Zurich Scudder’s Mutual Fund Business Moves to Chicago
Zurich Scudder Investments plans to cut staff and move its U.S. mutual fund business from Boston to Chicago, according to Bloomberg. The report indicated that some account managers and support/operations staff would remain in Boston.3-Plansponsor.comAIM Small Cap Growth Fund To Close To New Investors
The AIM Small Cap Growth Fund will close to new investors at 3 p.m. CST on Monday, March 18, 2002. The fund was originally closed to new investors from Nov. 8, 1999, until Aug. 20, 2001 – but with the fund’s net assets now above $1 billion, the fund’s managers/directors believe closing the fund will be in the best interest of shareholders.3-Plansponsor.comToronto Firm Launches Multi-Strategy Fund
Arrow Hedge Partners, a Toronto investment firm, announced launch of the Arrow Multi-Strategy Fund. Arrow executives said in a press release that the goal of the new fund is to provide institutional and high net worth investors with a global portfolio of different investment styles, strategies and asset classes that is managed by several managers. The company said the Arrow Multi-Strategy Fund allocates to eight Arrow Single Manager Funds including:Arrow Goodwood Fund, a Canadian equity hedge fund advised by Peter Puccetti of Goodwood Inc., Toronto Arrow Capital Advance Fund, a US equity hedge fund advised by Mark Lelekacs of Capital Advance Investment Management LLC, Tampa, Florida Arrow Eagle & Dominion Fund, a US small and mid-cap equity hedge fund advised by Duncan Byatt and Andrew Trower of Eagle & Dominion Asset Management Ltd., London Arrow White Mountain Fund, a European equity hedge fund, advised by Kevin Doyle and Sarah Caygill of Doyle Caygill Capital SA, Geneva, Switzerland Arrow WF Asia Fund, an Asian equity hedge fund advised by Scobie Ward and Peter Ferry of Ward Ferry Management Ltd., Hong Kong Arrow Ascendant Capital Fund, a market neutral arbitrage fund advised by David Jarvis and Rick Kung of Ascendant Capital Management Inc., Toronto Arrow Milford Capital Fund, a high-yield US bond fund advised by Chris Currie of Milford Capital Management Inc. Arrow Epic Capital Fund, a Canadian equity hedge fund advised by David Fawcett and Tom Schenkel of Epic Capital Management Inc., of Toronto.3-Plansponsor.comHewitt Plans to Get Morningstar Reports
Participants in retirement plans run by Hewitt Associates will soon have access to mutual fund research reports by Morningstar, Inc., Morningstar announced.Morningstar said it would create custom reports on 1,000 funds including privately managed separate accounts, commingled funds, equity and fixed-income funds and company stock funds.The company said each report will include volatility measurements, Morningstar’s proprietary ranking, top 10 holdings, and portfolio characteristics. The reports will be available on Hewitt’s Your Benefits Resource Web site this summer, Morningstar said.3-Plansponsor.comInternal Managers Trump outside Pension Advisors
Pension funds with on-staff advisors end up with better investment results than those who outsource their asset management tasks, a UK study found.The study of 28 internally managed funds managing 158 billion pounds showed that the funds enjoyed lower risks, which resulted in higher average total returns. The study was undertaken by WM Company, a research firm.According to WM, the majority of the internal funds actively manage their UK equities. The funds produced a 0.3% average annual return over rolling three and five-year periods.Similar results apply for North American stocks, while European equities turned in a 0.2% average annual gain, again showing a “significantly lower dispersion of returns”, according to WM. The only area where outside managers triumphed was with Japan equities and UK bonds.The funds held an average 212 UK stocks – much more than the average portfolio managed outside, WM said.Lower Turnover Means Lower CostBut the internal funds’ activity was much lower. Average portfolio turnover was 31% for internal UK equities, compared with 53% externally. For European equities the ratios were 74% versus 85%. For UK bonds the internal rate of change was at 82% compared with 141% for external. WM said the lower portfolio turnover gives internally managed funds a strong advantage due to their lower cost base, it notes. WM also point out that internal funds have a lower risk profile with an average tracking annual error of 1.6%, which is equivalent to the 75th percentile for external funds. This puts internal funds in the lowest quartile of riskiness. Funds involved in the study represent a quarter of the UK pension market, compared with 46% 15 years ago. In 80% of these funds, six out of 10 members are either inactive workers or pensioners.3-Plansponsor.comWeak Markets Yield Strong Results for Hedge Funds
Soft markets provided fertile ground for hedge fund growth in 2001, according to the Annual Hennessee Hedge Fund Manager Survey.Industry wide, hedge fund assets enjoyed a 38% rate of growth – some $144 billion – last year, and now total $563 billion, according to the report.Hedge funds beat out the still struggling broader equity markets during 2001 with the Hennessee Hedge Fund Index turning in a 3.98% increase, net of fees. On an annualized basis, the index had an 18% return since 1987 compared to 13.6% for the S&P 500 Index, according to a news release from the Hennessee Hedge Fund Advisory Group, which publishes the survey.The latest Hennessee report also showed that:Individuals remained the largest source of capital for hedge funds, contributing 48% or $270 billion of total assets. Almost 40% of hedge fund managers said high net worth individuals and family offers were the fastest growing capital source. Fund-of-funds were the second largest source of capital, contributing 20% of assets. One industry tactic for coping with the bear market was to hold a large amount of cash and to minimize market exposure. The average fund had a 49% net market exposure in 2001. The use of margin in 2001 declined to its lowest level since the survey began in 1994 — the average long exposure decreased 8% to 83%.The 2002 Survey includes 766 hedge funds and over $141 billion in assets, equating to 25% of the assets in the hedge fund industry. The median hedge fund size in this year’s survey was approximately $94 million.3-Plansponsor.comHemisphere: The Buyer is BISYS
Hemisphere announced today that its parent company, Mutual Risk Management Ltd., has agreed to sell the business to BISYS Group, Inc, the acquisitive out-sourcing company which is best known for servicing mutual funds. It is expected that the transaction will close by March 31,2002, subject to regulatory approvals.BISYS, which recently switched its primary listing from NASDAQ to the NYSE (BISYS Completes Move to NYSE)currently services 120 mutual fund complexes in the United States and Europe, with assets under administration of over US$500 billion. In common with other mutual fund service providers such as State Street – which is understood to be close to purchasing IFS, as part of a larger move to provide a combined prime brokerage and fund administration service- BISYS found its clients increasingly expected a hedge fund capability. The institutionalisation of alternative investing, coupled with the repeal of the Ten Commandments, is encouraging fund administrators to consider buying or developing hedge fund administration operations.”Combining Hemisphere’s service offerings with BISYS’ existing fund administration capabilities will yield the broadest array of fund services currently available from a single provider,” says Tom Healy, President and CEO of Hemisphere. “BISYS views the acquisition of Hemisphere as a strategic expansion in the alternative investment arena and is fully committed to the hedge fund industry.” Healy says that the current management team at Hemisphere will continue to manage the business as a separate division within the investment services group of BISYS. Clients -the majority of them clients of the Morgan Stanley prime brokerage operation – will await developments, doubtless concerned as to whether a long-only fund administrator has the skills to adapt to their particular needs.BISYS is expected to pay $130 million. It says that by acquiring Bermuda-based Hemisphere – which it describes as the largest hedge fund administrator in Europe and the third largest globally – BISYS will expand its services into a rapidly growing market: hedge funds. BISYS is banking on the market growing in size from $500 billion of assets today to $1.7 trillion by 2008. But the company may have bought into the business at the top of the market, in the United States if not in Europe, and without the projected growth BISYS may find the margins on hedge fund administration too thin to support without volume. Hemisphere currently services funds with approximately $50 billion in assets under management from service centers in Bermuda, Boston, and Dublin. BISYS operates mutual fund services – fund administration, fund accounting, transfer agency – from London, Luxembourg, Guernsey and the Cayman Islands as well as Dublin and New York.”The hedge fund industry represents a major growth opportunity and strategy for BISYS,” says Lynn Mangum, chairman and chief executive officer of BISYS. “Acquiring Hemisphere positions BISYS as a market leader in this dynamic segment of the financial services industry, and provides a high-growth platform proven to support the requirements of some of the largest global asset managers. Combining Hemisphere’s service offerings with BISYS’ existing mutual fund administration capabilities will generate the broadest array of fund services currently available from a single provider, and will enhance BISYS’ position as the leading third-party service provider to the investment services industry.”Tom Healy, Hemisphere’s chief executive officer, added, “We have recognized BISYS as a leading provider of sophisticated fund services and a technology innovator, and we have monitored BISYS’ growth in terms of its client base, product and service offerings, and global presence. We welcome the opportunity to become a strategic component of this dynamic organization. We are excited about enhancing the services we provide to our existing clients by leveraging BISYS’ resources and industry experience, and about the significant opportunities to cross-sell additional services to our respective client bases.”Morningstar Product IDs Like Mutual Funds
Investors looking for a substitute mutual fund choice for one that’s closed to new customers or carries hefty fees may find some relief in a new online tool from Morningstar, the company said.Similar Funds, available free at Morningstar’s Web site (www.morningstar.com) helps locate another fund in the same investing style and with the same characteristics as the unavailable or undesirable one, Morningstar said. The company said Similar Funds’ screening includes an analysis of the fund’s most recent portfolio and a review of the fund’s performance for the past three years. The program develops an overall similarity score on a one to ten scale with ten being the closest match.Investors can ask for funds with a specific initial investment limit and restrict the search to only no-load options, Morningstar said. 3-Plansponsor.comAverage US Hedge Fund Dips in February
The Average U.S. Hedge Fund posted a mild -0.7% net loss in February, based on preliminary figures received by Van Hedge Fund Advisors International, Inc. After a small gain in January, the Average U.S. Hedge Fund returned an estimated -0.2% net over the first two months of 2002. By comparison, except for the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Index, all the major stock averages were negative for both February and the year to date. Final February and year-to-date results for the Van Hedge Fund Indices, detailing the average performance for US, Offshore, and Global hedge funds by strategy, are scheduled for release later this month.Hedge fund returns are net of fees and performance allocations.3-Plansponsor.comMorningstar Introduces New On-line Mutual Fund Research Tool
Morningstar, the Chicago-based mutual fund investment research firm, has introduced an on-line tool to help investors identify similar funds to the one they want to buy. Finding the perfect fund, only to discover it is closed to new investors or requires a large minimum sum or extracts hefty charges, is an increasing problem for retail investors. The new tool, which is available free on Morningstar.com, helps investors quickly find and research possible substitutes for such funds.”Similar Funds is more than a screening or scoring tool,” said Mark Wright, director of online tools for Morningstar.com. “It makes full use of our portfolio information resources as well as our performance and fund operations databases to highlight the similarities of funds. Essentially, it helps investors find a suitable fund that doesn’t have purchase constraints or undesirable costs or fees.”The Morningstar Similar Funds tool matches one fund to others in its investment category (such as large-cap growth or small-cap value). The scoring is based on comparisons of both portfolio and performance characteristics. The portfolio similarity score compares the attributes of the funds’ most recent portfolios, and the performance similarity score reviews monthly returns for the past three years. The two scores are combined to create an overall similarity score on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the closest possible match. Investors can specify the maximum initial purchase amount and also opt for no-load funds, those open to new investment, and those with lower-than-average expenses.For example, Janus Worldwide has one of the best long-term records in its category, but it is closed to new investors. By simply typing “JAWWX” into the Enter Ticker box and marking the “open to new investors” box, an investor can quickly find a number of possible substitute funds, including two with similarity scores of more than 9.0. Investors can then conduct further research into which fund or funds would be a better fit by using the Morningstar Fund Compare tool, which provides a thorough, side-by-side assessment of the funds.To use the Morningstar Similar Funds tool, go to: http://screen.morningstar.com/SimilarFunds/MSF.html
Morningstar Introduces New On-line Mutual Fund Research Tool
Zurich Scudder's Mutual Fund Business Moves to Chicago Zurich Scudder Investments plans to cut staff and move its U.S. mutual fund business from Boston to Chicago, according to Bloomberg. The report indicated that some account managers and support operations staff