Taylor Scott International News
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4dc5971c-374a-11e3-b42e-00144feab7de.html#ixzz2iXVJIIAx ● US fund house Legg Mason Global Asset Management has launched the Legg Mason Western Asset Senior Loans fund to provide exposure to debt securities and non-investment grade loans. ● UK fund company Schroders has launched a new catastrophe bond fund, the Schroder GAIA Cat Bond fund, on its Luxembourg-domiciled Ucits platform, to invest in regions with a high concentration of insured wealth. ● Natixis Asset Management has unveiled the Natixis Global Risk Parity fund, which will invest in a wide range of asset classes, from equities to commodities, real estate and emerging market debt. ● Willstone Management, a UK-based art investment company, has obtained $100m from two New York hedge funds to launch what it claims is the first sizeable dedicated art-lending business for Europe. ● Three seasoned activist investors, Blake Nixon, Max Lesser and Christopher Mills, have joined forces to launch investment vehicle Worsley Investors as part of a new venture, Worsley Asset Management. The fund will take strategic holdings in UK small-cap companies that are trading at deep discounts to their latent value. ● Baring Asset Management is to launch the Baring European Opportunities fund to invest in smaller European companies, which it believes are substantially under-researched compared to larger cap stocks. ● AXA is expanding its €3bn smart beta range with the launch of the AXA WF Global SmartBeta Equity, a Luxembourg-domiciled Sicav. ● BlackRock’s ETF arm, iShares, has created a range of five ultra-short and short-duration bond ETFs designed as alternatives to money market funds. The ETFs, which are the first passive products in this space in Europe, carry total expense ratios between 20 and 45bp. ● FinEx has launched a physically backed gold ETF on the Irish Stock Exchange, which will be cross-listed in Moscow in a bid to drive the development of the Russian ETF industry. Taylor Scott International
Taylor Scott International, Taylor Scott
