Connect & Trade: Mexico Monday April 11th 2011

Connect & Trade: Mexico

Accessing Mexican Financial Markets

Join executives from Bolsa Mexicana (Mexican Exchange) for an interactive panel discussion designed to help achieve unparalleled access to one of the leading equity and derivatives marketplaces in Latin America.

Attend this exclusive event to learn about investment opportunities in Mexico, as well as receive insight into new trading rules that streamline Direct Market Access trading (DMA), which benefit traders, institutional investors, hedge funds, high frequency traders, banks, FCMs and brokerages.

Monday, April 11^th 2011

16:00 HRS

Clothworkers’ Company

Clothworkers’ Hall

Dunster Court, Mincing Lane. London, EC3R 7AH

16:00 hrs – Panel Discussion and Audience Q&A

                       Livery Hall

18:30 hrs – Cocktail Reception

                       Reception Room

R.S.V.P

Catherine Alexander / +44 20 7490 8062

catherine@rostronparry.com

BMV is the second largest stock exchange in Latin America with a total market capitalization of over US$ 453.8 billion. The Exchange is home to some of the most recognizable and profitable global corporations, including beverage giant Grupo Modelo, whose brands include Corona Extra and Pacifico, América Móvil, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world; CEMEX, the world’s biggest building materials supplier, and Televisa, the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world, among many others.

The Mexican Derivatives Exchange is the third largest derivatives exchange in Latin America. Launched in 1998, it offers options and futures on interest rates, stock indices, currencies and single stocks.

FTfm: How to gain exposure to booming natural resources

How to gain exposure to booming natural resources

By Beverly Chandler

Published: February 20 2011 15:55 | Last updated: February 20 2011 15:55

The simple act of filling the car up at a petrol station hammers home the point that commodity prices are soaring and investors of all types want to know how to convert that noticeable extra domestic expense into investment returns.
But commodities are not the easiest thing to access. Nick Sketch, senior investment director at wealth manager Rensburg Sheppards, explains: “The issue with commodities is to which story are you trying to get exposure? Take oil – if I want to invest in oil, do I want to buy the equity of the producers, the futures of the commodity or related equities? What you are never going to buy is a barrel of oil.”

Whichever route the investor takes, the sector is enjoying a dramatic bull run. Copper hit its all-time highest price on February 15, reaching $10,190 a tonne, while oil has surged through $100 a barrel.

Alex Moiseev, principal and chief investment officer of $230m Dighton Capital, predicts further rises. “Within two to three years maximum, oil will be at $200 a barrel. We have years to go in the commodity bull run – three to five years at least,” he says.
Many fund managers use commodities in portfolios as hedges against inflation, says Chris Hills, chief investment officer at Rensburg Sheppards: “They are not there for reward but as insurance against higher than anticipated inflation.”
Mr Sketch adds: “Commodities shouldn’t produce more value over the long term. A lump of gold is not going to grow.” For Mr Sketch, the principal value of commodities is not in their productive activity in a portfolio but in their inefficient pricing in the market.
“If someone will give me a pound for 85p, then it is always worth it,” he says, adding that he is primarily an equity investor and a key route to commodity investment is through mining sector equities.
He makes most of his commodity investments through specialist funds. “It’s hard for non-specialists to do the research – the key decision-makers are often nowhere near the UK, and volatility is very high. Why do it at all if you don’t have to?” he asks.
In terms of funds, exchange traded products providing access to commodities have enjoyed the recent uptick in interest in the sector. But it is the actively traded commodity funds that have enjoyed the most growth and investment return.
The Newedge Commodity Trading Index shows that actively managed commodity funds outperformed last year, returning 10.65 per cent, against the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodities Index return of 9.03 per cent.
Several new funds have been launched recently. Armajaro Asset Management, with $1.8bn under management, has added a sixth fund to its range of commodity and natural resource related funds.
Managed by ex-Brevan Howard portfolio manager Nick Glinsman, the Armajaro Natural Resources Fund is a global macro long short fund investing in commodity-related equities, looking at the relationships between mining companies against refiners, food producers against food manufacturers, or gold versus miners.
Another, the Natural Resources Fund managed by Julian Treger of Audley Capital, which has $1bn under management, launched in December 2010 and has achieved close to 5 per cent returns already.
Mr Treger approaches the sector as a commodity specialist and a “friendly” activist. For the Natural Resources fund, Mr Treger has just taken a significant stake in a diamond pipe in Lesotho, and will bring his brand of corporate management to the company.
“It’s particularly applicable to the mining sector because in general miners are talented geologists and explorers but the average quality of their business skills is lower. So we try to help companies with financial engineering, raising capital, corporate governance, investor relations, public relations, strategy and so on. It’s all about transforming companies to realise their potential,” says Mr Treger.
He predicts huge future demand for funds such as his. “But I don’t know how many other people have the skill set. You need a good underlying understanding of commodity demand and have to apply a corporate transformation skill set to find the right companies to work on.”
Kevin Arenson is chief investment officer at $3.5bn fund of funds group Stenham Asset Management, which has a dedicated natural resources fund of funds and sees many of the new style commodities managers. “We are finding a greater universe of managers to select from so we have new managers in the portfolio, but we have to sift through the universe and find one that suits our risk/ reward trade off,” he says.
Looking forward, Mr Arenson and Mr Sketch both see a potentially bumpy ride for commodities, but no big correction. Mr Sketch says: “All of this is a play on the Asian growth story – if you buy commodity exposure, you can be buying the Asian growth story – I don’t disbelieve it but I am cautious.”

Advent’s Pioneering Research Management Solution Expands Leadership Across Diverse Range of Market Segments and Geographies

Market Leader Tamale RMS^® Enters 2011 with Strong Momentum

Advent’s Pioneering Research Management Solution Expands Leadership Across Diverse Range of Market Segments and Geographies

SAN FRANCISCO – February 8, 2011 – Advent Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADVS) announced today that Tamale RMS^®, the pioneering research management solution (RMS) that is part of the Advent suite, continues to expand its leadership across a diverse range of market segments and geographies.

In 2010, Advent added new Tamale RMS^® clients globally and across numerous market segments, including asset management firms, wealth management firms, pensions, foundations, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, fund-of-funds and family offices.  In addition to growing its hedge fund client base substantially throughout the year, Tamale’s client base among asset managers, wealth managers, institutional investors and multi-manager funds had increased from 10% to 45% since Advent’s acquisition of Tamale in 2008.

Representative clients added in 2010 include Wasatch Advisors, Talpion Fund Management LP, State of Wisconsin Investment Board, James Irvine Foundation and a sovereign wealth fund in Asia.  In 2010, nearly half of Advent’s Tamale client base expanded their use of the product by adding additional seats or entire teams. 

Tamale clients were added in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, South America and North America in 2010.  Tamale’s client base outside of the U.S. has tripled since the acquisition.  To support the global expansion of Tamale’s client base, Advent has grown its team in Asia in Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing and has augmented its teams in Europe and the Middle East with additional sales and service personnel.

Mark Rice, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Tamale at Advent, commented, “Tamale’s expanding presence across a diverse range of market segments and geographies is a real testament to Tamale’s market leadership and the ‘must-have’ nature of an RMS.  We are particularly pleased with the expanding use of Tamale^® within our existing client base; strong adoption comes from high quality client service and the attention we give to our clients’ needs, and underscores the value that Tamale^® brings to firms.  The expansion of Tamale’s customer base has been enabled by Tamale’s superior product innovation and client service responsiveness and powered by Advent’s strength and proven reputation.”

Dushyant Shahrawat, Senior Research Director, TowerGroup, a Corporate Executive Board Company, commented, “Bringing automation, organization and discipline to the investment research process is becoming even more important, with new regulatory pressures and demands for greater transparency and disclosure across the investment industry. Research management systems continue to attract the attention of mutual funds, hedge funds and the wider alternative industry. What started as a U.S. phenomenon in 2007 is gaining popularity in other markets across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.”

About Tamale RMS^®

Tamale RMS^®, the industry’s original research management solution, helps portfolio managers and analysts organize and share their research, in order to manage more investment ideas, more effectively and document a firm’s investment process.  The solution, which is used by thousands of investment professionals around the world, is highly configurable and organizes information around the workflow of each investment professional or team and provides features that enhance the research process.  Tamale RMS^® brings unparalleled efficiency and organization to the research process.  For more information on Tamale RMS^®, visit http://www.advent.com/solutions/by-product/tamale-rms.

About Advent

Advent Software, Inc., a global firm, has provided trusted solutions to the world’s financial professionals since 1983.  Today firms in more than 50 countries rely on Advent technology to run their mission-critical operations.  Advent’s quality software, data, services and tools enable financial professionals to improve service and communication to their clients, allowing them to grow their business while controlling costs.  Advent is the only financial services software company to be awarded the Service Capability and Performance certification for being a world-class support and services organization.  For more information on Advent products, visit http://www.advent.com/about/resources/demos/pr. 

Advent, the Advent logo, Advent Software, Tamale and Tamale RMS are registered trademarks of Advent Software, Inc.  All other company names or marks mentioned herein are those of their respective owners.