According to data from Bloomberg, credit hedge fund returns averaged around 8% last year.

Lone Pine bounces back in 2023

Fri, 01/12/2024 - 04:45

Lone Pine Capital, the $15bn Greenwich, Connecticut-headquartered hedge fund firm founded by Tiger Cub Stephen Mandel, bounced back with strong returns in 2023, following a wave of client redemptions and big losses in 2022, according to a report by Business Insider.

The report cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter as revealing that the firm’s flagship Cypress hedge fund strategy notched up a 20% return last year, while its long-only Cascade strategy, which holds the majority of the firm’s assets, returned 32%.

The funds chalked top losses of 38% and 42%, respectively in 2022, while Lone Pine has also faced a wave of client redemptions over the past 18 months, with clients pulling roughly $3bn from the firm in the 12 months ending July 2023, according to data from Bloomberg.

M&A arbitrage hedge funds benefit as deal activity picks up

Fri, 01/12/2024 - 04:31

Hedge funds that make money from M&A arbitrage are set to benefit amid signs that the deal activity is beginning to recover after 2023 turned out to be the sector’s worst year for a decade, with deal volume totalling just $2.9tn, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The report cites data from Goldman Sachs Group as revealing an uptick in volume towards the end of last year reflecting the strongest level of activity since the beginning of fee current rate hiking cycle with $869bn of deals in Q4. And according to data from Hedge Fund Research, some event-driven hedge funds also surged in December having endured a difficult year.

Funds to see a revival in fortunes include Michel Massoud’s Melqart, which reversed its first-half loss of 4.4% to end 2023 with a 16% gain, and Kite Lake’s special opportunities fund, which recovered from having lost 5.5% through May to post a 10.7% gain, according to Bloomberg’s unnamed sources.

CastleKnight, an event-driven equity and credit firm started by Appaloosa Management alum Aaron Weitman, meanwhile recorded a 16.5% gain from 2023, having been down 6.5% at the end of May.

Two PMs out and one in at Citadel

Fri, 01/12/2024 - 04:25

Multi-strategy major Citadel has parted company with two of its portfolio managers – Matthew Carter-Tracy and Jospeh DiGiacomo – while another – Ben Shapiro – is rejoining Ken Griffin’s $62bn firm, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The report cites unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter as confirming the departures of Carter-Tracy, who was an energy portfolio manager at Citadel’s fundamental equities business Surveyor Capital, and DiGiacomo, and the arrival of Shapiro, who is set to rejoin the business as a healthcare portfolio manager in May.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Shapiro previously worked for Surveyor between 2015 and 2020, before leaving for Balyasny Asset Management.

Private investment software specialist Eleven launches OS 7

Thu, 01/11/2024 - 10:18

Eleven, a fintech providing solutions for hedge and private equity funds, has launched Eleven OS 7, which the company says brings “the new level of simplicity, centralisation, data transparency and data integrity to the global private investment process”.

At the core of Eleven OS 7 are Investor Profiles – secure repositories utilised for completing fund subscription documents, onboarding for KYC and AML and servicing investors. Eleven says the true power behind Eleven OS 7 lies in its ability for investors to maintain and update Investor Profile information across investments.

Eleven OS 7 facilitates changes to information, such as banking or address details, with an intuitive and centralised workflow, while accommodating the diverse, complex and decentralised data requirements, approval processes, and workflows connected to each investment.

Hedge funds increasingly incorporating ESG metrics

Thu, 01/11/2024 - 10:12

The incorporation of environmental and social metrics into investment strategies is becoming increasingly common among hedge fund managers, according to a report by Bloomberg citing research by analysts at UBS Group.

The report cites a note published by the company’s Global Wealth Management business on Wednesday as saying that:
“Hedge funds have continued to step up sustainability integration into investment strategies,” and that there is also “a subset pursuing dedicated sustainable investment deployment via equity long/short and credit strategies, mostly within thematic equities and green, social and sustainable bonds.”

And with the prospect of lower interest rates in 2024, a recovery in green assets is expected to follow which, according to UBS, should in turn “increase confidence for business investment in areas tied to sustainability”.

Hedge funds snag Goldman rates traders ahead of bonus season

Thu, 01/11/2024 - 10:07

Despite bonus season looming large, Goldman Sachs has seen several staff depart its London-based rates trading business to take up new positions at hedge fund firms in recent weeks, according to a report by eFinancial Careers.

The departures, some of which happened over the Christmas and New Year break, reportedly include VP-level rates trader Urvashi Chahal, who is believed to have joined Taula Capital, the new macro fund being spun out of Millennium Management by Diego Megia.

Meanwhile, Pushkar Jha, Goldman’s London head of inflation trading, is rumoured to be joining DE Shaw, while Shahil Ghelani, a European rates trader who was based in Paris, is believed to be joining Nomura, which in November announced plans to expand its trading business in the French capital.