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Augentius has received authorisation from the Ministère des Finances, Luxembourg to act as an authorised depositary to private equity and real estate funds under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).
“Luxembourg is an important domicile for us,” says Ian Kelly, group chief executive, “and it is increasingly used as a domicile for private equity and real estate funds. We have already been approved as a depositary in the UK and, with the addition of Luxembourg, we are one of the very few specialist groups able to provide these services across two major domiciles. We are also an Authorised Custodian
Pacific Fund Systems (PFS) has delivered an automated AIFMD Annex IV reporting solution in the latest release of its PFS-PAXUS fund accounting and share registry software platform.
The solution, which is fully integrated into PFS-PAXUS, facilitates the automated generation of an XML file in ESMA format for submission to local regulatory authorities.
This new reporting capability adds to the existing suite of regulatory reporting functionality in PFS-PAXUS.
James Eldershaw, a director of PFS, says: “After consultation with a number of our clients we learnt that they are being approached by their fund manager clients to aggregate and compile
The value of global private equity deals targeting Africa has more than doubled (137 per cent) in the first half of 2014 compared to the same period last year, according to research by global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
Global PE funds completed 15 deals collectively worth USD1.5bn in the period between 1 January 2014 and 30 June 2014, up from 10 deals totalling USD621m in the first half of 2013. As a proportion of total African PE spend (83 per cent in 2014 H1) and deal volume (44 per cent in the same period), global PE firms are now
By Ross Ellis (pictured), SEI – The asset management industry is going through a transformative period dominated by two somewhat conflicting trends: growth and uncertainty.
Revenue growth and operational efficiency are always primary business drivers, but paired with flat budgets and growing regulatory requirements, today’s asset managers often face difficult decisions about future planning.
Business growth is bringing additional complexities across the spectrum of buy-side firms: the client base is extending to include global pension funds and sovereign wealth firms, while the number and variety of managed accounts and investment vehicles are expanding. Meanwhile, the strategies within a firm are broadening
HIG Capital’s portfolio company Onyx Payments has acquired Norway-based Net Trans Services and Spain-based Worldwide Payment Systems (WPS).
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Onyx acts as a global clearinghouse for hotel commissions, processing transactions in over 200 countries and 29 currencies. As a result of the acquisitions, the company will seek to eliminate payment processing barriers and improve efficiencies, while increasing commerce transparency between hotels and travel distributors.
"We are pleased to support Onyx in its acquisitions of Net Trans Services and Worldwide Payment Systems," says William Nolan, a managing director of HIG Capital. “The acquisition will expand Onyx’s geographic
Mid-market private equity firm Bowmark Capital has appointed Stephen Delaney as an investment director and Antonia Cheong and Tom Elliott as investment managers.
Delaney brings with him seven years’ experience in private equity with Darwin Private Equity, where he worked on a number of investments in the technology, financial services and consumer sectors. Prior to that, he worked in corporate finance at Citigroup and KPMG.
Cheong joins Bowmark from DC Advisory, where she was part of the corporate finance team focusing on the business services sector. She has advised on a range of acquisitions and debt transactions, including the GBP85
Preqin looks in detail at investors’ allocations to real estate to assess how they are changing, and how, in light of current investor sentiment, these allocations may be impacted in the coming years.
Institutional confidence in real estate has increased significantly in 2014. The Preqin Investor Outlook: Real Estate, H2 2014, Preqin’s most recent study of institutional investors in real estate, demonstrates that many investors plan to increase their allocations over the longer term as a result of increasing satisfaction with returns.
Allocations
Investors’ average current and target real estate allocations have slowly increased, with the average current allocation increasing from 6.7% of total assets under management
Twelve Capital has closed the latest transaction in its insurance investing business operation – a EUR20m private debt transaction for Alpha Insurance A/S of Denmark, providing Solvency II / Tier 2 compliant capital.
The transaction was facilitated by JLT Advisory Ltd.
The debt instrument is a listed, unrated note with a 10-year-maturity.
John Butler, partner and head of sourcing for Twelve Capital, says: “We are pleased that our private debt product is clearly meeting the capital needs of good quality smaller and mid-sized (re)insurers in our target markets of both Europe and the US. In addition we were
More insurance companies across the EMEA region see themselves as sellers of business units rather than buyers over the next three years, according to a survey by Towers Watson and Mergermarket.
More than 60 per cent of respondents said they expected to divest operations before 2017, up from just 20 per cent who said the equivalent just a year ago.
Meanwhile, the percentage of organisations saying they expect to make an acquisition in the same three year timeframe has fallen from over two thirds (69 per cent) to well under half (42 per cent).
Fergal O’Shea, EMEA life
Palamon Capital Partners has strengthened its team with the appointments of Ali (Alexandre) Rahmatollahi as associate partner and Christian Beck as a member of the firm’s board of advisors.
Rahmatollahi joins Palamon from Morgan Stanley where he spent nearly eight years in its investment banking division, most recently as an executive director with responsibility for financial sponsor coverage. Prior to this he was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company in its general strategy consulting and private equity practices.
Beck is a highly experienced entrepreneur who has been chief executive of several growth businesses including Banqsoft ASA, Sakhalin Petroleum
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