Category Archives: News

SkyBridge Capital Opens Office In Seoul

SkyBridge Capital, a global alternative investment firm with approximately $13 billion in assets under management and advisement, has opened an office in Seoul, South Korea. Michelle Cha, who has more than 10 years of industry experience including roles in sales, marketing, global investment and research from various financial institutions, has joined as a vice president… Continue Reading

New Ukraine – Investment Conference – May 13-15th 2015

Empire State Capital Partners, along with its trusted partners and co-sponsors, is pleased to invite you to our annual investment conference, “New Ukraine 2015”, to be held in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 13-15th, 2015 at NSC Olimpiyskiy. Government officials, local business leaders and globally-renowned speakers will take part at the event. The conference will address… Continue Reading

Asia Frontier Capital Newsletter – Country Report: Iraq

AFC Country Report: Iraq – The post conflict opportunity To mark the upcoming launch of the AFC Iraq Fund and to follow up on our recent in-depth coverage of Iraq in our previous newsletter (click here), this month we will be covering the post-conflict opportunity of Iraq. Country snapshots for all of AFC’s markets can… Continue Reading

Catterton Nabs Eton Park Team for New LATAM Fund

Private equity firm Catterton has hired several Eton Park associates to form its first Latin America fund. Former Eton Park executives Dirk Donath and Ricardo Salmon are joining Catterton along with several team members from Eton Park, according to media reports. Donath, who joined Eton Park in 2005 and has extensive experience with illiquid emerging… Continue Reading

Motilal Oswal Asset Management Launches India Zen Fund

Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company (MOAMC) has launched an offshore hedge fund through its Mauritius-based investment management company. The long-only-bottoms-up fund, called India Zen Fund, hopes to raise $100 million by December 2015. The fund will specialize in investing in Indian mid-cap securities with a private equity-style diligence approach, the company said in a statement.… Continue Reading

Soros Ready To Invest $1B In Ukraine If West Helps

(Reuters) – George Soros is ready to invest $1 billion in Ukraine if Western countries help private investment there, and sees a 1 in 3 chance Greece will leave the euro, the billionaire financier told Austrian newspaper Der Standard. Soros has previously urged the West to step up aid to Ukraine, outlining steps toward a $50… Continue Reading

Hong Kong Hedge Funds Reach Record AUM

A new survey by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) shows that hedge funds there have amassed a record $120.9 billion in assets under management, eclipsing 2008’s prior peak of $90.1 billion. The report shows that as of the start of the fourth quarter of 2014, SFC-licensed managers indicated a growth in AUM… Continue Reading

MCAM Group appoints James Han as MD for Asia

Prior to joining MCAM, Han was Group Head of Private Placement Services at KTB Investment & Securities, one of South Korea’s largest independent investment banking and brokerage firms. Before that, he was a founding partner at Straight Wharf Capital Management, an Asian equity long/short hedge fund seeded by Julian Robertson’s Tiger Fund Management. Han’s career… Continue Reading

Carlyle Group Buys Sterling Resources’ Romanian Gas Fields

Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP) announced plans to purchase Sterling Resources’ Romanian gas fields. The news comes just a few days after the private equity fund announced it had raised $2.5 billion to purchase global energy assets. With the slump in oil prices hammering Sterling’s revenue streams, the deal allowed Carlyle to snap up at… Continue Reading

Northern Trust Promotes Burnett to Head of EMEA Hedge Fund Services

Northern Trust’s fast-growing hedge fund administration business has promoted David Burnett to head of Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Based in London, Burnett will lead Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services in EMEA, reporting to Peter Sanchez, global head of Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services, according to a press… Continue Reading

Armajaro Commodities PM Tilney Stepping Down

Armajaro Asset Management’s John Tilney is stepping down from the lead manager role of the company’s flagship Armajaro Commodities Fund. Tilney will become an advisor to the fund, according to media reports. His role will be assumed by Armajaro partner and fund co-manager Oliver Denny. Armajaro’s Commodity Fund is down 5.49% year to date, according… Continue Reading

Assets Surge For Top Emerging Managers

Emerging managers have their work cut out for them when it comes to attracting assets, but recent data shows the majority of the top new funds grew AUM last year. 74% of hedge funds on Hedgetracker’s Top Emerging Hedge Fund Managers list saw equity assets increase during the fourth quarter of 2014, while the group… Continue Reading

Man Group Launches Two New Quant Equity UCITS

Man Group’s 2014 acquisition of Boston-based quant shop Numeric Holdings has resulted in two new quantitative UCITS being debuted to the European market. The Man Numeric Market Neutral Alternative fund and the Man Numeric Emerging Markets Equity fund are both domiciled in Dublin. The Man Numeric Market Neutral Alternative fund is a UCITS-compliant version of… Continue Reading

Rothschild Asset Management Names Michael Woods as CEO

Rothschild Asset Management, the US asset management business of the Rothschild Group, has appointed Michael Woods as its new CEO. Woods joins the firm frrom Deutsche Bank, where he was Head of the Americas, Global Client Group for Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management and CEO of DWS Investments. In these roles, he was responsible for… Continue Reading

Carlyle Raises $2.5 Billion for New International Energy Fund

Carlyle Group has closed on a new international energy fund with commitments of $2.5 billion from 160 investors, according to media reports. The new fund, which surpassed Carlyle’s initial $1.5 billion target, will invest exclusively in oil and gas projects located outside the U.S. Carlyle is in good company. Since the collapse in oil prices… Continue Reading

TPG Capital Names Zubin Irani as Managing Director

TPG Capital has appointed Zubin Irani to managing direct in its operations group in Asia-Pacific. He will relocate to the company’s Singapore office from New Delhi, India. In his new role, Irani will aim to build out the firm’s operations and boost talent management and performance across the firm’s various portfolios, the company said in… Continue Reading

Survey: Hedge Fund Industry “Blind Spots” Persist

The hedge fund industry’s rapid growth and an increasingly complex regulatory environment have fueled differing views on transparency and independent controls among hedge fund managers and institutional investors, according to a new survey by Northern Trust. An overwhelming majority of managers (90%) said that all or nearly all of their investors are satisfied with the… Continue Reading

Emerging Capital Partners Appoints Seyi Owodunni to Managing Director

Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), a pan-African private equity firm with seven offices across Africa, appointed Seyi Owodunni as Managing Director of the firm’s Lagos, Nigeria office. According to reports, his new role will be to source and secure investment opportunities and help lead initiations to drive strategic and operational improvements. “As West Africa continues to… Continue Reading

Private Equity Deals in Africa Hit $8.1 Billion in 2014

The total value of private equity deals in Africa in 2014 hit $8.1 billion, the second-highest level on record. Fueled by population growth and increased political stabilization, global PE interest is rising on the continent. Last year’s total was just shy of the 2007 record of $8.3 billion, according to African Private Equity and Venture… Continue Reading

Asia Frontier Capital Unveils Iraq-Focused Hedge Fund

Asia Frontier Capital Limited is gearing up to launch an Iraq-focused hedge fund by the end of April. The AFC Iraq Fund is managed under the leadership team of Thomas Hugger, CEO, and Ahmed Tabaqchali, CIO, who between them have extensive experience covering the global, emerging, frontier, and MENA markets. The new fund aims to… Continue Reading

Runa Capital invests €3 million in Finnish open source database solution provider MariaDB Corp.

Last week Runa Capital, a venture firm operating globally from its offices in Moscow and San Francisco, announced a €3 million investment in MariaDB Corporation, a global software vendor specializing in high availability, high performance and highly scalable open source database solutions. Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, MariaDB (also known as SkySQL) aims to become “the… Continue Reading