Industry Spotlight Alternative Industry News and Views from the Citco Group of Companies
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Spring 2017 Industry Spotlight Alternative industry news and views from The Citco Group of Companies 2 | Risk: reporting tool launched 3 | Hedge fund survey: innovative approaches revealed 4 | Outsourcing: managers turn to bespoke solutions 6 | Rise of robots: but automated systems can’t do it all 8 | Real estate: REITS grow in Spain 9 | Financing: searching for new sources of lending 10 | Controls: service providers to deliver more information 11 | Tax: OECD BEPS transparency project moves ahead 12 | Gulf real estate: funds seek listings US takes lead 13 | Technology: 3 Survey finds 78% PE firms buy into | targeted solutions of US managers will 14 | Regulatory 15 | Performance try new structures 16 | Beneficial ownership: rules change rapidly Managers’ resilience points to a bright year ahead Kieran Conroy, Head of Hedge Fund Services [email protected] hat a tumultuous year approaching the heady heights ■ Funds return to growth posting positive returns. 2016 was. Who could of 20,000 and practically every So, what is going to happen in In December 2016, the net Wever have predicted it? article about the alternatives 2017? Based on what we see, outflow of funds was lower A new US President elected with industry having some negative not all is doom and gloom. than over the same period approximately 5% fewer votes connotation. How scary is that In the past two quarters the in the past two years – than his opponent, a Dow Jones for all of us in the industry? industry has been resilient, when measured as a page 2 ⊲ The Citco Group of Companies (“Citco”) is a worldwide group of independent financial service providers, established in over 40 countries and serving the world’s elite hedge funds, private equity and real estate firms, institutional banks, Global 1000 companies and high net worth individuals. Companies of the Citco Group provide global alternative investment fund administration, custody and fund trading, financial products, and corporate and trust planning solutions. Industry Spotlight ⊲ page 1 percentage of assets under administration. Citco raises bar in risk reporting More importantly, managers realise that they have to justify New risk and transparency solution works with their existence. They are proac- range of data types and delivers custom reports tively re-examining their fees. Many are more than willing to trade reduced fees for more George Ross, Executive Vice President, Citco Fund Services (USA) Inc permanent capital or the right [email protected] capital. Managed accounts with itco launched a risk-enhanced reporting performance pdf reports with the risk visu- negotiated fee arrangements solution at the end of 2016 that gives alisation dashboard completes the end-to-end covering clawbacks, hurdles or a Cusers an interactive, fully customised reporting solution. derivation thereof are becoming reporting dashboard through the CitcoOne™ The second addition is the risk datamart. commonplace. The days of 2% web portal. The new solution consists of three This enables aggregation of data from multiple (annual management) and 20% key additions: the CitcoOne™ web portal, an sources and is adaptable to a wide range of data (performance) fee structures have aggregated risk reporting datamart and a custom types. It pairs the scalability of Citco’s infrastruc- long since been consigned to the performance and risk analytics engine. ture with data from third-party data providers. annals of hedge fund lore. By bringing together information from Institutional investors, funds of funds, private multiple third-party data sources, the solution equity and hybrid funds have always struggled to ■ A maturing industry provides analytical data enrichment at all attri- aggregate data in non-standard formats. The new All this change makes Citco’s bution levels (performance, statistics, greeks, datamart aims to solve this problem. upcoming Hedge Fund Distribu- ratios…) and delivers a complete solution in a Bringing together multiple types of data tion Trends Survey (see page 3) dynamic customisable reporting interface. from different sources and providing dynamic, particularly timely. It is striking interactive reporting dashboards significantly that the industry professionals ■ Solution is built from three parts broadens the risk reporting solution’s appeal. surveyed felt confident about the The CitcoOne™ risk reporting platform is the Family offices can view performance metrics, industry’s future growth despite first component of the new solution. It provides risk and exposure attribution across all invest- the inevitable consolidation that an interactive reporting interface with instant ment business units. Managers with multiple is occurring. It feels like we are feedback that users can access through desktop managed accounts can view the performance moving to a very mature industry. or mobile devices. It can be customised by the and exposures of their investments individually What is also clear to the indus- user and houses a reporting engine that can run or collectively. Private equity and hybrid firms try’s service professionals is that reports based on criteria selected by the client. can source contribution analysis and benchmark managers really want to focus on Pairing our current suite of custom risk and analysis. By providing look-through analysis, the managing their clients’ money. datamart also gives full transparency into each They are looking to move away level and allocation. from running large back offices. Finally, the custom performance and risk They view this as an area that analytics engine completes this service. For they can outsource to a variety of 30 years, Citco has calculated fund returns service providers. accurately and efficiently, based on standard Each discussion we have with accounting principles and techniques. But clients is different. It is all a matter recently, we have seen a growth in requests for of how comfortable the manager custom calculations. For instance, a hybrid fund is with giving up geographical manager might want to see returns at the issuer access to the team supporting level, estimated versus actual returns or returns them. There is a growing apprecia- in local currency. The CitcoOne™ reporting tion among managers that third- interface has the flexibility to compute returns, party providers can support their performance and contribution analysis based day-to-day needs. on the client’s needs. Family offices and hybrid The manager will need to retain investment managers especially want to use people in-house to support their alternative methods of calculation to review front office, on-demand require- Managers can view performance returns. ments. But they appreciate that exposures of multiple there is plenty of scope for third- ■ Leader in risk analytics party support to free managers accounts individually Citco has always been an industry leader in to focus on what they are paid providing analytics and risk information for to do – manage their clients’ or collectively single manager hedge funds. Approximately 21% investments. of the assets that Citco currently services receive 2017 – here we come. ☐ risk and analytics data. ☐ 2 Spring 2017 Hedge fund survey reveals industry innovation Survey of 223 hedge funds shows how they try new structures and launch new strategies to stay afloat in tough fundraising environment Greg Fenlon, Head of Alternative Investor Services [email protected] t is no secret that hedge funds face a are experimenting with new fund structures challenging fundraising environment. The to attract investment. This figure rises to 78% industry is at an inflection point, with 41% of hedge funds among managers in the US. muted performance continuing for many Big funds are getting bigger as the concen- and pressure growing from investors for a plan to start a new tration of assets among the largest managers Ibetter alignment of interests with regards to continues. These firms are also the most the fees they pay. fund this year bullish about future growth, often through At the same time there are an increasing a diversified strategy involving hedge funds, range of structures for managers to utilise private equity and real estate. It’s clear that when looking to raise capital and myriad these firms are evolving from pure hedge distribution options for funds attempting to ■ Rise of managed accounts funds into true asset managers. tap into investors across the globe. Our research reveals how managed accounts Against this backdrop, Citco Fund Services have become the engine of industry growth ■ Pension funds remain largest allocators and HFM Global have undertaken an exten- in recent years as institutional investors in Despite a number of large US public pension sive survey of 223 global hedge fund managers particular demand more transparent asset funds withdrawing from hedge funds or to get a sense of the challenges and opportuni- structures. For 19% of global hedge fund firms cutting back on exposure, this section of the ties investment management firms see in the these vehicles are now the biggest source investor community continues to be the main current climate. of new inflows, with this rate rising to 28% source of inflows for big managers. The responses were gathered during the last among US managers. Among $1bn-plus firms, pension funds quarter of 2016 from firms running a diverse The data also sets out how far hedge funds were the largest allocator for 40% of managers, range of strategies and are dominated by those are looking to branch out into new strate- compared to an overall average of 27% of global with $1bn or more under management. gies, with 41% telling us they will be starting funds seeing them as their biggest investor. The findings offer unprecedented insights a new fund this year. Long/short equity and This underlines how pension fund money is about how different hedge funds are faring managed futures funds appear to be the most still flowing primarily to the biggest names. in fundraising terms. They also reveal firms’ popular among existing managers looking to Small managers may feel excluded from preferred – and most effective – methods of grow and diversify their product range.