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International law firm Simmons & Simmons has advised the UK Department of Health on the launch of the global Dementia Discovery Fund.
The Dementia Discovery Fund is the world’s first venture capital fund dedicated to funding pre-clinical research for a cure or treatment of dementia and is a collaboration between the UK Government (Department of Health), six global pharmaceutical companies (Biogen, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company) and the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK. Simmons & Simmons, working as a team with the Government Legal department, advised the Department of Health on all matters related to
Hedge fund launches are under the spotlight in this extract from the Preqin Quarterly Update: Hedge Funds, Q3 2015.
Alternative mutual funds saw a significant rise in their share of new fund launches in Q3 2015. These structures accounted for 13 per cent of the new launches monitored by Preqin’s Hedge Fund Analyst, a 10 percentage point increase on the previous quarter (Fig 1). Their European equivalent, UCITS vehicles, also accounted for 13 per cent of fund launches in Q3 2015, an increase from 9 per cent in Q2 2015. Single-manager hedge funds maintained their dominance: these funds
This extract from the Preqin Quarterly Update: Real Estate, Q3 2015 examines current closed-end private real estate funds in market, looking at target capital, primary geographic focus, time spent on the road and a sample of the largest funds currently fundraising.
The number of closed-end private real estate funds in market has increased slightly since Q2, with 463 vehicles currently seeking USD160 billion in capital (Fig 1). The make-up of funds in market at the start of Q4 2015 remains relatively consistent, with the majority of funds in market and aggregate target capital focused primarily on North America (Fig 2).
Private equity firm GTCR has closed the previously announced sale of AssuredPartners to Apax Partners.
Founded in 2011, AssuredPartners is the an independent P&C insurance brokerage with offices in over 30 states, the District of Columbia and London. Through Assured’s network of agencies, the Company provides property and casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage services to commercial enterprises and individuals.
In executing the Leaders Strategy, GTCR partnered with long-time insurance brokerage industry leaders Jim Henderson and Tom Riley to form AssuredPartners in 2011. Henderson and Riley had over 50-years of combined experience in the insurance brokerage industry, with specific experience
Private investment firm Lindsay Goldberg has appointed Eric Fry as a Partner.
Fry has more than 22 years of private investing experience and most recently was a Managing Director in Morgan Stanley’s global private equity group.
Alan Goldberg, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lindsay Goldberg, says: “Having known Eric for many years and worked with him closely, Bob and I are excited to have him join our firm. Eric’s strong investing expertise and his background are an excellent fit with our long-term, family-oriented investment culture.”
Bob Lindsay, Co-founder and Chairman of Lindsay Goldberg, says: “Eric’s deep experience and focus will
BCG Digital Ventures (BCG DV) has launched first BCG DV Hatch in the Bay Area. DV Hatch is a corporate incubator dedicated to funding, incubating and scaling internally developed IP and start ups.
Henry Vogel, former co-founder and CEO of social recommendation search engine Raved which BCG DV purchased last year, will lead global operations for DV Hatch along with the firm’s broader innovation and incubation efforts as a Partner and Managing Director.
DV Hatch will be connected to BCG DV’s global network of innovation centres in Manhattan Beach, London, Berlin and Sydney. BCG DV plans to open DV Centers
In May 2014, MS Management Services SA, a Luxembourg-based subsidiary of the Maitland group, a leading global fund administrator, received authorisation from the CSSF to act as a third-party AIFM to alternative investment funds. At the same time, it established its own umbrella fund platform, MS SICAV SIF, to support managers wishing to fast track the process of launching a readily passportable EU product.
Kavitha Ramachandran (pictured), Director of MS Management Services, notes that managers in Europe are increasingly aware that the AIFMD brand is becoming popular with investors. "Initially, people were trying to look for ways to avoid it
Collaboration is extremely important for any service provider looking to do business in Luxembourg and in that respect, Circle Partners (`Circle'), an independent fund administrator, is no exception.
Having first established a footprint in the Grand Duchy in 2011, Circle has invested considerable time and money and is now beginning to see the fruits of its labours as it prepares to establish an umbrella SIF. The platform will act as an incubator for managers wishing to create a sub-fund as opposed to taking on the burden of establishing their own standalone fund structure.
Michel van Zanten (pictured) is a Switzerland-based director
One of the biggest challenges of AIFMD is that it directly impinges on investment activities at the manager level, as opposed to the fund level under the UCITS IV framework. This has required a shift in mindset, not just for managers, but also fund authorities in well-established fund jurisdictions such as Luxembourg.
For Luxembourg to take full advantage of AIFMD, it needs to build on its success as a UCITS hub by also becoming a manager hub. One where global investment managers use the Grand Duchy to establish management company operations, or appoint a third party AIFM, and run their
This summer, to further enhance the strength of its global network, BNP Paribas Securities Services) (BNP Paribas) chose to integrate EY's Global Fund Distribution (GFD) product into its wider Fund Distribution Services (FDS) offering. This gives clients access to a comprehensive range of information to help them determine which product to distribute, which jurisdiction(s) to choose, which investors to target and the most appropriate distribution channels.
As Jean Devambez, head of asset and fund solutions at BNP Paribas Securities Services said at the time, the partnership with EY gives clients "access to a wealth of information at the click of
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