Latest News
Polar Capital has reported a recovery in its assets under management, which increased by 27 per cent from USD1.5bn at 30 March 2009 to USD1.9bn at 30 September 2009.
The company says equity markets have recovered over the past six months, which has benefited its long only funds and enhanced the outlook for its clients, resulting in an improvement in fund flows.
Polar Capital made a loss before tax and share-based payments of GBP0.4m, compared with a profit of GBP1.5m at 30 September 2008.
The company’s basic loss per share was 0.62p (30 September 2008: earnings per share of 0.59p)
Maven Capital Partners, as joint manager of the Capital for Enterprise Fund, has made a GBP2m investment in Pentagon Chemicals, a UK-based chemical manufacturer.
The GBP75m fund is a government backed initiative launched earlier this year to help small and medium size enterprises in the UK gain access to the financial support required to bridge the funding gap caused by the credit crisis.
In April 2009, it was announced that GBP60m from the fund would be allocated to two separate GBP30m funds, one of which is managed by Maven. A further GBP15m is being managed as a co-investment fund by
Offshore law firm Mourant du Feu & Jeune has appointed James Wauchope as an equity partner in the Cayman Islands.
Wauchope (pictured) specialises in all areas of offshore finance and corporate work, with a particular focus on investment funds.
He worked at the City office of Simmons & Simmons before moving to the Cayman Islands in 1993 and was a partner at Maples and Calder before joining Mourant.
Neal Lomax, head of Mourant du Feu & Jeune’s Cayman Islands office, says: “We are delighted to welcome James to the partnership. Hiring talented lawyers who can contribute to the success of
Taxation, directly or indirectly, of the alternative investment industry has been in the headlines on both sides of the Atlantic this week. In the UK, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling announced in his pre-budget report, for the most part a heads-up on next year’s taxing and spending plans, that the government would implement a one-off 50 per cent tax to be paid by banks on bonus payments above GBP25,000.
The proposed tax will include investment and trading businesses within banking groups, which appear to include proprietary trading activities and alternative investment businesses that are part of the groups affected.
Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group has acquired a 40 per cent stake in Medical Park Sağlık Hizmetleri, Turkey’s second largest healthcare services company.
The founding shareholders, the Sancak and Usta groups, will remain as significant investors in Medical Park.
Carlyle’s all-equity investment will be used primarily to finance the hospital company’s continued expansion and reduce debt.
Can Deldağ (pictured), Carlyle managing director and head of the Turkish investment team, says: "We, as Carlyle, are very pleased to invest in a strong, growing company like Medical Park. The Turkish healthcare services sector shows great promise as patient demand
European private equity firm AnaCap Financial Partners is to acquire Banco Popolare Ceská Republika, the Czech subsidiary of Italy’s Banco Popolare, subject to due diligence and regulatory approvals.
Banco Popolare Ceská Republika, which incorporates a seven branch network, is a fully licensed Czech bank that serves corporate and retail customers.
Earlier this summer, AnaCap completed fundraising for a new EUR575m fund which attracted the backing of investors such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners and Allianz.
According to AnaCap, the Czech Republic is uniquely placed within the European Union for rapid but sustainable expansion of its financial services
Transcu Group, a Singapore Exchange Mainboard-listed company, has entered into a SGD72m equity line facility with YA Global Master SPV, a fund managed by Yorkville Advisors of New Jersey in the US.
The investment was sourced and advised by Yorkville Advisors HK.
Transcu, a life sciences company engaged in the research, development and commercialisation of technologies to improve the quality of life, may use the funds for the group’s general corporate and working capital purposes and to further develop its existing business portfolio which includes pharmaceutical, cosmetics and green technology businesses.
Under the terms of the equity line
Current attempts to tighten the regulation of financial services could lead to regulatory arbitrage among countries, according to a survey by advisory firm Kinetic Partners.
The survey, which was carried out by Kinetic Partners at an industry event held last week, found that this may weaken, rather than strengthen, supervision of the industry unless measures are applied globally.
The vast majority of respondents (87 per cent) believe that current attempts to regulate the financial services industry could result in regulator arbitrage among countries if not applied globally.
Sixty one per cent of survey respondents thought Ucits funds would
Upstream exploration and production company Moorland Energy has secured a further GBP7m investment from Epi-V, an investor in oil and gas services.
This follows the recent announcement that significant gas reserves were confirmed at Moorland’s Ebberston South well in North Yorkshire.
The deal will enable the business to fund the design, planning and engineering developments required to optimise gas production at the site and to prepare the well for future connection to the UK transmission system.
Moorland Energy is a vehicle created to acquire licences to extract hydrocarbons from surveyed and partially delineated discoveries.
Epi-V invested GBP10m
Gravitas, a technology solutions provider and business consultant to the alternative investment and financial services industries, has released the first suite of cloud services designed exclusively for alternative asset management firms.
Gravitas’ cloud computing service provides virtual server hosting at secure offsite co-location facilities and hosted applications including email, mail compliance, remote data backup and Voice over Internet Protocol services on a per user, per month basis.
The service also gives asset managers the ability to add computing capacity as it is needed, giving them the ability to scale to very large environments on demand.
“Alternative asset management firms
Special Reports
Featured
Events
12 November, 2026 – 8:00 am
12 November, 2026 – 5:00 pm
