Archive

Heiko van Wyngaarden and his team are advising on a new long-only Africa fund, the Optis African Frontier fund, which now has $36 million under management. This is the second Africa fund from the Optis/Oryx team, who also advise on the Optis Africa hedge fund.

Richard Bottger and James Faircliff at Johannesburg-based Tower Capital Management have launched their new equity long/short hedge fund, the Tower Fund, now in its third month.

The South African working group of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) raised R1 million for charity at its second annual Winter Charity Dinner in Cape Town in late August, with support from leading industry players, including fund managers, fund of funds and service providers.

London-based Insparo Asset Management has appointed James Gore as finance and operations manager, enhancing the firm’s operational capabilities as its steps up marketing efforts following a successful first year with its Africa and Middle East fund.

London-headquartered Silk Invest has hired Patrick Landi as head of trading and origination, bringing to eight its investment team, headed by CIO Daniel Broby.

Orthogonal Investments, headed by CIO Rowan Williams-Short, has closed its Alchemy multi-strategy fund to outside investors, returning capital to two key institutional backers after the team’s decision to focus attention on its sizeable long-only business.

Finance Fund, which offers mezzanine financing for commodity trades across Africa, returning almost 10% since inception in February 2009 with no negative months.

Dr Nafees Hossain at Sanlam Investment Management is well into his second year with his Gen-X Statistical Arbitrage Fund, which has gained almost 20% since inception last June.

Ex-Stanlib veteran Ian Woodley has teamed up with BEX Asset Management in Johannesburg, quietly launching the Aquila Hedge Fund, which has been seeded with R5 million.