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By Sven Bouman, Saemor Capital – Saemor Capital is a specialist systematic investment manager, based in The Hague. Saemor has won a number of awards including long-term performance over five years. Saemor is AIFMD-regulated manager, managing over USD500 million. The company was founded in 2008 with the backing of insurance company Aegon as a cornerstone investor. Aegon decided to optimise its equity portfolio by splitting the alpha from the beta, allowing Sven Bouman and his team to spin off to manage a long/short market-neutral fund investing in European equities.
Saemor has a team of 24, with a highly experienced investment
The Netherlands is ideally placed within Europe, being less than two hours away from the main financial centres such as London, Frankfurt and Paris. It is home to some of Europe’s largest pension plans, many of who are active allocators to alternative investment funds, and boasts a world-class business environment and workforce. Indeed, as PwC point out in a recent report*, the Netherlands was ranked number 7 in the world by Forbes’ `Best Countries for Business’ in 2016.
Moreover, the Netherlands operates an attractive tax regime and incentive programs. Corporate income tax stands at 20 per cent on earnings up
Starting up a fund is a battle, regardless of which jurisdiction the manager chooses. For those with a trading background embarking on their inaugural launch, one location that is perfectly predisposed yet sometimes overlooked is the Netherlands; a mere one hour from London City airport.
Having established the first stock exchange in 1611, (referred to as Beurs van Hendrick de Keyser), and created the first ever asset bubble, produced on the back of fervent speculation on the future value of tulips, Amsterdam has long been the epicentre of trading and innovation.
As a jurisdiction, it leads the way in trading
The Netherlands is home to Europe’s oldest stock exchange, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, first established back in 1602. According to the latest IMF report, its financial system has assets nearly eight times GDP with the largest three banks accounting for 72 per cent of the sector’s assets. They are: ING Bank NV, Coöperatieve Rabobank UA, and ABN AMRO Bank NV.
The country is home to 16.8 million people, it has a stable political and economic climate and in terms of location, Amsterdam is less than one hour from London, Frankfurt and Paris.
According to the World Economic Forum, The Netherlands
UBS Asset Management’s (UBS-AM) Real Estate & Private Markets (REPM) business has made three new hires in its infrastructure area, supporting the growth of the USD 4 billion platform to meet increasing investor demand.
REPM’s global infrastructure platform comprises direct equity and debt investments and is led by Tommaso Albanese, who is supported by a team of over 30 professionals located across five offices globally.
Two of the new hires have joined as Directors on REPM’s Infrastructure Equity team and will be based in London and Madrid, reporting to Bronte Somes, Head of Infrastructure Equity Europe. They will be
AMP Capital has opened a new representative office in Dubai and appointed an Institutional Director, Sudhanshu Garg, who will be responsible for introducing AMP Capital’s real assets capabilities to clients across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
AMP Capital CEO Adam Tindall; Boe Pahari, Director, North West Region at AMP Capital; Andrew Jones, AMP Capital Global Head of Infrastructure Debt; and Garg officially opened the new office at a launch event in Dubai attended by clients and prospective investors.
The office is located within the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority (DIFC), the financial services hub for the Middle East, which
Avedon Capital Partners has held the final close of Avedon III at EUR300 million, substantially above the fund’s target of EUR250 million.
Avedon III investors comprise a combination of institutional investors (banks, insurance companies, pension funds, endowments, fund-of-funds), both from Europe and North America, as well as a group of senior executives, further strengthening Avedon’s network in its home markets.
Avedon III will continue the Firm’s successful strategy of investing in growing, niche market-leading companies, with revenues ranging between EUR25 million and EUR150 million, which are at an inflexion point in their development and are looking for a partner
Apollo Global Management is to acquire a majority shareholding in Catalina. The agreement is subject to customary regulatory conditions, among others, and is expected to close in Q1 2018.
Affiliates of Apollo made an initial investment in Catalina in December 2013 and, as a result of the transaction announced today, the Apollo acquisition vehicle, which is expected to include investment from certain long term institutional and strategic investors, will have a controlling interest in the business. Since Apollo’s involvement in 2013, Catalina has grown substantially, doubling in size over the past three years, whilst maintaining its profitability. Catalina has completed
BlueMountain Capital Management, a private diversified alternative asset management firm with USD22 billion in assets under management, has appointed Brandon Cahill, Sarah Dahan, and Josh Drazen as Partners of the firm, effective 1 January, 2018.
Brandon Cahill joined BlueMountain in 2004. Since 2010 he has been the primary portfolio manager investing in CLO tranches, and also oversees BlueMountain’s synthetic CDO and mortgage strategies. Mr. Cahill is also involved in BlueMountain’s CLO management platform and BlueMountain Fuji, focusing on the capital markets and structuring aspect of the business. Prior to joining BlueMountain, he was an Analyst in Citigroup’s Global Project and Structured Trade Finance group. He attended the University of
Middle-market private equity firm Calera Capital has appointed Edward H Orzetti, former CEO of Keystone Automotive Operations and former CEO of Transtar, as an Operating Partner.
Orzetti will assist Calera in connection with identifying, evaluating, and building attractive platform investments in the automotive aftermarket and other industrial sectors. Calera intends to commit USD40 to USD200 million of equity per investment in a range of transaction types which are primarily focused on family or founder-owned businesses. Transactions may also include recapitalisations of private and public companies, corporate divestitures, and growth equity investments.
Ethan Thurow, Managing Director at Calera, says: “We
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