NEWS
Thames River
Capital targets
15% returns
with new fund
Thames River Capital is
targeting 15%-plus returns
pa with its latest Cayman
Islands-domiciled multimanager
vehicle, Africa
Focus Fund, led by Ken
Kinsey-Quick.
It will invest across all
African and Middle Eastern
markets and asset classes.
A two-pronged approach
will exploit predominantly
hedged opportunities in
South Africa and directional
opportunities in markets
elsewhere across the
region, said Thames River.
Initial geographic
weightings will be around
75% South Africa and
25% rest of Africa and the
Middle East, although these
are anticipated to move
significantly over time as
the African markets outside
South Africa open up.
Leverage will be moderate
in absolute terms and at the
level of underlying funds.
“Africa offers a wealth
of opportunities, with an
unparalleled universe of
53 countries and 23 stock
exchanges to choose from,”
Kinsey-Quick said.
“The Africa Focus Fund
will offer investors the
opportunity to tap into its
potential, aiming to participate
in the upside of these
maturing markets with the
reassurance of focusing on
downside protection.”
FuNd FactS
Fund name: africa focus
Minimum investment:
€100,000/$100,000/sterling
equivalent
Management charged: 1.5%
with a 10% high water mark
ABC application approved: June ’08
daniel judge Editor
T +44 (0)20 70 5 75 7
E daniel.judge@lastwordmedia.com
Massey leads Scot Widows/
Clerical Medical sales team
by helen burggraf
Simon Massey, who joined
Scottish Widows in January
from Norwich Union, will
head up the newly-combined
Clerical Medical/Scottish
Widows sales force.
Massey is in charge of
the 295-strong team selling
both brand’s pensions
and on and offshore
investment products in the
UK, Germany, Austria and
Italy under the Scottish
Widows name.
The sales force has
been reduced by around
34% (155 jobs) since the
plans to consolidate the
two sales teams were
announced in April, following
the acquisition by
Lloyds of HBOS, the parent
of Clerical Medical, earlier
this year.
This is fewer than the
190 jobs earmarked to be
lost as a result of the merging
of Bristol-based Clerical
Medical with Lloyds’
Edinburgh-based Scottish
Widows insurance arm.
News of Massey’s
appointment followed
Singapore regulator clamps down on ten
companies selling structured products
by daniel judge
Singapore’s financial regulator,
the MAS, has slapped
bans on the sale of structured
products on ten financial
institutions involved in
the Lehman Brothers minibonds
scandal.
The MAS said the institutions
had failed to meet
its standards with regards
to the sale and marketing
of investment products,
namely structured accounts
backed by Lehman, the US
investment bank that collapsed
last October. As a
result of the bank’s failure,
retail investors lost millions
of dollars.
The MAS said each institution’s
failings were differ-
helen burggraf Reporter
T +44 (0)20 70 5 75 8
E helen.burggraf@lastwordmedia.com
dylan emery Editorial director
T +44 (0)20 70 5 75 5
E dylan.emery@lastwordmedia.com
Stephen grasso Head of production
T +44 (0)20 70 5 7571
E stephen.grasso@lastwordmedia.com
Massey: heading team of 295
ent, ranging from inconsistencies
in risk ratings and
warnings on product literature;
inadequate training of
financial advisers; and failing
to ensure advisers had
the full product literature
when selling the bonds.
The bans on the sale
of structured products vary
between six months and
two years. The product distributors
involved have also
been ordered to review
and strengthen financial
advice procedures for
investment products.
The MAS said the institutions
involved would not be
able to distribute structured
notes until it was satisfied
with the measures they put
in place, leaving the door
dean andrews Production editor
T +44 (0)20 70 5 7570
E dean.andrews@lastwordmedia.com
ben Wiseman Head of sales & events
T +44 (0)20 70 5 7573
E ben.wiseman@lastwordmedia.com
allan goodridge Head of int’l events
T +44 (0)20 70 5 7574
E allan.goodridge@lastwordmedia.com
Lloyds Banking Group
announcing plans to cut
some 1,200 jobs across its
operations as it continues
to reorganise following the
HBOS acquisition.
Included in the latest
batch of redundancies
were 240 job losses resulting
from combining the
business support functions
of Clerical Medical and
Scottish Widows. None
were from the Isle of Man,
home of Clerical Medical’s
international operation.
A number of onshore
and offshore Clerical
Medical investment products
continue to be marketed
under the Clerical
Medical name as part of the
newly-combined Scottish
Widows product range.
BaNNEd
n ABN Amro Bank Singapore
n DBS Bank
n Malayan Banking Berhad
Singapore
n Hong Leong Finance
n CIMB-GK Securities
n DMG & Partners
n Kim Eng Securities
n OCBC Securities
n Phillip Securities
n UOB Kay Hian
open for the duration of the
bans to be extended.
The institutions have
variously offered or paid
differing levels of compensation
to investors. The
MAS is also due to introduce
new rules to protect
investors should a similar
situation arise in future.
emily Proctor Head of event operations
T +44 (0)20 70 5 75 1
E emily.proctor@lastwordmedia.com
jamie hinchliffe Publishing director
T +44 (0)20 70 5 7572
E jamie.hinchliffe@lastwordmedia.com
rod boulogne Managing director
T +44 (0)20 70 5 75 0
E rod.boulogne@lastwordmedia.com
BarCap offshore
bond deposit
accounts get
fresh relaunch
Barclays Capital has
unveiled its latest structured
deposit accounts for
offshore bonds – three-year
and five-year products that
offer ‘protected exposure’
to the FTSE 100 Index.
Both products promise
full return of capital on
maturity, no matter how
the market performs.
Barclays Capital director
David Macdonald said
feedback from IFAs regarding
earlier tranches of the
products made “the decision
to re-launch these an
easy one to make”.
The products, designed
exclusively for use within
offshore bonds and UK
onshore life insurance
company wrappers, are
available until 27 Aug.
As with the bank’s most
recent guaranteed deposit
accounts offering, both
require a minimum deposit
of £50,000.
In addition to guaranteeing
that investors will
get back all of their capital
at maturity no matter how
the stock market fares,
the Barclays Capital Three
Year Guaranteed Digital
Deposit Account will give
them a 17% return if the
index is “at least as high on
31 Aug, 2012 as it is on 29
Aug, 2009”.
The Five Year Guaranteed
FTSE 100 Deposit
Account offers investors
220% of the rise in the FTSE
100 Index over a five-year
term – subject to monthly
averaging over the last year
– capped at 55% return, in
addition to the full return of
capital on maturity.
www.BarclaysOffshore
Solutions.com
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INTERNATIONAL ADVISER [www.international-adviser.com] AuguST 2009
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