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eVestment in the media
Pensions & Investments: Consultants group backs template from ILPA that pushes transparency
Institutional Limited Partners Association, Washington, unveiled a revised version of its Diversity Metrics Template in November to reflect market changes. The template was first released in 2018 to standardize diversity, equity and inclusion information received by asset owners during manager due diligence. The IIDC has been working with eVestment LLC since 2021 to gather diversity data from traditional managers, resulting in 609 equity and fixed-income managers providing diversity data on about 6,200 investment strategies.
Institutional Investor: Could Market Turmoil Hurt Emerging Manager Programs?
“We’ve been seeing increases in [the size of] mandates to emerging managers,” Peter Laurelli, global head of research at eVestment, told Institutional Investor. “[Even] in periods where the volume might be cyclically lower, it’s still increasing over time, so that’s encouraging for interest in emerging manager exposure.”
Yahoo Finance: Former Goldman Sachs Partner’s Hedge Fund Pivots Away From China
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner Ryan Thall is pivoting his hedge fund firm away from China investments, as Beijing’s credit tightening in the property sector and zero-Covid policies weigh on the economy. Thall’s Asia-focused hedge fund returned almost 6.8% in the first quarter, driven by bullish bets on energy and materials as well as bearish wagers on China, according to the letter. Just over one-fifth of Asia-focused hedge funds ended the quarter with positive performances, preliminary data from eVestment showed late last week.
Pensions & Investments: Measuring asset managers’ DEI devotion
After completing a research report that showed a strong link between the diversity of money management companies’ ownership and the level of diversity within their investment teams, Ashley Zohn, vice president of the learning and impact program of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami, saw the need for even more research. The research team, which included Ms. Zohn and Candice Rosever, principal at Global Economics Group LLC, Chicago, an economics consulting firm, analyzed the results from a DEI survey conducted by eVestment. The research also found that only 204 of the 1,096 U.S.-based non-public money managers surveyed provided data on both ownership and investment teams, the report said.
FundFire: Pensions Show Record Appetite for Infrastructure
Public pensions are funneling capital into infrastructure strategies as they seek to diversify their portfolios and hedge against inflation, with many also steering clear of oil and gas. Pensions in the U.S., U.K., and Canada committed a record $7.3 billion to infrastructure in the fourth quarter of 2021, data from eVestment shows. The data skews toward U.S. funds, an eVestment spokesperson said. Data for the first quarter of this year is preliminary and the amount will increase with additional reporting and data collection. Data was available from the first quarter of 2018.
Institutional Investor: How to Get a Deal on Investment Fees
Asset owners may have more leverage in fee negotiations with managers than they think. Peter Laurelli, global head of research at Nasdaq-owned eVestment, compiled fee data from managers of different equity strategies and compared it to the actual fees paid after investors negotiated with their managers. He also compared the size of the allocation to the fees paid. The study found that there is no direct correlation between outperforming strategies and higher management fees.
FundFire: Pensions Poured Record Capital into Private Credit in Q4
The search for yield led public pensions to collectively commit a record $13.4 billion to private credit in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the latest data from eVestment. Private credit commitments in 2021 totaled $40 billion, the data shows, topping the previous year’s record of $35 billion.
Portfolio Institutional: Commodities fuelling hedge fund returns
Given the multi-faceted and frenetic picture of what is happening in commodities, it is unsurprising that hedge funds focused on the asset class were the strongest performers in February, with an aggregate return of +4.32%. They also take first place in the year to date at +8.55%. This followed a strong 2021, where commodity-focused hedge funds were among the highest yielders with an aggregate return of +20.87%, according to eVestment.
P&I: Diverse-owned managers tend to have more diverse investment teams – study
Knight Foundation noted in a report about the study that this analysis was based on data collected through a survey conducted by eVestment, a Nasdaq platform that provides institutional investment data, Of the 1,096 non-public U.S.-based companies in eVestment’s dataset, 204 firms, or 19%, provided data on both ownership diversity and investment team diversity. These responding companies manage an aggregate $3 trillion, or 8%, of the $37.3 trillion in assets overseen by all U.S.-based firms in eVestment’s database.
Opalesque: Investors pour $10bn into hedge funds in February, continue to flee credit strategies
“Whether annual net flow has gone on to be positive or negative, every single year since 2010 February’s data has shown net inflows into the industry, and this February is no different,” said eVestment Global Head of Research Peter Laurelli. “The average February net inflow over the prior five years is almost $11 billion, which puts this February almost in line with the recent past.”
Wealth Manager: Nine investment giants join Black Women in Asset Management
According to data supplied to eVestment in September 2021, around the world white men hold around 54% of key positions at asset management firms. By comparison, black males account for 1.73% of key roles and black women hold even less at 0.55%.
Bloomberg: A $900 Million Hedge Fund Splits From Omni Partners to Go Solo
Event-driven money managers are drawing investors’ interest after returning an average 16% last year amid a flurry of deal making, outperforming a 9.7% rise across all hedge funds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Such vehicles raised about $3.7 billion in 2021 when the entire industry received about $14 billion in inflows, data from eVestment shows.
Yahoo Finance: The AIF Institute Announces Fellows Program and Inaugural Cohort of Investments Thought Leaders
AIF Global, an independent economic think tank with the mission of fostering the exchange of best ideas, practices, and information among institutional investors globally, has announced the AIF Institute Fellows Program. The inaugural Fellows class will be led by two Co-Chairs: Former Florida State Board of Administration Executive Director and CIO and Former AIF Investor Board Chair Ash Williams and Nasdaq Asset Owner Solutions COO and Former Employees Retirement System of Texas Deputy CIO Sharmila Kassam.
FundFire: Fixed Income Flows Slow Amid Volatility, Rate Uncertainty
Institutional net flows into active U.S. fixed income strategies slowed to $14.1 billion during the fourth quarter, down 25% from the $56.3 billion recorded the prior quarter, according to eVestment data. “Given the fact that we saw some significant market volatility at the end of the [fourth] quarter, I think that’s fairly indicative of some investor concerns,” said Mike Cho, senior research analyst at eVestment. “[The flows into cash are] certainly larger than we’ve seen in the past year.”
Markets Media: Nasdaq eVestment Provides Private Fund Manager DEI data
Qualifying investors can receive free access to private fund manager diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) data via the Nasdaq eVestment platform, a provider of institutional investment data and analytics to asset owners and asset managers. The release of this data will increase transparency for asset owners who are increasingly looking for visibility into the DEI efforts of private fund managers, enabling them to view DEI data firm-by-firm.
Opalesque: Public pension allocations to private funds grew by 18% YoY in 2021
According to new data published this week by Nasdaq Private Fund Solutions, allocations to private funds from public pension plan allocators grew by 18% YoY to a total of $190.8 billion, according to the just-released Nasdaq Private Fund Trends Report 21/22. This figure represents over 2,300 commitments across private equity, private debt, real estate, and real assets.
Bloomberg: BlueCrest Is on a Hiring Spree Amid Commodities Boom
Private investment firm BlueCrest Capital Management, co-founded by billionaire Michael Platt, has been on a hiring spree for traders who can cash in on a blistering rally in commodities, people familiar with the matter said. Commodities-focused hedge funds raised about $9.6 billion last year, triple the amount they collected a year before, according to eVestment data.
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s Most Viewed Hedge Funds in January 2022
Melbourne, Australia-based L1 Capital’s Long Short Fund was the most viewed hedge fund product on the eVestment platform in January, a new entry. Bridgewater Associates took second and third spots with Pure Alpha Major Markets and All Weather 12% Fund, respectively. 1060 Capital Management’s 1060 Opportunity Fund and FengHe Fund Management’s FengHe Asia Fund rounded out the top five.
Financial Times: Brookfield expands hedge fund business into Europe
Data group eVestment noted that “2021 will go down as a year dominated by multi-strategy hedge funds”, noting that the bulk of the hedge fund industry’s inflows last year went into this sector. Such funds, which often give autonomy to trading teams within strict risk limits, gained 10.5 per cent on average last year, according to eVestment, just ahead of the overall industry’s average gain.
Reuters: Equities hedge funds outperform in 2021 despite volatility and retail surge
Stock-picking hedge funds globally outperformed the broader sector with double-digit returns in 2021, despite a year beset by volatility and a new force of unpredictable retail traders flooding into the market to support “meme stocks.” On average, equities hedge funds made gains of 12.3% in 2021, compared with 10% for peers more generally, according to data from industry tracker eVestment.
The Asset: Hedge fund industry reports 10% return for 2021
The global hedge fund business returned +1.58% in December 2021, bringing the aggregate return for the industry for the year to +10.00%, according to just-released data from eVestment, a market intelligence provider under Nasdaq. Almost 80% of funds reporting to eVestment posted positive results for 2021, with the average positive return coming in at +15.55%. For the small minority of funds that landed in the red for the year, the average return was -7.32%.
Opalesque: Hedge fund business closes out 2021 with majority of funds reporting positive returns
The global hedge fund business returned +1.58% in December, bringing the aggregate return for the industry for 2021 to +10.00%, according to the just-released December and year-end 2021 eVestment hedge fund performance data. Almost 80% of funds reporting to eVestment posted positive results for the year, with the average positive return coming in at +15.55%. For the small minority of funds that landed in the red for performance in 2021, the average return was -7.32%.
FundFire: Institutions Expect Active Outperformance in 2022
Institutional active equity strategies have been yielding ground to their passive counterparts for years, posting annual net outflows each year since 2011, according to eVestment data. The outflows have come as institutions have gradually shifted their portfolios to more passive management. For example, public pension assets were just 72.9% actively managed in 2021, compared to 80% in 2015, as reported.
Portfolio-Institutional: Fixed income set for market shift
The past year has thrown up some divergent market ebbs and flows and the third quarter was no exception with institutional investors deserting active equities in favour of bonds and passive strategies. Active equities reported net outflows of -$83.9bn (-£63.3bn) during the period, largely thanks to a -$67.1bn deficit in US actively managed shares, according to eVestment. Equities listed outside of the US performed better with -$16.8bn of net flows, which was a big improvement on the -$51.9bn recorded in the second quarter.
Yahoo Finance: Ken Griffin’s Citadel Beats Multistrategy Rivals Gaining 26% in 2021
Multistrategy funds broadly rose 8.3% last year through November, and they saw more inflows than any other strategy — attracting $28 billion from investors for the period, according to eVestment. Investors flocked to these funds to diversify their portfolios and to gain exposure to investments that aren’t correlated to the stock market. The S&P 500 index rose 27% last year, while the Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Index fell 2.3%. The eVestment Hedge Fund Aggregate index gained 8.4% in 2021.
HedgeWeek: India-focused hedge funds soar 40 per cent in 2021
India-focused funds are set be the “big performance winners” in 2021, eVestment said on Wednesday, despite losing more than 2 per cent in November. “With what has generally been a strong year for the hedge fund business nearly over, the business stumbled a bit in November,” eVestment said on Wednesday, noting that the industry dipped some 2.16 per cent last month on average.
FundFire: Managers March into New Markets, Armed with Tech and Partnerships
The pandemic brought delays and fewer opportunities for in-person meetings, so Jupiter increased its efforts to market its strategies through the institutional databases of eVestment, Mercer and Cambridge, said Carrington, Jupiter’s head of U.S. distribution. Making an upfront investment to establish a “storefront” by updating industry databases, categorizing investment products in the right universes and making sure information is an easy to find, increases ease of access for potential clients searching for the firm or the firm’s products, he said.
Reuters: Hedge funds set to end 2021 with inflows for first time in three years
According to eVestment data, multi-strategy funds and managed futures funds were the biggest recipients of cash into hedge funds between January and October this year, taking in $24.7 billion and $13.1 billion respectively.
FundFire: OCIO Data to Power Peer Universe Tool for eVestment, Solovis Platforms
Alpha Capital Management has provided data from its outsourced chief investment officer, or OCIO, indices to power a new peer universe tool for use on the eVestment and Solovis platforms, both of which are owned by Nasdaq, the firms announced Tuesday.
Reuters: Hedge fund Cinctive sees potential bargains as volatility roils markets
People familiar Cinctive’s portfolio said it navigated the extreme volatility spurred by the initial wave of the coronavirus in March 2020 by having tracked supply chain issues and the health impact early and having cut risk dramatically. While investors added fresh cash to hedge funds this year after taking money out in 2020, industry analysts at eVestment note that the pace of inflows has begun to slow in the last weeks.
Financial Times: Hedge Funds Wage Pandemic Battle For Top Traders
Helped by diversified portfolios and an ability to slash or raise their level of risk quickly, multi-manager funds including Millennium Management and Citadel have been among the industry’s winners in the wild markets of the past two years. Assets in the sector, which includes firms such as New York-based ExodusPoint, Balyasny and Steve Cohen’s Point72, have ballooned by more than $100bn during the pandemic to $620bn, according to eVestment data.
HedgeWeek: Hedge fund flows rebound in October, as new data suggests growing capital concentration
New industry data published by eVestment shows allocators added USD7.22 billion to the industry overall during October, a strong start to the final quarter of 2021 which helped partially offset the USD8 billion which was pulled out of hedge funds during September.
Institutional Investor: Two Sigma’s Venn to Integrate eVestment Data into its Analytics
Hedge fund giant Two Sigma has announced plans to integrate data from eVestment, an institutional investment data provider, into Venn, its portfolio analytics platform. Two Sigma has a reputation for expertise in data science and technology trends, a market position it hopes to strengthen through the strategic alliance.
Yahoo Finance: Two Sigma and eVestment to Provide Enhanced Investment Data through Venn
Two Sigma, through its portfolio analytics platform Venn®, and eVestment, a Nasdaq company and a global leader in institutional investment data and analytics, today announced a strategic alliance under which eVestment data will be integrated into the Venn platform. The new alliance significantly enhances the scope of investment data available through Venn, and will allow clients of both eVestment and Venn to complete more of their analysis via one technology platform.
Institutional Asset Manager: Fixed income investments continue to see inflows, says eVestment
Long-only asset managers reported Q3 2021 institutional assets under management of USD36.4 trillion to eVestment, according to the just released eVestment Traditional Asset Flows report covering the third quarter of 2021.
FundFire: Institutional capital flows into niche markets for diversification
Institutional investors are largely sticking with their long-term allocation targets but some have made marginal strategic changes, leading to pronounced upticks in some smaller investment universes, data from eVestment shows.
HedgeWeek: Hedge funds start Q4 on a high note with majority in the black
The global hedge fund business started the fourth quarter of 2021 on a high note, with aggregate industry performance at +1.88 per cent in October and just over 70 per cent of funds reporting to eVestment seeing positive results for the month, according to the just-released October 2021 eVestment hedge fund performance data.
The Asset: APAC-domiciled investments gain traction
Asset managers based in Asia-Pacific have seen their investment strategies gaining interest outside the region, with non-APAC views captured by their products hitting a record high in the third quarter of 2021, data from Nasdaq’s eVestment platform show. “According to our data, products managed by firms domiciled in Asia-Pacific are attracting a larger proportion of the views from investors and consultants outside the region, hitting a record high in the third quarter of 2021. Managers with database marketing enjoy global exposure and are better supported in their effort of raising assets outside APAC,” says John Molesphini, global head of insights at eVestment.
Private Equity Wire: Nasdaq Private Fund Manager DEI Data available free to investors from February, 2022
Nasdaq is to collect and make its private fund manager diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) data available for investors free of charge via the Nasdaq eVestment platform in an effort to improve transparency and disclosure standardisation across the industry. The data will be available starting on 16 February, 2022. “Fund managers have experienced significant challenges in trying to comply with requests from investors asking for different data points in varying formats,” says Katey Bogue, Vice President and Head of Nasdaq Private Fund Solutions. “Through our collaboration with ILPA and FCLTGlobal we hope to provide an efficient and streamlined framework for DEI disclosure and enhanced transparency for the investment community.”
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in October 2021
Select Equity Group’s SEG Partners Fund was the fund that received the most views overall by eVestment’s investor and consultant subscriber base last month, a new entry. Graham Capital Management’s Graham Quant Macro Portfolio was second and Renaissance Technologies’ Renaissance Institutional Diversified Global Equities Fund (RIDGE) was third.
CityWire: October’s most popular PM searches
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level in October.
Asian Investor: APAC firms flock to global fixed income in 2021
The pandemic has made 2020 a year of high market volatility, and APAC asset managers have responded by allocating their investments to the fixed income space, according to an eVestment Asset Flows report. The report identified the top 10 areas of success for asset flows by Asia Pacific (APAC) managers from 2020 to end June, 2021, and the data showed big positive reversals in allocation to fixed income universes — particularly in global government fixed income and global passive fixed income.
Institutional Asset Manager: Nasdaq Asset Owner Solutions appoints Chief Operating Officer
Sharmila (Shar) Kassam has joined the newly formed Nasdaq Asset Owner Solutions as Chief Operating Officer (COO). “The launch of Nasdaq Asset Owner Solutions creates tremendous opportunity for investors to have better insights, technology and more transparency across asset classes, ESG and DEI as they work to make the best decisions for their stakeholders,” says Kassam. “I am excited to join the team and continue to expand on the solutions that were uniquely designed for the asset owner community.”
FundFire: Hedge funds hit outflows in September, slowing a rebound year
Hedge funds hit a rough patch in September, shedding nearly $8 billion, a down note in an otherwise positive third quarter and overall strong year for inflows, according to a new report from eVestment. Hedge funds ended the third quarter with slightly over $30 billion in net inflows for the full year, but only posting $1 billion in net inflows for the quarter itself. The dampener was the final month of the quarter that had $7.99 billion in net outflows, according to Peter Laurelli, eVestment’s global head of research.
Portfolio Institutional: Diversity challenges put into perspective
Industry-wide efforts to promote a more diverse investment industry are gaining momentum but defining what needs to be achieved is still to be decided, finds Andrew Holt. New data offers further insight into the challenges facing asset managers when it comes to diversity, with a new white paper offering some solutions. Most key professional positions at asset managers globally are largely held by white men (54%), according to eVestment. The second largest group of key professionals are Asian men, at around 12%, followed by white women at 9.1%. Black males make up less than 2% of key asset management professionals while black women hold just 0.55% of positions.
Top 1000 Funds: Diversity: How can we measure progress if we don’t have the data?
One year into this initiative, our data partner eVestment reports that 947 asset managers have provided diversity data on nearly 9,000 products. This is over 37 per cent of the active products in their traditional manager database. Membership in the IIDC has grown from 17 original founding members to 24 today, and more are engaged in discussions to join.
Pensions & Investments: Sweden’s AP1 seeks emerging markets small-cap equity managers
AP1, Stockholm, is searching for emerging markets small-cap equity managers to run a $730 million allocation, a spokeswoman confirmed. The 432 billion Swedish kroner ($49 billion) pension fund, as part of its investment process, tenders all mandates periodically. AP1 will decide on the number of managers that will be selected based on the result of the search and the size of the allocation when the search is complete. Applications should be sent by Nov. 30. All of AP1’s existing managers can rebid. AP1 also wants applicants to update their strategies in the eVestment database.
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in September 2021
FengHe Fund Management’s FengHe Asia Fund was the most viewed alt/hedge fund product by subscribers to eVestment’s platform last month. The rest of the top five – Soleus Capital’s Soleus Capital Master Fund, L.P., Bainbridge Partners’ Aperio Master AlphaStrategy Ltd. Fourthstone LLC’s Fourthstone Master Opportunity Fund Ltd and East Lodge Capital Partners’ East Lodge Capital Credit Opportunities Fund – were all new entries when compared to last month.
AM Watch: AP1 looks for new EM small-cap managers
AP1 uses financial data company eVestment for monitoring performance and selecting external managers. There are currently 81 active strategies in the universe Global Emerging Market Small Cap Equity divided among 72 different asset managers, data provided by eVestment to AM Watch shows.
Yahoo Finance: October 20th Institutional Diversity & Inclusion Summit to Highlight State of D&I in Institutional Investment, Next Steps
eVestment, a part of Nasdaq and a global leader in institutional investment data and analytics, has teamed up with the Institutional Investing Diversity Cooperative (IIDC), a consortium of investors and investment consultants, to host an Institutional D&I Summit. During the virtual summit, institutional asset managers will learn how top consultants and other allocators factor D&I data into manager research, advise investors on D&I and use D&I data in manager evaluations.
Zawya: Hedge fund inflows, performance in August raise AUM to $3.662trln
The global hedge fund business is continuing to set new AUM records, reaching $3.662 trillion in August 2021, according to a report by Nasdaq-owned eVestment. “This year has been a good one for hedge fund AUM growth, and August net flows and performance continued the trend,” said eVestment Global Head of Research and report author Peter Laurelli.
Yahoo Finance: U.S. hedge fund Verition plans Singapore office, eyes Hong Kong
Verition Fund Management is the latest international multi-manager hedge fund to make a foray into Asia, eyeing the region’s fast-expanding capital markets and growing talent pool. Multistrategy funds have attracted nearly $24 billion of fresh capital in the first eight months of 2021, making them the biggest asset winners in a volatile year for hedge funds, according to eVestment data.
Bloomberg: A $1.8 billion hedge fund soared 120% during the Covid-19 pandemic
Castle Hook, which uses macro economic analysis to bet across asset classes, is emerging as one of the biggest beneficiaries of a recovery in asset prices since the spread of Covid-19 infections locked economies across the globe and forced governments to intervene. The money making spree has revived interest in the industry with investors pouring $38 billion into hedge funds this year and pushing assets to record levels, data compiled by eVestment shows.
CityWire Asia: Hedge fund winners and losers in August
Investors added another $12.03bn to hedge funds in August, taking year-to-date inflows to $38.28bn, just released eVestment data shows. The new money throughout the year brought the overall hedge fund business to a record $3.622tn AUM last month. ‘This year has been a good one for hedge fund AUM growth, and August net flows and performance continued the trend,’ said Peter Laurelli, global head of research.
Financial Times: Macro hedge funds find 2021 has not gone to script
So far 2021 has not quite gone to plan for macro hedge funds. They will be hoping that a prospective rise in inflation will soon start providing some more attractive trades. Macro funds on average are up 2.8 per cent in the first eight months of the year, according to data group eVestment, some way behind the hedge fund industry’s average 9.5 per cent return.
AMWatch: Equity products most popular among Scandinavian investors, eVestment report suggests
Institutional investors and investment consultants in Denmark made the most searches in eVestment’s database for Global All Cap Core Equity products by managers across the world during the second quarter, the Nasdaq-owned data provider writes in its new EMEA Institutional Intelligence Report. While the report doesn’t disclose figures for all countries, eVestment Global Head of Research Peter Laurelli tells AMWatch that Norwegian investors and consultants focused their efforts on Global Large Cap and Sector Focus Equity while Swedish investors and consultants looked for Emerging Markets Equity.
Opalesque: Vast majority of hedge funds see positive returns in August
The aggregate return for the global hedge fund business was +0.77% in August, a return to positive territory following a dip into the red in July, according to the just-released eVestment August hedge fund performance data. The vast majority of mangers reporting to eVestment (67.4%) had positive returns last month, the best level in three months. August gains brought the year-to-date hedge fund industry aggregate return to +9.53%.
HedgeWeek: Emerging markets hedge funds are flourishing, new industry data shows
New research published separately by both BarclayHedge and eVestment underlines how, on a geographic basis, both emerging markets and Asia-focused hedge funds outflanked other regions to power August’s narrow return of almost 1 per cent, reversing the industry’s July slump.
Reuters: Sovereign wealth funds sweet on China, despite regulatory headwinds
Chinese companies have been caught in a pincer this year, with increasing U.S. scrutiny on one side and a domestic regulatory crackdown on the country’s massive internet sector. In a sign of recent wariness, sovereign funds pulled $2.35 billion from onshore China A-shares equity strategies managed by third-party fund managers in the second quarter, the most since at least 2017, showed eVestment data.
FundFire: Aberdeen, Bridgewater, BlackRock tops in brand clout
LGT Capital Partners Limited, Pimco and Gresham Investment Management notched the highest brand awareness scores from consultants for their alternatives and hedge fund product offerings last quarter in a new report series from eVestment. In its Q2 2021 Brand Awareness Rankings report, eVestment rated the top 20 managers across numerous asset classes in terms of their brand awareness with consultants and asset owners, respectively.
HedgeWeek: Hedge fund investor flows turn positive, but capital allocations “not felt by all”
Investors added USD1.80 billion to hedge funds during July, according to eVestment research, which marks a return to positive flows after allocators yanked some USD10.99 billion from the industry in June. “This year continues to feel like a decent one for the industry, but it’s absolutely not being felt by all, or even by the majority for that matter,” Peter Laurelli, eVestment’s global head of research, said of July’s data.
Institutional Asset Manager: Fixed income strategies see big asset flows while equities see big outflows in Q2
Institutional flows were broadly positive for fixed income strategies in the second quarter of the year, according to the just-released eVestment Q2 2021 Traditional Asset Flows Report. Across all long-only traditional strategies tracked by eVestment, asset managers reported Q2 2021 institutional assets under management of USD36.2 trillion. Net institutional flows were negative for the quarter, totalling -USD15.9 billion in Q2 and but are positive over the past four quarters at +USD88.0 billion.
Yahoo: Sovereign funds pull $4.2 billion from market strategies in Q2
Sovereign wealth funds pulled $4.2 billion from public market investment strategies in the second quarter, driven largely by exits from stocks, data from eVestment showed. The pullback continues the outflows seen in the first three quarters since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the data which captures all global equity and bond strategies run by third-party fund managers.
City Wire Asia: India hedge funds taking the lead while China sees reversal
Global hedge fund business dipped negative in July but year-to-date industry performance is still in positive, according to eVestment.
FundFire: Investors bet on emerging markets debt
Emerging market debt — a universe with $686 billion in institutional assets under management at the end of the first quarter of 2021 — has drawn four straight quarters of net institutional inflows, the longest run since 2018. The positive streak started in the third quarter of 2020, when the category drew more than $12 billion in net institutional flows, according to eVestment data.
Opalesque: Hedge fund returns dip negative in July, but just barely
The global hedge fund business’ average return dipped negative in July, but just slightly, to -0.32, according to eVestment July 2021 hedge fund performance data. This marked the first month of industry-wide average negative returns in 2021. Just over 51% of funds reporting to eVestment were in positive territory for the month, however, and year to date (YTD) industry performance is still in the green at +8.89%.
Pensions & Investments: Keeping your data compliant under the new SEC marketing rule
Over the past two decades, investment databases such as Investment Metrics LLC, PSN, Morningstar Inc., Mercer LLC, Callan LLC, Bloomberg LP and eVestment have become the first step in the due diligence process for consultants, institutions, endowments, foundations, high-net-worth individuals, family offices and others seeking investment management services. Looking at database marketing within this context, it is clear why the new marketing rule must definitionally cover investment database marketing and distribution.
HedgeWeek: Macro hedge funds primed to capitalise on market trends amid fragmented global recovery
Despite macro hedge funds suffering the largest volume of investor outflows towards the end of the first half – allocators withdrew some USD5.57 billion from the sector in June, according to eVestment data – the outlook for managers remains positive.
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in July 2021
eVestment’s most viewed list of hedge funds in July 2021 saw Axonic Capital’s Axonic Special Opportunities SBL Master Fund, LP, take the top spot, a new entry. Perennial top ten inhabitant 1060 Capital Opportunity Fund, LP, was second, moving up from seventh in June. Renaissance Technologies’ Renaissance Institutional Diversified Global Equities (RIDGE) Fund was third, another new entry this month.
Bloomberg: The hedge fund comeback looks like the real deal
The three-year winning streak has persuaded investors to resume allocating cash to the asset class after three scarring years of withdrawals worth a total of $192 billion. The hedge fund crowd has attracted net new cash of $28.7 billion in the first half of the year, boosting total assets under management to more than $3.5 trillion, according to data compiled by research firm eVestment. The industry looks on track to at least recoup the $59 billion investors pulled in 2020.
Institutional Asset Manager: Real estate sees rebounding public pension investments in Q2
Real estate was the sole private markets asset class tracked by Nasdaq eVestment’s Private Markets Monitor to see an increase in total reported commitments in Q2 2021 compared to Q1 2021, likely reflecting renewed confidence in the sector from public pension plans this year.
CityWire: The managers that caught investors’ eye in July
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level for the past month.
Emirates Business: New benchmarks put an end to ‘anything goes’ for ESG indexes
ESG asset managers are accelerating their use of new climate-investing benchmarks created by European authorities, in a development that’s set to make it harder to get away with greenwashing. eVestment, a unit of Nasdaq, estimates that there are more than 890 ESG dedicated strategies and another 7,400-plus that integrate ESG into the investment process.
Hedge Nordic: Net outflows return
The global hedge fund industry ended the first half of this year with a second month of outflows, as investors withdrew about $11.0 billion from the industry during the month of June, according to eVestment. However, net flows for the first half of 2021 remain positive at $28.7 billion.
Hedge Week: Hedge funds see net outflows for second time this year in June
Investors withdrew USD10.99 billion from the global hedge fund business in June, the second month this year net flows for the business were negative, according to just-released eVestment June 2021 hedge fund asset flows data. Net flows were also negative in March of 2021, but general enthusiasm for the hedge fund business this year has year-to-date (YTD) asset flows still in the green at +USD28.69 billion.
CityWire: ‘A game changer’: eVestment scores Mercer’s manager research
eVestment has struck a deal with Mercer to offer its users access to the consultant’s fund manager research and ratings. Atlanta-based eVestment is a subsidiary of Nasdaq, which acquired the research provider in 2017 for $705m. The firm offers institutional investors a database of traditional and alternative strategies, covering more than 74,000 vehicles. Effective immediately, those investors will now be able to access Mercer’s research and ratings on various strategies.
Financial Standard: Mercer partners with platform
Mercer has announced a new strategic partnership with eVestment, a Nasdaq platform and institutional data and analytics specialist. Effective immediately, asset owners will be able to access Mercer’s library of public and private markets research, ratings and operational risk assessment content through eVestment platforms.
Pensions & Investments: Mercer, eVestment ink deal to broaden access to research, ratings
Investment consultant Mercer and analytics firm eVestment have partnered to make Mercer’s public and private markets research, ratings and operational risk assessment content available via eVestment platforms. Lauren Dillard, executive vice president of Nasdaq’s investment intelligence group, which includes eVestment, said: “The integration of Mercer’s forward-looking public and private markets research alongside our data and analytics capabilities is truly a game changer. This collaboration will open up access to more data and bring transparency in the institutional marketplace to a new level.”
Institutional Asset Manager: eVestment signs on as Collaborative Women in Investment Management sponsor
eVestment has signed on as a sponsor of Collaborative Women in Investment Management (WIM), a global initiative focused on the advancement and development of female leaders of all backgrounds in the investment and financial services business. “Aligning with this new, high-powered group of women to promote female empowerment and leadership in the investment business aligns perfectly with eVestment’s overall efforts in this arena,” said eVestment Chief Marketing Officer Michele Shauf. “Understanding where we are with diversity in our business and how those statistics change over time is the only way to understand fully the work that needs to be done.”
Bloomberg: Secretive hedge fund raises $1 billion to make big leveraged bets
The launch marks Eisler’s formal entry into the multi-strategy sector, where it will compete for capital and talent with industry giants such as Millennium Management and Citadel. Such funds are run by dozens of traders making bets across asset classes, instead of an investment chief making the calls. They’ve been the most popular strategy this year, with investors pouring $20 billion into such funds in the first five months, according to eVestment data.
The Asset: Hedge funds see best first-half performance since 2009
The global hedge fund business returned 0.18% in June, bringing year-to-date (YTD) performance for the industry to 9.22%, the best first-half performance since 2009, according to data from institutional investment data and analytics provider eVestment. “This year’s performance is impressive by an even longer measure, as in the last 20 years H1 returns have only been near or better than 2021’s three other times, in 2000, 2003 and 2009,” says eVestment global head of research Peter Laurelli.
HedgeWeek: Hedge funds see best first half performance since 2009, says eVestment
The global hedge fund business returned +0.18 per cent in June, bringing year to date (YTD) performance for the industry to +9.22 per cent, the best first half performance since 2009, according to eVestment’s June 2021 hedge fund performance data. “This year’s performance is impressive by an even longer measure, as in the last 20 years H1 returns have only been near or better than 2021’s three other times, in 2000, 2003 and 2009,” says eVestment Global Head of Research Peter Laurelli.
CityWire: June’s hottest manager searches
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level for the past month.
FundFire: Surging deal volume for event-driven hedge funds sparks inflows
Event-driven hedge funds started off the first half on strong footing, nearly surpassing full-year 2020 inflows and posting solid performance amid surging deal flows following last year’s pandemic-induced turbulence. Investors added $3.9 billion to event-driven funds through May, nearly topping the $3.94 billion added during all of last year, according to eVestment, and putting 2021 on course to be the third year in a row of positive inflows.
Institutional Asset Manager: Diligend partners with eVestment
Diligend, a cloud-based due diligence software provider built for asset allocators, and eVestment announced an agreement under which eVestment data will be available through the Diligend platform. “Collecting and analysing Manager data and documents can be challenging and cumbersome for investors,” says Wissem Souissi, Diligend founder and CEO. “Eliminating unnecessary work, risk and complexity in the due diligence process provides opportunities for better engagement between investors and asset managers and ultimately better results for the work both are doing,” says eVestment Head of Strategic Partnerships Lisa Terwilliger.
Yahoo Finance: Diligend and eVestment align to automate the due diligence process
Diligend, a cloud-based due diligence software provider built for asset allocators, and eVestment announced an agreement under which eVestment data will be available through the Diligend platform. This agreement will allow clients of both eVestment and Diligend to complete more of their due diligence process via one technology platform. The data and technology tools that will facilitate this data sharing and due diligence effort between eVestment and Diligend are set to launch in the coming months.
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in May 2021
Select Equity Group’s Cooper Square was the most viewed hedge fund product on the eVestment platform last month, moving up one spot from April. Perennial top 10 resident 1060 Capital Management’s 1060 Capital Opportunity Fund was second, down from first in April, and Nordea Asset Management’s Alpha 15 MA Strategy was third, a new entry this month.
Hedge Week: Event driven hedge funds latch onto M&A boom, as potential for returns has “never been better”
Investors continue to pour money into the sector: event driven assets now account for USD590 billion, or 19 per cent, of the USD3 trillion-plus total global hedge fund assets, eVestment stats show.
CityWire Asia: May was a little more positive for hedge funds
Investors pumped $12.01bn into hedge funds in May, taking 2021 net inflows to $39.12bn. What’s more, performance averaged 1.48%, bringing year-to-date hedge fund performance to 9.05%, according to data compiled by eVestment. The YTD performance for hedge funds is just two digits away from the 11.05% industry average for all of 2020.
Institutional Asset Manager: eVestment offers institutional free asset manager diversity, equity and inclusion data to investors
The initiative is intended to provide an efficient and streamlined process for diversity disclosure. While the reporting is entirely voluntary, over 20 per cent of the asset management firms on eVestment, representing 6,182 strategies, have responded to the DEI data collection program since January 2021.
Opalesque: Good news continues for hedge funds as 2021 performance, flows remain strong
Nearly half-way through 2021, the global hedge fund business continues to see strong performance and asset flows, with performance gains and new money boosting the industry to a new record $3.57 trillion AUM, according to eVestment. May’s hedge fund performance average of +1.48% brought year-to-date (YTD) hedge fund average performance to +9.05%, just two digits shy of the +11.05% industry average for all of 2020. Barring any major unforeseen market, natural or geo-political disasters – or pandemics – the hedge fund business this year is poised to outperform 2020 by a wide margin.
Bloomberg: Brevan Howard shuts main fund to new cash as fortunes improve
Brevan Howard Asset Management has stopped accepting new cash into its two biggest multi-manager funds after the firm’s record year of performance swelled the money pools. Macro investment firms such as Brevan Howard are benefiting from increasing interest as volatile markets and fears about inflation give rise to trading opportunities. Investors, who were still pulling money as recently as last year, poured $5.6 billion into funds following macro strategies in the first five months this year, according to data compiled by eVestment.
FundFire: Insurers curb hedge fund redemptions in allocation reversal
Life/annuity and property/casualty segments increased their hedge fund exposure while health insurers pulled back. More broadly, hedge funds have seen positive inflows so far this year adding approximately $12 billion in May for year-to-date inflows of over $39 billion, according to the latest data from eVestment.
Pensions & Investments: eVestment to make diversity and inclusion data free for investors
eVestment is making its money manager diversity and inclusion data available free of charge to investors, in efforts to improve transparency and standardization across the industry. The institutional investment data and analytics firm wants to provide an efficient and streamlined process for diversity disclosure, it said Tuesday. More than 20% of the money managers tracked by eVestment — representing 6,182 strategies — have responded to its diversity and inclusion data collection program since January. Reporting is voluntary.
Yahoo Finance: eVestment to drive transparency and data standardization of diversity, equity and inclusion in asset management
Access to consistent, reliable and accurate data is critical to advance transparency in DEI. “The investment community is on a journey in creating a more inclusive environment and ensuring that asset managers hired by pensions, foundations, family offices and endowments better reflect the diversity of asset owners and the end beneficiaries,” said Lauren Dillard, Executive Vice President and Head of Investment Intelligence, Nasdaq. “Institutional investors representing trillions of dollars in assets already leverage eVestment for data and analytics. Our mission is to build on that community to further the industry progress in diversity and inclusion.”
Wall Street Journal: Private-equity pay rose last year despite Covid, survey finds
The Covid-19 pandemic revolutionized how private-equity professionals work but left their high pay intact last year, a new survey says. The survey results underscore the tough questions private-equity firms face as they consider whether—and how—to reopen city-center offices and return to in-person work. Before Covid, private-markets firms overwhelmingly had in-person workplace cultures, with just 7% of workers saying they regularly worked from home in a 2019 survey by data company eVestment LLC and consulting firm MJ Hudson Group.
FundFire: Equity hedge funds start strong despite meme challenges
Meme stocks, short squeezes and margin calls – despite the headline grabbing attention that has hit the hedge fund space, the industry’s largest segment, equity funds, has posted strong performance so far this year. Hedge funds have seen higher demand so far in 2021, with over $28 billion in inflows through April, according to eVestment. But long/short equity funds have been “weighed down by a small group of funds” and seen over $8 billion in outflows this year, eVestment says.
Bloomberg: Billionaire’s hedge fund offers hefty pay to combat talent squeeze
After the best year for hedge funds in a decade, promising traders can seek a place at the many major firms on a hiring spree or strike out on their own to seize on investor appetite. Lancaster and Parikh are embarking on their new project at a time investors are pouring money into hedge funds. Multi-strategy and macro funds attracted nearly $19 billion of inflows in the first four months of the year, reversing 2020’s net capital outflows, according to data compiled by eVestment.
ETF Trends: Nasdaq Institutional Investor Report reveals investment insights for financial advisors
Net institutional flow for non-cash strategies was positive in the first quarter of 2021, ending a nearly three year stretch of net outflows, according to the latest Nasdaq Institutional Intelligence Quarterly Report. Assets appeared to be coming out of cash management strategies (net), a reversal of a significant medium-term theme. Net flows for cash management strategies were negative in Q1, for the third consecutive quarter.
AM Watch: Spektrum turns to data provider to enhance manager selection process
The selection team at Danish investment management firm Spektrum has chosen data and analytics firm eVestment to enhance its selection, due diligence and monitoring of its external asset managers, the companies announced in a joint statement.
Inforum: New ‘invest in North Dakota’ program to launch soon
North Dakota is about to embark upon a new era of directly investing in fledgling businesses to help grow the state’s economy by tapping into the earnings of the $8.7 billion Legacy Fund. Dave Hunter, North Dakota’s chief investment officer. said: “We really do invite and encourage all investment managers in North Dakota to present data to be considered.” To do so, they should submit information to investment database services including those by Callan, the state’s chief investment adviser, and eVestment, he said.
Reuters: Commodities hedge funds back in vogue after years of outflows
Commodities hedge funds generated performance of 6.5% in April, dwarfing returns of 2.5% for the average hedge fund, according to the most recent performance data from eVestment. Such funds employ a variety of strategies, betting on everything from pure commodities to company stock and debt.
FundFire: Hedge fund assets hit all-time high surpassing $4T
The hedge fund industry keeps getting bigger, topping $4 trillion at the end of the first quarter to surpass another asset-level high point. The all-time asset high is reflected by other data providers as well. Evestment counted a record $3.52 trillion in assets under management at the end of April with investors adding approximately $12.47 billion in April alone.
Pensions & Investments: European investors look to add inflation protection to portfolios
In an effort to prevent erosion of their asset bases, some investors are adding inflation-linked bonds. European-domiciled investors steered $253.3 billion into global inflation-indexed fixed-income strategies in the first quarter, compared with outflows of $56.9 billion in the last quarter of 2020, according to data provided by eVestment LLC. European inflation-indexed fixed-income strategies saw inflows of $97 billion from European investors in the same quarter compared with inflows of $10.3 billion in the previous quarter.
FundFire: Inflation expectations boost institutional fixed income flows
Active U.S. fixed income strategies continued to dominate institutional flows in the first quarter of 2021. The universe, which had more than $7 trillion in institutional assets under management at the end of March, collected net institutional flows of $109.8 billion, on par with the $109.2 billion the category drew in the prior quarter, according to the latest eVestment data. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter of net inflows into the U.S. active fixed income category.
HedgeWeek: Money continues to pour into hedge funds as investor interest remains strong
Investors poured another +USD12.47 billion into hedge funds in April, bringing year to date (YTD) inflows to +USD28.81 billion, according to the just-released April 2021 eVestment Hedge Fund Asset Flows Report. Overall hedge fund business AUM stood at USD3.525 trillion at the end of April, according to the new report. “There were several strong underlying metrics behind the net inflow number in April,” says eVestment Global Head of Research and report author Peter Laurelli. “While net inflows alone would seem to be a positive sign, that is not always the case. In April, however, the data just looked good.”
Yahoo Finance: Sovereign funds pile into U.S. assets at fastest since at least 2005
Sovereign wealth funds stampeded into U.S. equities and fixed income in the first quarter, with inflows at the highest in at least 16 years, data from eVestment showed. Net flows of $25.4 billion poured into all global equity and bond strategies run by third-party fund managers, the biggest calculated flow since at least 2005, according to the data.
Institutional Investor: The Problem With Asset Managers: One Just Blends Into the Next
The importance of branding comes as the industry is facing irreversible headwinds and firms are looking at changing up their offerings, whether that’s to meet the need for alternative investments, advice, or other new demands from retail and institutional investors. Recently, eVestment released its brand awareness scores for asset managers in the first quarter. BlackRock and Wellington consistently scored among the highest in the most categories, while Bridgewater Associates and AQR Capital Management ranked among the highest in the alternatives categories.
HedgeWeek: Hedge funds continue winning ways in April, says eVestment
Hedge fund performance was broadly positive in April, with 85 per cent of funds reporting to eVestment seeing positive performance figures and the industry as a whole posting a return of +2.61 per cent for the month, according to the just-released April 2021 eVestment hedge fund performance data.
CityWire: April’s most popular PM searches
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level for the past month.
Bloomberg: Hedge funds betting on deals see best start to a year in decades
The feverish market for corporate marriages has created a fertile hunting ground for hedge funds that are raking in bumper profits from betting on the success and failure of big-ticket deals. Event-driven hedge funds attracted nearly $4 billion, the most for any strategy, while their peers saw $59 billion of net withdrawals, according to data compiled by eVestment.
Qpalesque: Bridgewater, Lighthouse, AQR Capital, Renaissance Technologies among tops for alternatives/hedge fund brand awareness
Bridgewater Associates, Lighthouse Investment Partners, UBS Asset Management, GAM Investments and Water Island Capital took the top five spots, in that order, in brand awareness in the Alternatives & Hedge Fund category among investment consultants using eVestment, according to the just-released Brand Awareness Rankings from eVestment.
AQR Capital Management, Bridgewater Associates, Renaissance Technologies, Lighthouse Investment Partners and FORT took the top five spots in the Alternatives & Hedge Fund category among the institutional investors using eVestment, according to the new report.
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in April 2021
1060 Capital Management’s 1060 Capital Opportunity Fund, LP was the most eyeballed product on Nasdaq subsidiary eVestment’s platform last month, moving up one spot from March.
FundFire: Wellington, BlackRock attract top views from asset owners on eVestment
Wellington Management Company, BlackRock and MFS are among the brand names most frequently viewed in eVestment’s database by asset owners and consultants, a new report by the Nasdaq-owned company shows. The database provider examined managers based on firm and product viewership among investment consultants and asset owners in the first quarter of 2021, and used a metric based on those views to gauge brand awareness. Managers can gain access to these scores and rankings on a quarterly basis upon request.
Pensions & Investments: Hedge funds attract a net $18 billion in first quarter
Global hedge fund strategies saw net inflows of $17.7 billion in the first quarter, driven by strong performance and inflows into multistrategy funds, a report from eVestment said Friday. By comparison, hedge fund strategies saw net outflows of $9.1 billion in the first quarter of 2020 and net outflows of $8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020. Assets under management in hedge fund strategies increased 1.8% to $3.42 trillion for the three months ended March 31 and increased 16% compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
FundFire: Institutional investors seek securitized credit to hedge corporate risk
As pandemic concerns start to wane and interest rate sensitivity picks up, securitized fixed income strategies have caught the eye of some institutional investors looking to diversify their fixed income portfolios. The U.S. securitized fixed income market recorded $372 billion in U.S. institutional assets under management at the end of 2020, according to the latest eVestment data. The category has pulled in inflows for much of 2020, reporting U.S. institutional net inflows of $7.8 billion in the second quarter, $9.6 billion in the third quarter and $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: It was going to be a cozy firm, not too tech-heavy. Then, the pandemic hit
Jodi Amos and Newlin Archinal took a leap of faith a year ago to open 4Rivers Wealth Management, with their Green Tree company becoming one of only a handful of independent financial advising firms in this region owned by women. According to eVestment, a Nasdaq platform that provides data to the investment community, in June 2020, women owned an ownership share in 19.8% of the 2,045 asset management companies surveyed. That compares to 9.9% for Asian-owned, 4.1% for Hispanic-owned and 3.6% for Black-owned.
HedgeWeek: Hedge fund titans fight back as larger managers pull ahead in March
Larger hedge funds have entered the second quarter on a high after a staging an impressive fightback which saw them generate above-average returns in March after lagging the industry average during the first two months of the year. The 10 biggest hedge fund managers reporting to eVestment’s database experienced gains of 1.12 per cent in March, compared to an industry average return of 0.83 per cent last month.
Reuters: Top pension manager IMCO re-allocating $3 bln global hedge fund portfolio
IMCO, a top pension manager in Canada with C$73.3 billion ($58.5 billion) in assets under management, had allocated 5% of their portfolio to fund of hedge funds. Investor searches for fund of hedge funds fell to under 8% in the last quarter of 2020, down from closer to 14% in the first quarter of 2016, according to data provider eVestment.
CityWire: March’s most popular manager searches
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level for the past month.
FundFire: Investors set to reposition portfolios for a decade of slower growth
Coming out of the pandemic, institutional investors are expecting a decade of lower returns and are reevaluating their portfolio allocations accordingly. Institutional investment consultants’ 10-year return assumptions have declined year-over-year across nearly all asset classes, according to a recent study from eVestment and Nasdaq.
Pensions & Investments: Managers see good times ahead in 2021
Net inflows into hedge funds are “following better performance and there is more return dispersion among hedge fund managers than I’ve seen for a couple of years,” said Peter Laurelli, eVestment LLC’s global head of research. Year-to-date through Feb. 28, net inflows totaled $23.7 billion, up from net outflows of $59.3 billion in all of 2020 and $102.3 billion in 2019, eVestment data showed.
Institutional Investor: Consultants are predicting lower returns again
Investment consultants’ performance expectations for their institutional clients are continuing to decline, new data from eVestment shows. Major industry players’ ten-year return assumptions dropped across nearly every investment strategy on a year-over-year basis, according to the data, which was published on Thursday.
AlphaWeek: Hedge funds continue strong start to 2021 with elevated asset flows
Positive flows for the industry have been the norm since 2009, but the $16.44bn investors added to hedge funds last month made this the best two-month start for the business since 2014. According to eVestment Global Head of Research Peter Laurelli, eVestment data shows the majority of funds seeing new money in February.
Institutional Asset Manager: JP Morgan and Northern Trust among six new OCIOs contributing to AlphaNasdaq OCIO Index
Six new OCIOs began contributing to the AlphaNasdaq OCIO Index in the fourth quarter, further solidifying the index as the investment industry standard for providing transparency and benchmarking in the OCIO industry. “We’re thrilled to see the investment industry continue to embrace the indices, giving asset owners an independent and authoritative way to judge the value-add from their OCIO providers,” says eVestment Global Head of Insights John Molesphini. eVestment worked with Alpha Capital Management and parent company Nasdaq on creating the indices.
Asian Investor: Chinese equities at risk of more US capital flight
China’s CSI 300 benchmark index may have stumbled in its march upwards – having fallen 13% since February 10 – but the overall trend is that money is pouring into A-shares and H-shares. Net institutional flows into China and Hong Kong equity products totalled $16.84 billion last year, up from $4.03 billion in 2019, according to research house eVestment.
CityWire Asia: Hedge funds preferred, but manager selection is key
The Asia Pacific region, in particular China, is the most favoured for investments. Healthcare, fundamental, emerging markets, and technology, media, and telecom have topped the agenda. Among primary markets tracked by eVestment, equity-focused funds were the big performance winners in February, returning an average +4.06%, bringing YTD returns to +5.31%.
FundFire: Institutional investors show appetite for investment-grade ESG strategies
Institutional flows to ESG strategies within the core and investment-grade fixed income asset class skyrocketed during the third and fourth quarters of 2020, according to data from eVestment. Strategies in those categories reported $12.75 billion in institutional net flows in the fourth quarter and $11.41 billion in the third quarter.
The Asset: Bay Capital picks eVestment to help grow global brand
India-focused investment manager Bay Capital Partners has decided to use data and analytics provider eVestment’s Omni solution to help grow its global brand and assets under management (AUM). With the solution, Bay Capital will be able to provide data on its institutional strategies to the eVestment database, and to numerous third-party and consultant databases around the world through the same portal.
CityWire: February’s most popular manager searches
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level for the past month.
FundFire: Consultants put equity asset managers on watch at greater rates in 2020
Consultants downgraded equity asset managers at greater rates in 2020 than the previous two years, according to data compiled by eVestment. In the first half of the year, as the coronavirus pandemic swept the U.S., and markets roiled and then rebounded, equity-manager downgrades more than doubled, from 35 to 85.
Hedge Fund Alert: eVestment taking stock of industry diversity
Responding to subscriber demand, eVestment is compiling employment data to keep tabs on gender and minority hiring at hedge funds. The fund tracker began collecting the information six weeks ago and has heard from more than 400 firms across the spectrum of investment strategies. “We’re excited about the [response] rate. It seems to be increasing by dozens of firms and strategies every single day,” John Molesphini, head of insights at eVestment, said in a February webinar.
FundFire: US active growth equity posts largest institutional outflow on record
U.S. active growth equity strategies set a new record for institutional net outflows, according to recent data from eVestment. The universe of institutional U.S. active growth equity strategies bled $48.1 billion in the fourth quarter, ending the year with $1.87 trillion in assets under management, according to the latest eVestment data. Up until now, the category’s single-largest quarterly institutional outflow was $43 billion during the third quarter of 2016.
Bloomberg: Hedge funds are on the mend, if not yet fixed
For the industry as a whole, investors allocated $6.4 billion of fresh cash to hedge funds globally in January, leaving the industry’s total assets at a bit more than $3.3 trillion, according to research firm eVestment. Those inflows come after three years of withdrawals worth more than $192 billion. Outflows last year, though, slowed to less than $53 billion, about half of 2019’s total.
Institutional Asset Manager: Prospect of higher inflation turns investors bearish on fixed income funds
Fixed income funds enjoyed a good year in 2020, with strong investment flows from investors seeking safety in central bank-supported bonds, as the pandemic ripped apart stock markets. In the last quarter alone, institutional investors poured USD177.6 billion into fixed income strategies, according to eVestment data. In the same period, they withdrew USD117.4 billion from active US equities.
HedgeWeek: Hedge funds cement successful start to 2021 as more investor money pours into industry
Hedge funds attracted USD6.39 billion of new capital last month as investors piled into a wide variety of strategy types, particularly macro and managed futures, according to new industry data from eVestment.
Reuters: Sovereign wealth funds pull $16.3 billion from market strategies in Q4
Sovereign wealth funds pulled $16.3 billion from public market investment strategies, largely equities, in the fourth quarter, the most in almost four years, driven largely by redemptions, according to data and research firm eVestment.
Opalesque: Majority of hedge funds see positive performance in January, but larger funds lag
Hedge funds started 2021 on a high note with average industry performance of +1.02% with 59% of funds seeing positive results for the month, according to the just released eVestment January 2021 hedge fund performance data. This follows a tumultuous 2020 which saw the hedge fund business return an average +11.07%.
Institutional Asset Manager: Public pension plans invest USD154.6bn in private markets in 2020, but appetite for real estate and real assets plummets
Public pension plans tracked by investment data and analytics firm eVestment reported USD154.6 billion of commitments to private markets funds in 2020. This is a 2 per cent increase from 2019’s totals. Across all private fund commitments eVestment tracks, pension giant CalPERS was the biggest allocator of capital to private markets, with USD19.94 billion of commitments reported.
Reuters: Hedge funds bet on oil’s ‘big comeback’ after pandemic hobbles producers
Hedge funds are turning bullish on oil once again, betting the pandemic and investors’ environmental focus has severely damaged companies’ ability to ramp up production. The view is a reversal for hedge funds, which shorted the oil sector in the lead-up to global shutdowns, landing energy focused hedge funds gains of 26.8% in 2020, according to data from eVestment. By virtue of their fast-moving strategies, hedge funds are quick to spot new trends.
FundFire: eVestment makes headway with D&I data collection, sets ‘lofty’ goal
Evestment has collected diversity and inclusion data from approximately 10% of assets represented in its database, after launching an effort to map diversity and inclusion in the asset management industry. Responses from more than 345 managers assembled during the first data-collection month exceeded eVestment’s expectations, says global head of data strategy Erika Spence.
IPE: AP1 external manager chief: ‘I’d be very hesitant to rely just on Zoom’
The man in charge of external asset management at Swedish national pension fund AP1 said it would be very difficult for the SEK355bn (€35bn) buffer fund to take on a new asset manager while COVID-19 continues to limit contact to video meetings. Chammas said AP1 had not in fact tried to make any new investments or initiate any new relationships with any manager since the pandemic began, having instead been busy with the implementation of its fossil fuel-free strategy which involved existing managers. “So the answer is probably we haven’t been tested yet,” he said, in the podcast produced by institutional investment data firm eVestment.
FundFire: A decade of growth: How the biggest managers consolidated their AUM advantage
The industry’s largest managers continued to expand their AUM leads over midsized competitors over the past decade, as companies with passive product suites seized an asset-gathering advantage. The secular migration to passive boosted the fortunes of other large industry players too. Exchange-traded fund (ETF) behemoth Vanguard saw the greatest percent increase in total growth among large industry firms, catapulting to $6.07 trillion in AUM in 2020 from $1.64 trillion in 2010, according to eVestment data.
Institutional Investor: Meketa will require managers to report on diversity efforts
Meketa’s decision to provide more rigorous diversity and inclusion research is the latest in a series of diversity initiatives launched by major investment consultants in the last couple of years. Most recently, consulting and OCIO firm Verus partnered with asset management data firm eVestment to question managers on team and firm-wide diversity statistics, as well as their policies for supporting diversity and inclusion.
FundFire: Hedge fund investors pull $59B in ’20 despite performance gains
For the third year in a row, hedge funds faced sizeable redemptions despite the overall industry posting stronger performance in 2020. But ongoing uncertainty wrought by the global pandemic is drawing new investor attention to hedge funds and driving managers to introduce a wider range of alts products in the hunt for yield and returns, experts say. Investors pulled $58.76 from hedge funds in 2020, including approximately $9.74 billion in December alone, according the latest data from eVestment. The withdrawal total was down from 2019, when investors had redeemed $102.25 billion, but above the $37.18 billion in 2018.
Opalesque: Global hedge fund industry ends 2020 with positive signs for 2021
Investors pulling $58.76 billion from hedge funds around the world in 2020 may not be cause for celebration, but that $58.76 billion in redemptions was dwarfed by the $102.25 billion investors pulled from hedge funds in 2019. And while investors pulled $9.74 billion from hedge funds in December, since 2009 the average December net flow has been -$16.5 billion. This makes December’s $9.74 billion redemption “a decent figure for the industry,” according to eVestment Global Head of Research Peter Laurelli, writing in the investment data and analytics firm’s just released December and year-end 2020 hedge fund asset flows data.
Bloomberg: The hedge fund roller coaster ride got even wilder last year
Hedge funds delivered average gains for investors of a bit more than 11% last year, their best performance since the tumultuous markets of 2009 enabled them to generate more than 19%, according to industry research firm eVestment. The numbers “are among the worst and the best I’ve seen them produce,” Peter Laurelli, eVestment’s global head of research, said. “There were more large funds with double-digit gains and double-digit losses than not in 2020.”
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in December 2020
AQR Capital Management’s Global Style Premia Long Only Equity fund was the most viewed hedge fund on Nasdaq-subsidiary eVestment’s platform in December, beating out 1060 Capital Management’s 1060 Capital Opportunity Fund, which took the top spot in October and November, into second place. Renaissance Technologies’ Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund came in third.
Reuters: Irresistible? Pension funds plot move on China’s $16 trillion bond market
China’s $16 trillion bond market is the proverbial elephant in the investment room. But it’s becoming too big to ignore, even for the most risk-averse Western investors. Of the $9.5 trillion of assets under management from corporate and public pension funds globally, 0.26% was held in Chinese bonds as of the third quarter of 2020, up from 0.04% in 2015, according to data from institutional asset managers shared with financial data provider eVestment.
CityWire Asia: HNWIs keen to increase ‘hedge fund’ exposure thanks to strong performance
Investors are planning to increase allocation to hedge funds in the first half of 2021 and are prepared to pay higher fees, provided strong risk-adjusted returns are delivered. Data from eVestment show hedge funds returned +11.02 in 2020, outpacing 2019’s +10.07%.
Hedge Week: New industry data reveals “significant” gulf between gains and losses among largest hedge funds
Hedge fund managers have experienced “significant” performance dispersion over the past 12 months, with the biggest funds seeing the largest gaps between gains and losses, new industry data shows, once again underlining the importance of investor due diligence in separating winners from losers. Hedge funds globally ended a tumultuous 2020 on a high, generating an average monthly gain in December of some 4 per cent, to bring full-year returns to more than 11 per cent, according to newly-published year-end performance data from eVestment.
Opalesque: November 2020 private equity investments rebound from October slump
Announced investments to private equity funds rebounded in November from a brief slump in October, according to the just-released eVestment Private Markets Monitor covering November 2020. Public pensions in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada tracked by eVestment reported $9.6 billion of commitments to private equity funds in November, compared to only $4.2 billion in new private equity commitments in October.
Barrons: Activists are primed for action in 2021
While 2020 appeared to be a relatively quiet year for activist campaigns, it turned out to be a strong year for returns, providing some activist funds with hefty arsenals. The average activist hedge fund was up 11.8% through November of last year, eclipsing the performance of the typical hedge fund, which gained 6.9% over the same period, according to eVestment data. A number of activists racked up stellar returns.
Alpha Week: Managed futures strategies deliver solid year amidst market tumult
Managed futures investors are sometimes accused of being fickle with their allocations and the data backs it up; according to eVestment, managed futures strategies were down -3.96% in 2011 and up only +2.46% in 2012 and +3.04% in 2013.
FundFire: eVestment partners with Aon on operational diligence database
Aon and eVestment are collaborating to collect standardized operational due-diligence data from asset managers through the tech provider’s platform, the two firms announced Thursday. As part of the effort, which will be rolled out on eVestment in the coming months, asset managers will be asked to submit, through the portal, responses to an operational due-diligence questionnaire drafted by Aon.
Chief Investment Officer: Consulting firms ask asset managers to disclose diversity data
More than one dozen consulting firms are forming a diversity coalition amid greater calls for progress toward racial equity at the asset manager level. The group, calling itself the Institutional Investing Diversity Cooperative (IIDC), stewards more than $4 trillion in assets and is seeking more transparent data on diversity from investment teams, according to a release from investment consultant and outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) provider Verus and research firm eVestment.
CityWire: 2020’s most popular manager searches
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level for the past year.
Investment Week: The reinvention game – why company rebranding has gone beyond giving logos a facelift
In a world full of chaos, volatility and uncertainty, investors will seek reassurance wherever they can find it, many would argue a confident, robust brand is one vehicle through which that reassurance can be delivered. Research cited by BNY Mellon Investment Management revealed that asset managers with both high firm and product awareness attracted on average 20.3x higher inflows than those with low awareness. The eVestment research found that while brand awareness was important for all asset managers, it was even more so for larger firms, with the impact significantly stronger for firms with more than $100bn in assets under management.
Institutional Asset Manager: Aon and eVestment to offer ODD data and research to institutional investors
Aon and eVestment have formed a strategic partnership to provide operational due diligence (ODD) research through the eVestment platform, recognising the need for more transparency and standardisation of ODD information. The new ODD offering will initially be available for purchase to asset owners through the eVestment platform, which nearly 1,000 institutional investors in more than 40 countries rely on to source their asset managers.
Washington Post: Bitcoin’s biggest fans are hedge fund baby boomers
Bitcoin is the ideal holiday gift for an underperforming hedge fund manager. Just ask SkyBridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci, who is diving in after his fund of hedge funds posted its worst annual performance since 2008. That’s unlikely to be a coincidence. It could also provide a very convenient halo effect for an industry that has been shrinking for several years. Customers withdrew $50 billion last year, leaving the total amount managed at a bit less than $3.3 trillion, according to eVestment.
Pensions & Investments: Consultants create group to focus on industry diversity
More than a dozen institutional investment consulting firms have formed the Institutional Investing Diversity Cooperative to increase data and transparency around diversity in the asset management industry, the group said Tuesday. The group also unveiled a data questionnaire developed by eVestment to gather diversity data from asset management firms. Erika Spence, global head of data strategy for eVestment, an institutional data and analytics firm, said in the statement there is a continuous interest in how managers think about diversity and inclusion, including policy and its implementation.
Reuters: Hedge fund manager Scaramucci launches cryptocurrency fund
Anthony Scaramucci’s firm SkyBridge Capital is the latest traditional fund manager to launch a bitcoin-focused fund after a surge of interest in cryptocurrencies in 2020. However, data from eVestment shows searches for cryptocurrency hedge funds on their database made up just 0.14% of all hedge fund searches in 2020.
Bloomberg: Bishop’s Impala Fund, up 30% in 2020, sees commodity bull market
The hedge fund industry as a whole saw outflows last year, but those focused on commodities had managed to raise money. They pulled in more than $4 billion in flows through October compared with about $55 billion in outflows from the industry overall, according to data from eVestment.
Reuters: Brexit trade deal sparks relief but UK market will bear scars
The British currency remains around 20% below its long-term fair value. Few expect it to recover fully in the near term. The underperformance is largely driven by foreign investors dumping UK assets. Financial data provider eVestment estimates European and U.S.-domiciled investors have pulled more money than they have added into UK stocks almost every quarter between the referendum and the third 2020 quarter.
Institutional Asset Manager: eVestment forms consultant board to advise on investment industry trends
eVestment, a specialist in institutional investment data and analytics, has launched a consultant advisory board comprising a broad range of investment consultant clients from both global and regional firms. Board members will provide strategic input to eVestment on the evolving data needs of consultants and will have regular opportunities to discuss and analyse dynamic trends in the institutional market.
Institutional Investor: For this allocator, active management paid off
For years, passive investing, or a strategy by which allocators invest using indexes rather than asset and manager selection, has been favored for low cost, consistently strong performance. Actively managed portfolio performance has been mixed in 2020 — but for TIFF, it paid off. The average active traditional equity fund returned 7.75 percent in the third quarter, according to data from eVestment, but is still down 0.55 percent for the year.
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in November 2020
1060 Capital’s Opportunity Fund was the most viewed hedge fund overall on the eVestment platform in November, maintaining its first place from October. Second and third saw new entrants, however, with 400 Capital Management and Lakewood Capital Management rounding out the top three.
Washington Post: Hedge funds had a fine year. That’s not enough
Despite its enduring mystique as the smartest corner of finance, the hedge fund industry has been shrinking in recent years as investors disappointed by underwhelming returns increasingly favor lower-cost alternatives for managing their money. So investors have been shunning the sector, withdrawing a net $42.4 billion between April and June for a ninth consecutive quarter of outflows, data collected by research firm eVestment show. The total amount managed by the industry has dropped below $3 trillion for the first time since 2014.
CityWire: The shops that top institutional investors’ Christmas wish list
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level in the month before Christmas.
Institutional Asset Manager: FountainCap’s UK mandate win highlights how globalisation and technology are changing the institutional investment world
Chinese long-only equity manager FountainCap Research and Investment recently won an investment mandate from the UK’s USD60 billion (US) Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, one of the eight UK local government pension pools. Steven Luk, Partner at FountainCap, says the firm began using institutional investment data and technology provider eVestment in May 2019, starting with eVestment’s Omni solution to help FountainCap build its global brand.
Wall Street Journal: Some small hedge funds reap big gains in tough times
Hedge funds are trailing the U.S. stock market this year. Some of the smallest funds are emerging as some of the best performers, driving greater demand for these types of managers. Even for smaller funds, double-digit returns haven’t been the norm. As of Oct. 31, the most recent data available, funds with less than $250 million in assets returned 1.12%, according to research firm eVestment.
Bloomberg: Traders quit banks to earn $4.8 million hedge fund salaries in Brazil
As hedge funds around the world shrink because of low returns and high fees, one country is bucking the trend: Brazil, where traders are quitting their bank jobs in droves to try their luck at potential multimillion-dollar payoffs. It’s a stark contrast to what’s happening globally. Worldwide, hedge funds this year posted almost $55 billion in outflows through October, after losing $102 billion in 2019, according to data compiled by eVestment.
Pensions & Investments: Pension funds continue private equity investing spree
U.S. public pension plans showed a continuing appetite for private equity funds in October, according to eVestment’s latest Private Markets Monthly Monitor. Twenty-six pension plans reported 69 private equity fund commitments totaling $3.6 billion in commitments to private equity funds, well above the 48 commitments totaling $2.4 billion reported in October 2019.
Bloomberg: Former Citadel duo plan hedge fund startup
Citadel, one of the largest hedge funds in the world and employing dozens of traders, has been a launchpad for several managers to enter the $3 trillion industry. Yet it’s becoming difficult to start hedge funds in the current tough capital-raising environment, with investors retreating from the industry following years of mediocre returns and heavy losses during March’s market turmoil. More hedge funds have closed than started over the past five years. Investors have pulled more than $155 billion since the start of 2019, according to data compiled by eVestment.
Pensions & Investments: Commentary: Improving manager diversity demands that shortcuts stop
The reality is that typical investment manager selection practices have the effect of being biased, albeit unintentionally, against women- and minority-owned firms. Such processes are fraught with behavioral biases and have the effect of diverting allocators away from diverse firms, which tend to be newer and smaller than their peers. Indeed, according to self-reported data from eVestment, there is a meaningful difference in size and tenure between firms with and without significant women or minority ownership.
Private Equity Wire: Private equity continues to lead pensions’ private markets commitments
Public pensions in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada tracked by eVestment continue to favour private equity investments over other private markets investment options, according to the latest eVestment Private Markets Monitor covering October 2020. For October, these pensions reported a total of USD3.62 billion in commitments to private equity funds, with an average commitment size of USD53 million. October 2020’s reported commitments were USD1.26 billion more than was reported in October 2019 (USD2.36 billion), but down significantly from the 110 commitments worth a total of USD12.72 billion these pensions reported in September 2020.
FundFire: Will value managers ever catch a break?
Value equity managers have had a rough decade, as years of underperformance relative to growth equity strategies have prompted some investors to question whether the strategy’s premise remains effective. While challenges remain, some value managers hope that a post-pandemic economic recovery will swing the pendulum back in value investing’s favor. The last time the value equity universe reported net positive institutional flows over a four-quarter period was from the third quarter of 2005 to the second quarter of 2006, when the category reported $2 billion in net inflows, according to eVestment data.
Hedge Nordic: Awaiting the holiday-season miracle
Money continues to flood out of hedge funds, with investors redeeming about $5 billion from the industry during the month of October, according to eVestment. Net outflows from the industry have added up to reach $54.7 billion for the year, which compares with the $102.3 billion investors pulled from hedge funds in 2019. “Barring a holiday-season miracle, overall hedge fund asset flows for 2020 will be negative too,” writes eVestment. According to eVestment, the hedge fund industry oversees $3.15 trillion in assets under management as of the end of October.
HedgeWeek: Investors flee equity and macro hedge funds, as 2020 heralds “career-defining moments” for many managers
Investor withdrawals from hedge funds are stacking up, with asset flows set to finish the year in negative territory “barring a holiday-season miracle,” eVestment warned on Thursday. Allocators yanked more than USD5 billion from hedge funds last month, with industry outflows in the 10-month period to the end of October reaching almost USD55 billion. Total hedge fund industry assets now stand at USD3.148 trillion globally, according to new eVestment research. Year-to-date outflows – which number USD54.67 billion – are still dwarfed by the 2019’s withdrawals, which hit USD102.25 billion, indicating hedge funds have at least partly stemmed the tide of investor redemptions this year
Institutional Asset Manager: Investors continue to divert flows from equity strategies into fixed income
Institutional investors allocated USD220.5 billion to fixed income strategies in the third quarter of 2020, with most of this going toward US bond managers, as rising coronavirus cases and the run-up to the US election kept appetites for risk low. Inflows to US fixed income totaled USD139.4 billion for active and USD35.1 billion for passive, according to the latest eVestment Traditional Asset Flows report. Institutional investors redeemed USD200.3 billion from long-only equity managers in the same period, almost half of which came from active US equity strategies.
FundFire: eVestment to offer Alpha Nasdaq OCIO performance data through platform
eVestment is now offering access to the Alpha Nasdaq outsourced CIO (OCIO) performance indices to help asset owners benchmark the performance of their providers. “Asset owners are looking for better ways to understand their own portfolio performance, whether they make their own decisions or whether they outsource that decision-making function,” Daniel Brickhouse, senior product manager at eVestment, said in a statement. “The Alpha Nasdaq indices are the first of their kind to offer this valuable context,” he added.
Reuters: Sovereign wealth funds rotate from U.S. stocks to bonds
Sovereign wealth funds pulled $4.1 billion from United States stocks in the third quarter, while adding to their U.S. bond holdings by the most in at least three years, data showed on Wednesday. Around $4.5 billion was sucked into U.S. fixed income, with the bulk into short-duration instruments, according to the eVestment data on strategies managed by third-party fund managers.
Institutional Asset Manager: eVestment is the first investment management platform to offer access to Alpha Nasdaq OCIO Indices
eVestment, a specialist in institutional investment data and analytics, has become the first institutional investment platform to offer access to the Alpha Nasdaq OCIO Indices. “eVestment’s goal is to provide our clients with data and tools that increase transparency and help them make better decisions,” said eVestment Head of Data Strategy Erika Spence. “Offering the Alpha Nasdaq OCIO Indices is a natural fit for us. Transparency in the OCIO space has been a challenge, with no reliable way to compare and monitor OCIO providers until now. eVestment is pleased to be the first data and analytics platform to offer this intelligence.”
CityWire Asia: Hedge funds post mixed returns, China shines YTD
The hedge funds industry has continued to record lower performance in October and year-to-date, but some strategies managed to shine amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The average return in the sector came in at -0.21% last month and barely positive at +0.74% YTD. This is a stark contrast from the +10.05% the industry registered in 2019, just released data by eVestment show. While China-focused funds only recorded +0.21% in October, these funds are leading the industry YTD with average performance of +18.45%.
Opalesque: Hedge fund performance declines in October for the second month in a row
Hedge funds continued to face a difficult market environment in October as for a second consecutive month the majority of funds saw performance declines, said a report by eVestment. According to the report, the average return in the hedge fund industry came in at -0.21% in October. The tough first quarter of the year leading up to the global pandemic and the past two months have left the industry at a just-barely-positive +0.74% return year to date (YTD). This is a stark contrast to the +10.05% return the industry put up for all of 2019.
HedgeWeek: Hedge funds see second consecutive month of average performance decline
Hedge funds continued to face a difficult market environment in October as for a second consecutive month the majority of funds saw performance declines. However, eVestment Global Head of Research Peter Laurelli notes that October’s results highlight the importance of due diligence and fund selection as, in spite of unimpressive average performance figures in October and YTD, many funds are doing quite well and making their investors very happy.
Financial Times: Funds cut cash holdings to pre-pandemic levels
Fund managers cut their cash stockpiles to record lows as they piled in to buoyant stock markets in the second and third quarters, prompting concerns over how they would cope with a fresh surge of investor redemptions. However, new research by data provider eVestment shows cash positions have sunk back to their pre-coronavirus levels. But Peter Laurelli, eVestment’s head of research, said the sharp decline in cash holdings was surprising given the likelihood of fresh market turmoil in response to looming economic pain from a second wave of coronavirus lockdowns.
CityWire: Institutional investors’ top strategy searches in October
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level, over October.
Institutional Investor: The pandemic hasn’t kept pensions from hiring private equity managers
The inability to meet with asset managers in person has not kept public pension funds from investing in private equity, according to eVestment. The investment data firm said in a private markets report that pension funds committed $20 billion to private equity in the third quarter, more than the $17.8 billion invested in the same period last year. The second quarter had been even busier, with commitments totaling nearly $25 billion.
Property Funds World: Pandemic-related shutdowns continue to hit real estate and real asset deals; private equity and private debt investments recovering, says eVestment
In the third quarter of 2020, pension funds in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom monitored by eVestment’s Market Lens reported total commitments to private markets investments of just over USD34 billion, according to the latest eVestment Private Markets Monthly Monitor. Commitments to real estate and real asset investments continue to suffer from apparent concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic’s long-term impact on real estate markets and global economic growth. Private Equity and Private Debt fundraising, on the other hand, is seeing new strength.
FundFire: Multistrat hedge funds lead battle for ‘experienced’ talent
After a COVID-19 induced hiring lull in the spring, hedge funds have ramped back up, with multi-strategy funds continuing to lead the industry’s activity – and signs of an active recruiting environment in 2021. While investors pulled $9.6 billion overall from hedge funds in September, bringing year-to-date redemptions numbers to $47.7 billion, that total is still much lower than at this time in 2019, according to data from eVestment. And many multi-strategy funds have put up double-digit performance numbers so far this year, sources told FundFire.
Hedgeweek: Winners and losers: How 2020’s hedge fund performance is now weighing more heavily on investor allocations
New industry research shows that while allocators removed USD9.6 billion from hedge funds during September, they still pledged some USD8 billion to the industry throughout Q3 – the first time since Q1 2018 that hedge funds registered positive quarterly inflows. “The data is showing it over and over across multiple strategies, that those gaining new assets are among the outperforming managers, while the largest redemptions are coming from those with elevated losses,” eVestment said this week.
Alpha Week: Hedge funds enjoy first quarter of net inflows for two and a half years
Investors removed an estimated $9.66bn from hedge funds in September, but that was not enough to prevent the industry enjoying its first quarter of positive net inflows since the first quarter of 2018. Data from eVestment suggests that $8bn was allocated to hedge funds in the third quarter of the year, although year to date the industry is still seeing net outflows of -$47.75bn.
Institutional Investor: These allocators say they are sticking with value managers
Data firm eVestment reported in August that value strategies were among the biggest drivers of institutional outflows in the second quarter. Large-cap U.S. value strategies had net outflows of more than $10 billion, while global large-cap growth funds took in just under $10 billion. The data firm said that U.S. large-cap and small-cap value strategies were among the three most viewed U.S. strategies among consultants using the eVestment platform.
AM Watch: Active strategies in Nordic equity came out on top of the world in Q3 – but trail China YTD
Fund managers investing in Nordic equities on average generated the highest quarterly returns across the equity universes in financial data firm eVestment’s database. This development was led by products from local managers like SEB and Fondsfinans Kapitalforvaltning and global player BNP Paribas Asset Management, according to eVestment Global Head of Research.
Opalesque: Active strategies’ rebound continued in Q3 2020
Active investment managers across a variety of asset classes and regional exposures followed their historic Q2 returns with continued gains in Q3 2020. Returns were not consistently positive throughout the quarter as losses were the norm in September. The road ahead is filled with uncertainty around US elections and the global response to COVID-19 in the coming months. The data pulls some high points from eVestment’s monthly and quarterly institutional investment performance data and highlights historic quarterly returns, particularly among Equity strategies, globally.
CityWire: The shops that topped institutional investors’ searches in September
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level.
Pensions&Investments: Verus, eVestment push for enhanced diversity reporting
Verus Advisory has teamed with eVestment to push money managers to disclose more workforce data on gender and ethnic diversity. The joint initiative will entail eVestment enhancing its questionnaires to request data on diversity at firmwide and investment team levels as well as information on money managers’ efforts to increase gender and ethnic diversity within investment and senior leadership roles, according to a news release from Verus, a Seattle-based investment consultant and OCIO firm. eVestment, an institutional investment data and analytics firm in Atlanta, previously collected diversity data on firm ownership and expects to update its manager questionnaires in time for its year-end data collection process.
AM Watch: Norwegian pension investor says it disinvests if a fund’s key people quit
Norwegian pension fund Fellesordningen for AFP (AFP) disinvests in funds in cases where key members of the team quits. Frode Veiby, who comments on the issue at a recent webinar hosted by eVestment, also describes the pension fund’s ongoing process of monitoring its external managers. “When we are investing in a new fund, what we find is not a company but a team of portfolio managers behind the strategy, and if one or several people in that team were to leave that would definitely be a large red flag for us,” he says.
IPE: Norway’s AFP sees key staff exits at external managers as deal breakers
The head of equities at a NOK42bn (€3.79bn) Norwegian pension fund has opened up about how the lean operation picks external managers and monitors them, saying the pension fund will drop a third-party fund rapidly if a key member of the team quits. Frode Veiby, head of equities at Fellesordningen for AFP (AFP), said in a webinar: “If a critical member of the team left, we would definitely disinvest quite fast.” Speaking in the online interview organised by US manager data provider eVestment – which AFP uses – Veiby described the pension fund’s ongoing process of monitoring its external managers.
Hedge Week: In hedge funds, success no longer depends on size, as biggest managers fall behind industry average in 2020
The biggest hedge fund managers are still lagging behind the wider industry’s performance on average in 2020, with larger strategies having fallen into the red over the past nine months while the industry overall is in positive territory, as hedge fund strategies of all stripes gave up some of their summer gains in September, according to new industry data. The ten largest hedge funds reporting performance to eVestment lost 1.06 per cent in September, generally in line with the wider hedge fund industry, which fell just over 1 per cent.
AlphaWeek: Hedge fund performance retreats in September after strong summer
Hedge funds dipped negative in September, according to data published by eVestment. Industry-wide average performance stood at -1.01% in September, putting YTD industry performance at just +1.04. The retreat comes after a five-month string of positive results from April to August, which pulled the hedge fund industry out of the performance hole created in the first quarter of the year as the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up.
FundFire: eVestment Expands ESG Questionnaire for Managers
eVestment has expanded its questionnaire on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, asking asset managers to provide consultants and asset owners using the database with more information on how they incorporate those factors into their investment processes and firm structures. The expanded questionnaire, which eVestment began rolling out in August, has 140 questions, as opposed to the 40 questions that were previously part of the ESG section. As of Wednesday morning, close to 2,000 strategies on the database had already converted to the new questionnaire, says Erika Spence, head of data strategy at eVestment.
Institutional Asset Manager: eVestment launches new ESG questionnaire
eVestment, a specialist in institutional investment data and analytics, has launched a new ESG questionnaire as part of its initiative to standardise ESG reporting. With input from institutional investors, consultants, managers and industry organisations, eVestment is bringing more insights and transparency to the ESG space. The new questionnaire is now available for all managers reporting data to eVestment and data and insights based on the new questionnaire are available to eVestment clients.
Financial Times: Hedge funds seek out emerging markets as Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to strike countries around the world, hedge funds are preparing for a host of debt restructurings in emerging economies. Interest in EMs, led by the Bric countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — soared in the mid-noughties. But as the US stock market’s decade-long rally took hold after the financial crisis, interest waned. Since the start of 2011, EM-focused hedge funds were hit by net outflows in seven out of nine years, according to data group eVestment. But this year, funds have received a net $3.4bn in flows, even as investors have pulled money out of hedge funds overall.
IPE: Guest ViewPoint: Peter Laurelli, eVestment
Comparing asset management fees across firms, strategies and regions is not a simple task. There are frequently differences, sometimes large, in what asset managers state they charge in their marketing materials, and the fees they actually negotiate during due diligence and selection processes. These differences can vary on region, asset class, investment size and other factors. Having a better sense of the fees charged for different strategies, and how much discounting takes place, can benefit investors and managers.
FundFire: eVestment will start asking managers for staff diversity data in 2021
Starting in January, asset managers putting their data into eVestment will see an additional section in the questionnaire, asking them about internal diversity statistics and what kind of programs they have in place to improve. Behind the effort is a collaboration between the database provider and investment consultant and outsourced CIO (OCIO) Verus, a partnership that seeks to get better diversity data. “We’ve gotten a number of requests [for such data] in … the last 18 months, and the noise has gotten a lot louder around it in the past months,” says Erika Spence, global head of data strategy at eVestment. “It became apparent that we had a responsibility to try to do this.”
Reuters: Market volatility prompts investors to seek out long-short equity
Stretched valuations and the resulting pullback in equities have prompted more interest in long/short fund strategies that can provide some protection against market declines and wild swings, hedge fund and asset managers say. Data from industry tracker eVestment shows searches for long-short equity hedge funds on their database rose to a seven-month high in August, making up 17% of all hedge fund searches, compared with 11.1% in July.
Forbes: Hedge funds are finally seeing inflows
Hedge funds are gradually digging out of the hole they fell into during the first quarter of the year, but that hole was so deep that quite a bit of shovelling was needed. Data from eVestment indicates that activist hedge funds have been outperforming other hedge funds this year. Activist funds climbed 7.88% last month. On average, activist funds have gained 3.25%.
Hedge Nordic: Hedgie assets are flowing back
Investors poured $7.4 billion into hedge funds during the month of August, continuing the industry’s asset recovery journey following four consecutive months outflows from March through June. Investors added an additional $9 billion to the hedge fund industry in July, according to eVestment.
FundFire: Growth equity, high yield and REITs pique investor interest amid pandemic
U.S. high-yield, core fixed income, REITs and growth equity strategies have drawn increased attention from institutional investors using eVestment’s database since the onset of the pandemic. While elevated database viewership doesn’t necessarily signal an uptick in flows, U.S. high-yield and core fixed income did see an influx of money in the second quarter, as investors sought yield and safety.
Financial Times: UK hedge fund Makuria hit by oil slide and lockdown effects
Makuria Investment Management, founded in 2012 by Mans Larsson, lost about 29 per cent this year to the end of August, said a person who had seen the numbers. The firm tries to make money trading corporate credit, including distressed bonds — those trading well below par value. Multi-strategy credit funds are down on average 0.8 per cent this year to August, while directional credit funds — which take more of a bet on credit market moves — have lost 1.6 per cent as this year’s worst-performing strategy, according to eVestment.
Bloomberg: Hedge funds struggle as Nasdaq whale drives stocks higher
How can hedge funds possibly thrive in this world? Go big, or go home. Even before the pandemic hit, funds with large, concentrated bets were gaining market share. Last year, event-driven funds, which seek to profit from certain situations like mergers or takeovers, saw $11 billion of inflows, while the hedge fund industry as a whole witnessed more than $100 billion of withdrawals, estimates eVestment Inc., a Nasdaq Inc. company.
CityWire: Institutional investors’ most wanted: August’s hottest PM searches
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies, and managers, both in the US and at a global level.
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in August 2020
This month’s peek into the clicking activity of eVestment’s institutional investor and consultant subscribers shows a new entry at the top of the pile, New York-based Nut Tree Capital Management. At the regional level, Gramas Growth Partners LP fund was the winner in the Asia ex-Japan region – the fund also came fourth in the overall standings this month.
Financial Times: Market volatility brings vintage hedge fund strategy back to the fore
One of the hedge fund industry’s oldest — and often least loved — strategies is making a comeback, helped by this year’s market turmoil. It has become this year’s best-performing hedge fund strategy, gaining 6.9 per cent on average to August, according to data group eVestment. This compares with 2.2 per cent across the broader hedge fund sector.
Institutional Money: Activist hedge funds are making their competition look old
In August, activist hedge funds were able to comfortably outperform other hedge fund strategies as managers with a large number of assets under management lagged the market. This is shown by new data from eVestment. The activists are also up year-to-date. Overall, the latest eVestment figures show that most hedge fund strategies are positive year-to-date.
Ignites Asia: Regional institutional investors exit Asia strategies in Q2
Institutional investors in Asia Pacific pulled out of a number of traditional strategies in the second quarter this year, including many Asia-focused strategies, according to new research by eVestment. Japan all-cap value equity strategies saw the most outflows, with nearly US$4 billion in the second quarter. Other Japan-focused strategies also saw net outflows, including core fixed income, all-cap core equity and large-cap growth equity, according to the report by the institutional-focused investment intelligence firm.
Financial Standard: Australia most active region in Q2: Research
New research has revealed that Australians were the most active institutional investment community within the Asia Pacific region in the second quarter of the year, with interest directed to long-only Australian equity strategies. The research, by institutional asset management focused research house eVestment, tracked the product and profile views of investors and consultants across the region.
Georgia Trend: FinTech in Georgia: From Strong to Stronger
If you’re looking for an economic bright spot this somewhat dismal year, cast your eyes toward FinTech, Georgia’s financial technology industry, encompassing anything and everything that allows, enables or secures online or mobile transactions. “It has been a very interesting time to manage a business through,” says eVestment CEO Gene Luciani. “We’ve done remarkably well. Luckily, we were a SaaS-based platform, so all our code is on those servers. Having to close the office didn’t impact our ability to keep our solutions on for our clients. We’ve been able to have the platform up and running, data flowing through very easily just like we were in the office. Our workforces transitioned to remote work very well.”
Institutional Asset Manager: Witan Investment Trust selects eVestment to support its manager selection and monitoring processes
“For Witan, it’s about identifying and selecting the very best managers for our global equity portfolio,” says James Hart, Witan’s Investment Director. “eVestment allows us to research more possibilities and to optimise our due diligence on world class managers for the benefit of our shareholders. Witan, which has employed a multi-manager approach since 2004, continues to evolve and we welcome the addition of eVestment’s innovative data and insights which will complement the range of inputs that go into our investment manager selection and monitoring processes.”
Reuters: Sovereign wealth funds stampede into stocks outside the U.S.
Sovereign wealth funds poured a net $7.1 billion into stocks during the second quarter, the most in several years, with the bulk outside the United States, data showed on Thursday. The funds also pulled a net $5.2 billion out of fixed income during that period, the most since the first quarter of 2019, according to the eVestment data on strategies managed by third-party fund managers.
Ignites Europe: European firms charging lower institutional fees
European asset managers are charging lower fees for managing separate accounts than US and other international competitors, according to new research. The global analysis by eVestment shows Europe-based firms “generally charge less” than their non-European counterparts for managing the same investment strategies. European firms charge 3.5 basis points lower management fees than their competitors among the 11 equity and fixed income strategies that allow for direct comparisons, the data provider finds.
The Asset: Hedge funds see inflows after four months of redemptions
Investors allocated an additional US$9.33 billion to hedge funds around the world in July, ending four consecutive months of redemptions that saw investors pulling some US$72 billion from the industry between March and June, according to a recently published report. With new money coming into the industry in only three of the first seven months of the year, the industry is still in the red for asset flows year to date (YTD) by US$46.42 billion and has assets under management (AUM) of US$3.15 trillion, the report by data provider eVestment points out.
Institutional Asset Manager: US fixed income strategies draw nearly USD100bn from institutional investors in Q2
US fixed income strategies received inflows of USD99.2 billion from institutional investors in the second quarter of 2020, excluding cash management products, according to eVestment’s Q2 2020 Traditional Asset Flows Report. “The net inflows to US fixed income in Q2 2020 almost fully reversed the combined USD104.2 billion in outflows seen during the first quarter of the year,” writes Peter Laurelli, global head of research at eVestment.
Financial Times: Institutions pour money into high-yield active strategies
Institutional investor enthusiasm for high yield has led the category to its best quarter in several years after distress caused by the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic created opportunities for buyers. US active high-yield fixed income strategies recorded more than $25bn in net institutional flows during the second quarter, bringing institutional assets under management in the strategy tracked by eVestment up to $555bn.
WealthAdviser: St James’s Place selects eVestment in increasing institutionalisation of investment manager selection process
St James’s Place (SJP), the UK’s largest private wealth management firm, has selected eVestment, a specialist in institutional investment data and analytics, to further serve clients with SJP’s distinct approach to investment management. Tom Beal, Chief Investment Officer of SJP, says: “As part of the continual evolution of our Investment process, we have selected eVestment to further enhance our manager selection, monitoring and portfolio construction abilities. We look forward to working with eVestment who will complement the other inputs into our investment process.”
FundFire: Active high yield makes a comeback
Active high-yield fixed income has been a difficult strategy for institutional asset managers to pitch over the last three to four years, but distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to renewed inflows and an opportunity for existing players. Institutional investor enthusiasm for high yield led the category to its best quarter in several years. U.S. active high-yield fixed income strategies recorded more than $25 billion in net institutional flows during the second quarter, bringing institutional assets under management in the strategy tracked by eVestment up to $555 billion.
FundFire: Asset managers give more ground on fees
Asset managers are offering deeper and more frequent fee discounts to hold on to clients and win new mandates, as the balance of power in negotiations has shifted in favor of asset owners. In some categories of U.S. equity strategies, average active fees can be nearly eightfold higher than passive fees, according to a report on asset management fees eVestment released this month. “Pretty much universally, firm size had an influence on marketed [or stated] fees,” says Peter Laurelli, global head of research at eVestment.
HedgeWeek: Bigger may not necessarily be better: Largest hedge funds still down in 2020, lagging industry average
The ten largest hedge funds reporting to eVestment remain some 4.61 per cent in the red year-to-date, despite posting a 1.31 per cent gain in July. In contrast, hedge funds overall are now flat for the year, at 0.00 per cent, having registered a 3.43 per cent rise last month to successfully claw back losses suffered in H1. “Size appears to be something of a hindrance so far this year,” eVestment said in a note on Thursday.
CityWire: Institutional investors searches: The PMs that caught the eye in July
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies and managers, both in the US and at a global level.
Private Equity Wire: Why GPs need to move beyond Excel to move their firms forward
Simply put, portfolio performance data is a GP’s most valuable asset. It is their record of achievement, their recipe for future success, and their best fundraising tool, all in one. That is why it is unfathomable that most GPs are still relying solely on spreadsheets, 30+ year-old software, as their primary tool for collecting, managing, and analysing their performance data.
Institutional Investor: Active managers delivered during the market rebound
During a quarter that will make the financial history books, stock pickers earned their keep. Active managers of U.S. equity strategies generated an average gain of more than 23 percent, the largest positive return in 20 years, according to eVestment. As a result, the majority of U.S. institutional strategies outperformed their benchmarks in the second quarter.
The Asset: Hedge funds grapple with negative investor sentiment
Negative investor sentiment continues to weigh on the hedge fund industry, with investors pulling US$16.87 billion from the sector in June, market intelligence provider eVestment said in its latest report. If the trend continues or accelerates, full-year redemptions could surpass the US$102.25 billion that left in 2019.
Institutional Investor: The COVID-19 crisis could launch a wave of new asset managers
The end of the coronavirus pandemic could bring a large number of new asset managers. Data from eVestment show that the number of new firm launches tends to spike following economic crises. According to eVestment’s data, over 300 new asset management firms launched in 2009, just after the financial crisis. This was the highest number of single-year launches recorded since 1954, eVestment said. Most of those launches were in the hedge fund and alternative investment sector.
Opalesque: Hedge fund performance picks in 2Q, with Event Driven-Activist funds dominating
Hedge funds gained an average of +2.07% in June, but year-to-date (YTD) average industry returns are still in the red at -3.37%. The second quarter was stronger for the industry, with 2Q 2020 average returns at +9.91%. Roughly 40% of the industry is producing positive results in 2020, with the average positive gain among that group of +9.12%. The average decline of those funds in the red is -10.85%.
AsianInvestor: Living in interesting times
In today’s difficult environment, it is more important than ever for asset owners to deploying their money effectively – which means holding money managers accountable for their performance. AsianInvestor recently held a webinar in partnership with eVestment, whose analytics experts presented their latest insights based on their datasets. Amid unprecedented times of volatility and uncertainty there is a renewed interest among institutional investors to build their capabilities to better understand how managers are performing – both in terms of benchmarks and when compared with their peers.
FundFire: COVID-19 volatility puts active fixed income to the test
Flows into active fixed income strategies face headwinds as the COVID-19 market shock produces large performance dispersions, and long-term trends like the low-yield environment and a shift to passive continues. Whether in U.S. core fixed income or within all active non-cash U.S. fixed income strategies, the periods of elevated market volatility revealed varying performance differentials between the best and worst performing strategies, says eVestment global head of research Peter Laurelli.
Nasdaq Trade Talks: eVestment makes data available to more asset managers through Instant Insights
eVestment makes data available to more asset managers through recently launched Instant Insights. Senior Vice President Russ Elliott joins Jill Malandrino on Nasdaq #TradeTalks to discuss.
FundFire: Inst’l sales platform Assette integrates eVestment data
Software provider Assette has reached an agreement to incorporate eVestment data into its automated sales and digital communication platform used by asset managers. Clients of both firms will be able to create sales and marketing materials on Assette’s platform incorporating data collected by eVestment. The firm expects the integration will help asset managers’ sales and marketing teams eliminate manual process associated with adding eVestment data to pitchbooks, presentations and other sales and marketing materials.
Institutional Asset Manager: eVestment and Assette partner to provide data integration to asset management firms
eVestment, an institutional investment data and analytics provider, and Assette, a sales and client communication software firm, have teamed up to help asset managers integrate peer performance, key professional, fees and other data seamlessly into client and sales communications. With this new agreement, a pre-built connector pulls eVestment data directly into the Assette platform, allowing asset managers to access quantitative and qualitative data from multiple sources easily.
IPE: Norway’s AFP pension fund taps eVestment
Norwegian private sector pension fund AFP has picked US data firm eVestment to provide services to help it monitor external managers and handle its data collection and review processes more efficiently, according to the US firm. Frode Veiby, senior portfolio manager at the pension fund, said AFP was “very excited” to use the eVestment platform. “Finding and monitoring institutional asset managers locally and around the world is important to our success in serving our pensioners,” he said.
Yahoo Finance: Instant Insights brings eVestment data to more users
eVestment, a global leader in institutional investment data and analytics, has launched Instant Insights for traditional asset managers to surface key data points about their products and business opportunities in the spaces in which they compete. Instant Insights is next-generation competitive intelligence for executives in sales, marketing and consultant relations who want to set product and market priorities with data.
Bloomberg: Hedge funds see inflows in May after months of redemptions
Hedge funds saw net inflows for the first time since February, with the industry bringing in $1.7 billion in May, according to data provider eVestment. Still, redemptions for the year stood at more than $30 billion, the firm said.
Pensions & Investments: Norway’s Fellesordningen chooses eVestment for manager selection, monitoring
Fellesordningen for AFP, Lysaker, Norway, selected eVestment to provide assistance with manager selection and monitoring. The firm will help the supplementary multiemployer plan with manager analysis through use of a database, said Frode Veiby, senior portfolio manager. “We are very excited to utilize the eVestment platform and know that eVestment has the breadth and depth in coverage and proprietary data and tools to make sure that we are able to identify the appropriate strategies for the management of the AFP fund,” he added.
AM Watch: Data provider makes another breakthrough with Nordic pension fund
Norwegian pension fund Fellesordningen for AFP chooses data provider eVestment to help select and monitor asset managers and to more efficiently manage its data collection and processes. AFP is a private sector tariff-based pension scheme in Norway with around EUR 3.7 billion in assets under management. According to eVestment, the data provider sees a trend of Nordic pension funds beginning to look more globally for managers and using tools like eVestment to do so.
Private Funds CFO: Will PE wake up to WFH?
Flexible working was not fashionable in private equity before 2020. Only 7 percent of private markets professionals regularly worked from home, said a survey of 311 of them by eVestment and MJ Hudson. Of those, 80 percent were senior team members. “Working from home is a privilege to be earned, rather than a right, it would seem,” noted the report’s authors.
Financial Standard: Melbourne boutique partners with Swiss bank
Bell Asset Management’s funds have been among top performers in its category. About 90% of its funds under management at September end, when it partnered with Channel for retail and wholesale, was from institutional investors, about 40% of whom were overseas clients that it attracted through eVestment.
IPE: eVestment: Consultants decreased return expectations before virus hit
A recent report published by eVestment shows that on average consultants decreased their return expectations across all high-level asset classes, even before the global health crisis emerged. The report, Capital Market Assumptions Survey 2020, which looks at 2019 and pre-pandemic 2020 capital market assumptions (CMAs), revealed these adjustments come after a year of high returns across many markets in 2019.
Pensions & Investments: Consultants forecast lower returns in 2020 even before COVID-19
Data aggregated by eVestment show that across 12 major asset classes declining return expectations were reported in all but core real estate. Emerging market return expectations had the most significant declines, with equity returns falling 125 basis points and U.S. dollar denominated debt 147 basis points lower.
IPE: AP1 saves resources by adding eVestment to monitoring kit
Swedish state pension buffer fund AP1 has started using data services from US provider eVestment to monitor the performance of its external managers – a move the SEK366bn (€35bn) fund said will help it direct its resources more efficiently. Majdi Chammas, portfolio manager in AP1’s new external partnerships and innovation department, told IPE: “AP1 has decided to add eVestment to the existing toolkit. The eVestment database will help us in the monitoring process of existing and shortlisted managers and allow us to focus our resources.”
FundFire: Pandemic gives rise to new industry conference models
Industry conference organizers are recreating events to adjust to the social norms imposed by the pandemic. New conference formats are opening access to new attendees, generating new data on attendee preferences, and creating new sponsorship opportunities for asset management marketers. Data provider eVestment cancelled its Atlanta annual conference and repurposed the content for free webcasts and podcasts, says marketing operations manager Erica Jack. “We chose not to postpone it later this year… mostly due to uncertainty of how things will play out.”
Ignites Asia: HK hedge fund dangles full loss insurance for 50% performance fee
A Hong Kong-based hedge fund is offering to cover full losses on a new share class to drum up interest in its strategies after the sector was heavily hit by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. During the first four months of this year, the global hedge fund industry saw outflows of about US$31 billion as investors scrambled for the exit amid the spread of the pandemic. In fact, the resulting sell-off in March occurred during the worst monthly performance for hedge funds since the global financial crisis of 2008, the publication said, citing institutional investment data provider eVestment.
Pensions & Investments: AP1 chooses eVestment technology to monitor managers
AP1, Stockholm, will use technology provided by eVestment to help in its quantitative analysis of money managers, a spokesman said. The 365.8 billion Swedish kronor ($38.6 billion) fund will use the eVestment technology in the monitoring process of new and existing managers as well as managers on the fund’s watchlist.
AM Watch: Investment data provider eVestment reels in AP1 as new customer
Swedish public pension fund AP1 has decided to adopt asset manager monitoring capabilities from eVestment, a global provider of institutional investment data and analytics. AP1 will incorporate eVestment data into its existing process for monitoring its roster of managers and for continual monitoring of managers on their shortlist. The data should give AP1 insights into how those managers are performing if AP1 seeks to rebalance or reallocate in the future.
Institutional Asset Manager: US bond funds bore brunt of Q1 institutional investor outflows, says report
Examining data from USD28.3 trillion in institutional assets under management on eVestment’s platform, the report showed US bond funds suffering outflows of USD162.6 billion, of which USD111.3 billion came from active strategies and USD51.3 billion from passive strategies.
FundFire: Institutional assets gushed out of fixed income strategies in Q1
Global institutional investors pulled out more than $70.68 billion from U.S. long duration fixed income strategies, doubling the strategy’s largest outflow on record, according to an eVestment first quarter report. In the U.S., institutional and retail investors pulled out more than $50 billion from the asset class.
Hedge Nordic: Large macro funds bleed assets
After large losses in March pushed hedge fund industry assets below $3 trillion for the first time since 2014, investors redeemed an estimated $18 billion from hedge funds in April, according to eVestment. Following net redemptions of about $24 billion in March and $18 billion in April, net outflows in the hedge fund industry during the first four months of 2020 reached $31 billion.
LiveWire: Why invest in Australian small caps?
The ability for investment managers to beat their respective benchmark performance in niche markets like Australian small caps has been consistent and has delivered significantly higher alpha as compared to other equity classes over the long-term. Author Phillip Hudak of AMP Capital uses eVestment data as a source for this article.
Reuters: Sovereign wealth funds fly to relative safety of U.S. assets amid pandemic
U.S. equity strategies managed by third-party fund managers sucked in net flows of $5.36 billion from sovereign funds in the first quarter, with the majority headed to passive S&P 500 equity strategies which posted their largest inflows in at least three years, according to data from eVestment.
CityWire Asia: Major hedge funds staged a comeback in April
Hedge funds gained an average of +5.02% in April, but remained largely negative year-to-date at -7.49%, just-released data by eVestment has revealed.
Financial Standard: Hedge funds rally in April, but YTD still bleed red
New data has revealed that hedge funds around the globe staged a recovery in April, with a positive aggregate return of more than 5%. It follows a disappointing March, with almost all the hedge funds tracked by a global database and analytics tool in the red. Despite this promising turn around, eVestment found that the majority of hedge funds were still in the red year to date, reflecting the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on market performance.
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in April 2020
Our monthly peek into the viewership activity by the institutional investor and advisor subscribers to the platform shows that Graham Capital’s Quant Macro Portfolio was the most viewed hedge fund last month, the first time that it has topped the list and the first time it has appeared in the top three since September 2016.
FundFire: The ESG boom is coming for credit, but managers lag on active engagement
Only one in two eVestment-tracked global institutional dollars allocated to fixed income strategies that consider ESG in some way, shape or form is subject to an active ownership policy, a FundFire analysis of the data provider’s numbers shows.
Axios: U.S. pension funds continue to lurch toward bonds amid coronavirus pandemic
U.S. pension plans already were above their target allocation to fixed income before the coronavirus pandemic, and the outperformance of fixed income during the first quarter has further shifted the tide, a new report from eVestment shows.
FundFire: Did OCIOs earn their keep in 2019? New data sheds light
The first Outsourced CIO (OCIO) performance indices are here, giving institutional investors a new way to gauge how their provider stacks up to peers. Anonymized client data collected from OCIO providers by Nasdaq and search firm Alpha Capital Management shows that, on average, OCIO firms’ discretionary clients saw returns of 4.5% in the fourth quarter and 18% during all of 2019, net of fees. Five-year annualized returns stood at 6.5%.
Bloomberg: Hedge fund assets dip below $3 trillion to least in six years
Global hedge fund assets dropped below $3 trillion for the first time since April 2014, hit by client withdrawals and investment losses amid the March market rout, eVestment data show. Investors pulled $24.1 billion more funds than they deposited last month, according to the data provider.
Financial News London: UK pension investors look to step up private market allocations
UK public plans are set to make “substantial allocations” to private markets in the coming months, according data company eVestment. The shift is a reaction to the reported 20% aggregate decline in their performance in the first quarter this year, which resulted in a £40.7bn loss.
Ignites Asia: eVestment hires business development manager in Sydney
Institutional investment data and analytics solutions provider eVestment has appointed Daman Grewal as Sydney-based business development manager, effective in January. In this newly created role, Grewal focuses on growing the firm’s client base in Australia and New Zealand, including asset managers, investors and investment consultants.
Opalesque: Hedge fund returns varied in March amid elevated volatility, says eVestment
March was a highly volatile and dramatic month, not just for global financial markets and the hedge fund industry, but for humanity. “During the global financial crisis, financial systems were at risk of failing, whereas in March and ongoing, we face larger failures. With the understanding that these are delicate times for all, the following is a look at hedge fund performance amid a global crisis,” said Peter Laurelli, CFA, eVestment Global Head of Research.
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in March 2020
Our monthly peek into eVestment’s subscriber activity sees AQR Capital Management’s DELTA Strategy re-take the top spot in the most viewed product category.
FundFire: COVID-19 forces work culture shifts for private equity firms
Before Covid-19, flexible working in private markets was not indulged very often, according to a survey conducted by eVestment Private Markets and MJ Hudson of 311 employees from across the global private markets industry, including GPs, LPs, and outsourced practitioners of core functions.
Axios: Hedge funds outperformed the stock market in March
Hedge funds outperformed the S&P 500 in March and have suffered fewer losses this year, showing their value during crisis periods, data from eVestment shows.
Vanity Fair: Too big to fail, COVID-19 edition: How private equity is winning the Coronavirus crisis
In 2018, according to analytics firm eVestment, pension funds in the U.S. and the U.K. pumped 27% of their fresh allocations of money into private-equity funds, up from 25% the year before.
CityWire: The shops that topped institutional investors’ searches in March
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies and managers, at a global level and in the US.
FundFire: Share your response to COVID-19, eVestment asks managers
eVestment is collecting business continuity plans and COVID-19-related marketing materials to meet growing demand for this information as the pandemic sheds light on asset managers’ preparedness for unforeseen events. The effort aims to serve as a one-stop shop for investment consultants and asset owners seeking information on how managers are responding to the pandemic.
Reuters: Multi-strategy hedge funds outperformed peers as market plunged
Last year, investors cooled on multi-strategy funds, which oversee $526 billion, and pulled out $18.3 billion, according to data from research firm eVestment. This year is different: investors have added $10.57 billion in the first two months of the year.
FundFire: First mover advantage poses challenges for new product launches
The first investment strategies to market can have an advantage on the competition in gathering assets, an important factor for managers to consider in product development efforts, a new study from eVestment finds.
Opalesque: Investors generous with new money for hedge funds in February. Will that hold up in March?
Investors were bullish on hedge funds in February, allocating another $14.78 billion to funds around the world, according to just-released February 2020 eVestment Hedge Fund Asset Flows data.
Institutional Investor: Managers were getting bad news before markets crashed
Before the worst of the market carnage was unleashed in mid-March, institutional equity managers were already experiencing some of the worst outflows in years. According to eVestment’s first institutional intelligence report, published on Monday, the largest outflows came from active U.S. and global equity strategies, while investors were shifting into cash management and fixed-income funds.
S&P Global Market Intelligence: Hedge funds show their worth in February as they outperform volatile S&P 500
The global hedge funds industry posted aggregate losses of 2.53% in February, according to eVestment, an institutional investment data provider owned by Nasdaq, compared with returns including dividends of -8.23% for the S&P 500, -3.73% for a balanced index of global equities and sovereign bonds (50% MSCI World/50% Citi WGBI).
FundFire: Volatility is back. Will hedge fund flows return?
Following a challenging 2019 when the hedge fund space saw nearly $100 billion in outflows, this year started off with a bang, as investors added an estimated $10.38 billion to hedge funds in January, according to data from eVestment.
FundFire: Nasdaq buys inst’l investor fintech shop Solovis
Nasdaq, Inc. has acquired financial technology company Solovis in a deal it says creates a “global leader of proprietary content, insights and portfolio analytics.” Nasdaq will make Solovis’ offering available through its eVestment group.
Pensions & Investments: Investors pull $59.4 billion from traditional managers in Q4
Institutional investors pulled a net $59.4 billion from traditional long-only asset managers over the course of the fourth quarter, and $210.7 billion during all of 2019, data from eVestment said.
Bloomberg: Asia hedge funds brace for lean times as investors stay away
Asia-based hedge funds lost 5% of their assets to net redemptions last year, compared with 3% on average globally, eVestment data show.
Reuters: Sovereign investors pulled back from equities in fourth quarter -report
Sovereign wealth fund investment in equities via external asset managers fell in the final quarter of last year, data from research firm eVestment showed on Thursday.
AlphaWeek: eVestment’s top hedge funds in January 2020
AQR’s DELTA strategy was the most viewed alternative product on the eVestment platform from its institutional investor and consultant subscriber base last month, taking first place from Renaissance Technologies’ Institutional Diversifed Global Equities and Magnitude Capital’s Magnitude International coming in third.
Bloomberg: Hedge fund outflows neared $100 billion in 2019, most since 2016
Investors pulled more than $16 billion from the industry in December alone, capping a year that saw the longest stretch of monthly client withdrawals since the 2008 financial crisis, according to data compiled by eVestment. The redemptions equal about 3% of industry assets and are almost triple the $37.2 billion in outflows seen in 2018.
Citywire Professional Buyer: The shops that topped institutional investors’ searches in December
eVestment, a database used by institutional investors, breaks down the most searched for categories, strategies and managers, at a global level and in the US.
Markets Media: Hedge funds see $4.45 billion of November inflows
The hedge fund business turned around eight consecutive months of aggregate outflows in November, with investors allocating +$4.45 billion to the industry, according to just-released eVestment hedge fund asset flows data.
Pensions & Investments: European fixed-income investors demanding fee cuts
Institutional AUM for all European fixed-income strategies has declined to $972 billion as of Sept. 30 from more than $1 trillion as of Dec. 31, 2017, according to data provider eVestment LLC.