Equity and ETFs

The total number of equity launches in December was significantly lower as compared to that observed in November. The number of active equity launches was high in the first and third week of the month as compared to the second and fourth week. The total active equity launches in the month declined by almost 50% as compared to November. The regional focus of the active equity launches was Europe and Americas which included three funds focusing on Latin America. No funds exclusively focusing on MENA and Asia were noted during the month.  Similar to last month, sustainability and undervalued companies were the important themes amongst new active equity launches. It included a fund investing in companies producing sustainable products, a fund of funds offering the highest yield and focusing on climate change and sustainability and one European and one global fund investing in undervalued companies. The new passive equity launches featured themes such as real estate, airlines, agriculture, water and energy. Some ETFs focusing on commodities such as gold, silver and crude oil were noted during the month. Some interesting passive equity launches included currency ETF investing in Euro and Yen, a US ETF based on an Islamic index, three SRI ETFs focusing on sustainability and a carbon ETF-like product focusing on global carbon emissions.

Fixed Income

The total number of new fixed income launches in December was comparable to the number of launches in November. The new launches increased on a weekly basis and posted the highest number in the third week of December. Similar to last month two important trends of investing in government securities and in undervalued securities were noted even this month. It included a fund taking advantage of undervaluation in convertible bond markets, a value bond fund focusing on undervalued bonds and two government bond funds one investing in high quality Euro denominated securities and one US government securities fund. Some interesting launches this month were a commercial credit fund investing in medium term loan notes secured on UK commercial property and a Korea debt fund intending to purchase debts from financial and non-financial institutions.

Multi asset and structured products

In December the total number of multi asset and structured products remained stable as compared to November. Second week of the month showed the highest number of launches in the month. The number of balanced products declined as compared to November with the launch of only one product investing in emerging markets equities and European government bonds. Three life cycle products were also noted during the month including two life settlement funds, one investing in life assurance policies in the US. The new structured product launches included a product offering a defensive auto call feature, a product linked to the performance of 20 major global stocks, two derivative plans, several fixed and growth income plans and several capital protected products.

Alternative investment

In December the total number of alternative investment launches was slightly less than those in November. The total launches were at the highest during the third week of the month. All categories under alternative investments showed a consistent increase in number on week-on-week basis. Most of the single hedge funds focused on event driven strategies followed by multi strategic approach. The trend of distressed assets in last month continued even this month with the launch of distressed debt hedge fund investing in distressed capital in Europe and Asia, a US distressed asset fund and a media focused fund investing in distressed debt. Additionally there were two funds of hedge funds focusing on distressed opportunities. New private equity funds featured themes such as carbon, hotel, nursing home, wine, timber, logistics, technology, healthcare, infrastructure and agriculture. Some interesting private equity launches were a Sharia compliant fund focusing on the South American agricultural sector, two distressed funds, one focusing on European and Asian companies and the other focusing on US bonds, a fund focusing exclusively on Middle Eastern mid cap companies and a fund offering funding to early stage life sciences companies. Carbon was the important theme amongst new alternative investment launches which included two carbon hedge funds focusing on reduction of carbon gas emissions, a carbon trading fund focusing on clean development and buying carbon credits and a fund investing in low carbon projects in Asia.

Real estate

The number of real estate launches in December was stable as compared to November. The trend of focusing on mixed investments including residential as well as commercial properties continued even this month. Europe including the UK was the mainly focused region amongst new real estate launches which was followed by Asia. A noticeable trend in the month was distressed and undervalued property which included two American funds one investing in commercial distressed properties and one investing in distressed and value added real estate projects and high yield property assets, a fund focusing on undervalued properties in ASEAN and two European funds concentrating on falling commercial property valuations.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 8:13 am and is filed under Asset management-New product launches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.