Brief: SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB), the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, today released the "Family Offices Investing in Venture Capital - Global Trends & Insights Report" in partnership with Campden Wealth Research. The report looks at family offices' investment levels, performance, expectations, barriers toward venture investments, and their expectations for how the market will evolve amid COVID-19. "In the last decade, family offices have emerged as a significant source of capital fueling innovation globally. They are increasingly more open and active in venture, particularly in early-stage companies through direct investments and funds," said John China, President of SVB Capital. "Our research with Campden Wealth shows that family offices are seeing favorable returns in the asset class, and they are acting as strategic advisors and champions to the startups they invest in. We expect to see more family office investors in the venture ecosystem, collaborating and syndicating with like-minded investors and providing a differentiated pool of capital to founders." "We are facing uncertain times due to COVID-19 and an encroaching global recession. In response, family offices are showing their strength as nimble, responsive, and patient investors, often with cash reserves to carry them through turbulent times," said Dr. Rebecca Gooch, Director of Research at Campden Wealth.
Brief: From the historic stock market sell-off and volatility surge that wreaked havoc on investment portfolios during March to the continued working-from-home practices which have thrown up various operational obstacles spanning technology, cybersecurity and infrastructure, the coronavirus crisis has upended all corners of the hedge fund industry. For hedge fund chief operating officers, the pandemic has brought its own unique set of challenges. Managers of all sizes and strategies implemented extensive business contingency plans for home working in order to continue operations. But as firms slowly begin to return to the office following more than four months of lockdown, the concept of a “new normal” continues to be somewhat vague and undefined.
Brief: During the depths of the coronavirus crisis in Europe in late March, Sergio Ermotti remembers sitting in his home study in Lugano, Switzerland, reflecting on the latest financial meltdown to engulf his career as a banker. “If I go through my last eight years, we had a lot of mini-earthquakes, but never of the magnitude of what we are seeing now,” the 60-year-old UBS Group AG chief executive says. “This is a crisis that is driven by fear in a different way…this time it’s not just about people losing their assets or savings, it’s about their life, it’s about their families. It’s so profound, so different.” Switzerland’s largest bank is weathering the crisis relatively well, considering its share price is down only 10 per cent this year, a more modest fall than any other global lender apart from Wall Street’s Morgan Stanley. This is no accident. Both have built wealth management arms that boast more than US$2 trillion of client assets, generating consistent fees from the wealthy and super-rich desperate for advice on how to trade the pandemic.
Brief: While the amount raised and invested by private equity funds capped six years of unprecedented growth in 2019, the health and financial crisis brought about by Covid-19 has put paid to the idea that the good times might continue into the new decade. Certain trends – such as increasingly picky LPs and the incorporation of ESG, P2P, buy and build and extension of share ownership – should intensify in the aftermath of the pandemic, while others – the surge in the value of multiples, jumbo funds, increase in leverage – are likely to fade or disappear completely. It might seem like an age ago, but back before the coronavirus – and its attendant consequences for the world of investment – hit, the PE industry seemed to be in decent shape. But while capital amassed remained at a high level, a plateau had, in fact, been reached and the industry was almost certainly entering the end of a cycle.
Brief: Rhenman & Partners Asset Management, a Stockholm-based hedge fund firm which invests in global healthcare stocks, is optimistic about a post-US election market bounce, and points to “intense activity” among vaccine developers working on a treatment for Covid-19. The firm’s Rhenman Healthcare Equity Long/Short Fund – which trades a range of small, medium and large pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical technology and service company stocks – was down in July. But Henrik Rhenman, founding partner and chief investment officer, believes the traditional uncertainty that typically looms over the healthcare sector ahead of every US presidential election will give way to a strong uptick in November and December. Rhenman Healthcare Equity Long/Short slipped 3.7 per cent in July in its euro-denominated class and is down roughly 0.5 per cent for the year so far, while its dollar share class was up 1.1 per cent last month.
Brief: Trading the Covid-19 curve can prove challenging. With global case counts still rising, investors should consider buying into countries that have gotten a better handle on the virus than others, ETF Trends CEO Tom Lydon told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” on Monday. “Take Europe,” Lydon said. “Areas like Italy are not doing well with the coronavirus and their markets aren’t doing well. [In] contrast, northern Europe, the Nordic regions, are actually doing really well.” The iShares MSCI Denmark ETF (EDEN), for one, is up nearly 18% year to date. That fund is heavily weighted toward health-care and industrial stocks, with pharmaceutical play Novo Nordisk accounting for more than 18% of the portfolio.