According to Jean Louis Monnier, head of European ILS at Swiss Re, direct investment in Insurance Linked Securities is a market reserved to qualified institutional investors which manage a minimum of 100 million dollars and which have the ability to evaluate the risk associated to these transactions…

Union Bancaire Privée, UBP SA (“UBP”), one of Switzerland's leading and best-capitalised private banks and a leader in the hedge fund industry, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Nexar Capital Group (“Nexar”), a global alternative investment manager.

The number of funds on sale in Europe is in free fall because the owners have no choice other than mergers, even liquidation, because of rapidly declining performance which makes it impossible to sell at a good price.

The American quantitative management firm is struggling to get over a scandal that originated from an IT error and which lead 600 of its clients to lose money.

A key necessity for these young companies, either based in or seeking to be established in France, is seed capital to manage from day one. Such capital allows management companies to quickly reach critical mass.