Latest News
A record high of 251 fundraising and marketing professionals were hired by alternative asset management firms in the first quarter of 2017, according to data from the Context Jensen Partners’ Q1 2017 newsletter.
Context Jensen Partners (CJP) is a global corporate advisory and executive search firm that recruits capital raising talent for alternative investment managers.
“There is perhaps no better evidence that the industry has come of age than the number of senior professionals now working in a variety of distribution roles,” says Sasha Jensen (pictured), founder and CEO of Context Jensen Partners. “We view the record number of
Quantexa, a big data and analytics company backed by HSBC and Albion Ventures, has opened a new office in Brussels.
Further offices in Sydney and New York are due to open within the next 12 months.
Following on from last month's USD3.3 million fund raising, Quantexa's expansion reflects a growing customer base outside the UK. The Brussels office, with an initial staff of four, will put the company in closer proximity to its clients and forms part of its aggressive international growth plans.
Quantexa's clients include some of the world's largest financial institutions, many of which have extensive
Global Loan Agency Services, the UK parent of the global GLAS companies, has appointed two veteran trust professionals to its global trust team.
Martin Reed and Adam Berman, long-time specialists in corporate trust administration and corporate financial services, will help lead GLAS globally as vice-presidents of corporate trust and agency administration for the Americas and its newly established trust services.
This announcement comes after GLAS Trust Company recently received its US regulatory approval, allowing the organisation to further diversify its current product offerings. The new license offers GLAS the opportunity to significantly expand its market share.
Reed is
CVC Credit Partners’ European private debt business has provided a unitranche debt facility to Buckthorn Partners to support its investment in TWMA.
Buckthorn, a specialist oil field services investment firm, will work alongside TWMA to accelerate its plans for global growth, product and service expansion, and further investment into research and development.
Formed in 2000 and employing over 500 people, TWMA is a global integrated drilling waste management and environmental services firm for the onshore and offshore oil and gas industry. The company has offices and service bases in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa and the Americas.
Ipreo, a provider of workflow solutions and market intelligence to financial services and corporate professionals, has hired Stephen Grady as managing director, head of market structure and strategy.
Grady comes to Ipreo with more than 20 years of industry experience, most recently at Legal & General Investment Management, where he was head of LGIM's global trading team.
Prior to LGIM, Grady was global head of dealing and sales trading at Barclays Wealth. Previously, Grady was head of global dealing for Fortis Investments based in Paris.
He will be based in London.
"Having had the opportunity to
One of the clearest messages that came out of CAIS 2017 was that the world is changing in innumerable ways that have the capacity to shock and destabilise. One only has to refer recently, to Brexit and the outcome of the US presidential election, to appreciate that uncertainty is the only known certainty to contend with in an ever more complex, interconnected world.
As KPMG's Cowell said, headline risk seems to dominate decision making: "It's unlikely that markets will be able to deliver on expectations. Turbulence in China and uncertainty in US markets is causing an institutional shift in investing.
The alternatives industry has a duty to not only defy gravity and deliver strong returns, but to do so in a way that can genuinely change the world for the better, inspiring the next generation of star managers and investors.
Cognisant of its importance, CAIS 2017 focused on philanthropy and impact investing and emerged as key themes among panellists. It demonstrated a collective vision of responsible investing in new technologies and energy initiatives, to make the world a better place. And a commitment to philanthropic endeavours to bring people out of poverty, not just in the developing world, but first
One of the most significant forces of change in the global alternatives industry over the last five to ten years has been the plethora of technological advances. Never has Moore's Law, which argues that the processing power of computers doubles every two years, been more evident. This has come at a time when the gravitational pull of market regulation has stretched fund managers to breaking point, not just operationally but from a cost of compliance perspective.
Technology has been a saviour, allowing fund managers to effectively outsource all non-core investment functions as software providers have developed comprehensive cloud platform solutions;
There was no shortage of idea generation when it came to discussing the various ways alternative fund managers are trying to overcome the gravitational effects of market forces in a bid to boost returns.
As markets begin to normalise, fundamental-focused active fund managers are seeing more opportunities to trade both long and short, while credit markets are offering opportunities, especially for those pursuing relative value strategies to profit from tightening spread ratios between investment grade and high yield corporate bonds.
But this is no time for managers to rest on their laurels. The alternatives industry, as a whole, remains vibrant but
If one were to draw a planetary parallel to the chaos that central bank intervention has caused in global markets over the last five years, then Jupiter, and specifically its Great Red Spot, would be appropriate.
"Eight years after the financial crisis, the world suffers from a debt hangover. Globally we are approaching the limits of monetary policy and the battle of the balance sheet is now becoming the battle for the consumer – customisation is king," says KPMG's Anthony Cowell, when speaking to Hedgeweek at CAIS 2017.
Quantitative easing and a central bank obsession with supporting the global economy
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
