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30 Oct 2008

Emissions Fund Pure Capital Peforms Well

In this time of extreme market moves and poor investment performance, specialist investment manager, Pure Capital, a “targeted non-correlation manager” has been performing nicely, according to sources.

“The bespoke portfolio solutions we have developed for our customers over the last 24 months have been bearing fruit” says founder and Chief Investment Officer Anthony Limbrick. Pure Capital targets European, Asian and Australasian fund of funds and institutional investors, giving clients full position level transparency and daily reporting.

Pure Capital is a quantitatively-driven investment management firm providing low or negatively correlated return profiles for discrete geographical or asset-class benchmarks. However the negative correlation is not at the expense of positive returns through the economic cyble, according to the investment manager.

Pure Capital has a research and advisory subsidiary, Pure Carbon Limited. The research team for the Pure Carbon Trading model comprises Anthony Limbrick (Chief Investment Officer), Daniel Butler, emissions trading expertise, Dr Siva Naguleswaran (Head of Research) and Hamish Limbrick, software developer.

Pure Capital is looking for strategic partners with which to launch their Pure Carbon strategy as both an alternative investment product, and an emission credit risk management solution.

The primary objective of the strategy is to provide positive access to both the upper and lower tails of carbon price distributions – and as part of a carbon portfolio – to both smooth, and increase an emission credit portfolio’s investment returns. The model is approximately 50% more short the market (than long the market) from a dynamic positioning stance.

Pure Capital has two business lines. The first, Pure Non-Correlation is a range of “off the shelf” negatively correlated returns-based products targeting specific geographical or asset class benchmarks e.g. Pure Energy, Pure Carbon. Pure Capital’s flagship Japan strategy has a greater then 2 year track record of 14% annualized - with a correlation co-efficient of -0.19 against Japanese equity index beta. Pure Capital’s product offerings are +25% year-to-date on average.

Pure Capital’s second business line is Pure Bespoke – customized negatively-correlated portfolio solutions addressing portfolio problems such as pervasive beta and gap risk. It is these products that are helping Pure Capital’s clients weather the current financial storm.

The fund performs best during strongly trending emissions prices and does not use leverage. The target rate of return is 15% per annum with a capacity to hold AUM to $50 mln, with the possibility of up to $1 bln if emissions markets continue to grow as anticipated.

Pure Capital is looking for partnerships with businesses that are already established in the distribution of emissions products and investors looking for access to alternative return profiles in a new asset class.

The core Pure Capital team has been together since April 2005. Limbrick is also a Director and Member of the Investment Committee of 36 South Investment Managers, a volatility and tail risk manager, and Chairman of the New Zealand Absolute Return Association. He has been working with Dr Siva Naguleswaran since May 1999.

Vantage Changes Name And Hires Investment Specialist

Vantage Reporting said it has changed its name to Vantage Software, reflecting the company’s focus on delivering products to private investment firms with modular software designed to easily enhance their existing systems.

“Since founding Vantage, we have worked with world-class clients to continually develop a solid set of core products that deliver the robust functionality of comparable packaged solutions,” said Vantage Software CEO Greg Woolf. “By virtue of our innovative software design, we also give clients the option of customizing our solutions to meet their unique operational requirements.”

To support Vantage’s continued global growth, David Sayles has also joined Vantage as director of sales and client service. Sayles will be responsible for the development and implementation of sales, account management and business development efforts. Sayles has more than 18 years of experience developing, bringing to market and managing financial technology solutions, particularly for the private investment industry. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and industry events.

“David brings a wealth of experience in the financial and technology industries, including valuable insight into the unique operational environments of private investment firms,” Woolf added. “Given the company’s continued global growth, we are pleased to have such a seasoned sales and client service veteran help us continue to expand our market position and quality of service to our clients.”

Vantage has offices in Boston and New York and has four core software products – Vantage Deal Manager™, Vantage Performance™, Vantage Funds-of-Funds™ and Vantage Investor™. Leading private investment firms that have embraced Vantage’s unique approach manage raised more than $250 billion dollars in capital to date.

Point Nine expands into Middle East

Hedge fund technology service, Point Nine, has announced the opening of their new office in Limassol, Cyprus. This is the second office opening for Point Nine this year, which follows the recent opening of Point Nine’s facilities in New Delhi, India.

The Cyprus office is the second to be launched by newly appointed CEO of Point Nine, Yannis Matsis. Matsis’ 15 years experience in building and managing global debt capital market teams for Mizuho Bank and ING has been instrumental in the direction and supporting technology of Point Nine’s Middle and Back Office Services offering.

"The current financial crisis and the associated reduction in revenues for fund managers has put a bigger emphasis on cost reduction. Outsourcing of the middle and back office operations to reliable service providers like Point Nine is an ideal way for fund managers to increase their operating efficiencies and reduce their operational risks and cost base”, says Yannis Matsis, CEO Point Nine. “We are expanding our geographical coverage to provide the highest quality service to our clients that we can be proud of."

The recent expansion from its London headquarters into the Middle East and Asia means a more personalised service for customers and ensures that all trade capturing/management, operations and reporting can now be handled in the relevant time zones required.

“When choosing to outsource the middle and back office operations, a customer must feel like the provider is an extension of their own team”, says Pavlos Christoforou, Head of Technology. “This expansion allows us to be closer to our customers and provide them with the best service within the industry.”

Point Nine’s technology interfaces with a number of prime brokers and fund administrators and provides accurate and secure transactions, which are processed by experienced staff across three locations in Europe, Middle East and Asia. Customers include Tier-1 banks, large Asset Managers and cutting-edge hedge funds.