Capital introduction

Last updated

Capital introduction is a service offered by most large brokerage firms as part of the prime brokerage package accessed by hedge funds that choose to prime at a particular firm. Capital introduction works as a form of "quasi-marketing" whereby clients are introduced to investors without violating SEC rules regarding fund marketing. [1]

In exchange for granting the broker custody (clearing, custody and asset servicing), securities lending, and financing, the hedge fund client is granted access to Capital Introduction services, as well as risk management and consulting services.

Morgan Stanley Prime Brokerage reports to have established the capital introductions concept in 1997 to connect clients with target investors. [2] As hedge funds are by and large unregulated by the SEC, [3] Capital introductions teams are effectively barred from “marketing” a fund, and instead work to “introduce” clients to institutional investors (endowments, foundations, fund of funds, pension funds, family offices and private banks) that have expressed interest in the particular hedge fund strategy. Capital introductions teams are traditionally discouraged from engaging with investors on a particular fund post the introduction, except to garner feedback, as this could be interpreted as marketing.

Capital introductions teams work with both new launches looking for seed, anchor or “day one” capital, in addition to established clients that are already sizable and may be either launching a new product, or looking to increase the size of their current fund. Capital introduction services are often instrumental to new launches, as it can be difficult to raise assets for a new fund. The initial capital raise is critical, as Wells Fargo estimates the break-even point for an established fund to be around $200mm, [4] though smaller structures could require less capital. Historically, funds have launched with anywhere between $5mm and $1Bn in capital day one.

Investors that participate in Capital introductions programs are uncompensated, as the relationship is symbiotic. Investors engage with the team to receive information on potential managers, industry flow and search queries, and in turn, the team is able to provide clients with introductions to interested investors.

Related Research Articles

A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as short selling, leverage, and derivatives. Financial regulators generally restrict hedge fund marketing to institutional investors, high net worth individuals, and accredited investors.

Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by underwriting or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of debt or equity securities. An investment bank may also assist companies involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and provide ancillary services such as market making, trading of derivatives and equity securities, FICC services or research. Most investment banks maintain prime brokerage and asset management departments in conjunction with their investment research businesses. As an industry, it is broken up into the Bulge Bracket, Middle Market, and boutique market.

Financial services Economic service provided by the finance industry

Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, consumer-finance companies, stock brokerages, investment funds, individual asset managers, and some government-sponsored enterprises.

Fidelity Investments, commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is one of the largest asset managers in the world with $4.5 trillion in assets under management, now as of December 2021 their assets under administration amounts to $11.8 trillion. Fidelity Investments operates a brokerage firm, manages a large family of mutual funds, provides fund distribution and investment advice, retirement services, index funds, wealth management, securities execution and clearance, asset custody, and life insurance.

Putnam Investments is a privately owned investment management firm founded in 1937 by George Putnam, who established one of the first balanced mutual funds, The George Putnam Fund of Boston. As one of the oldest mutual fund complexes in the United States, Putnam has over $183 billion in assets under management, 79 individual mutual fund offerings, 96 institutional clients, and over seven million shareholders and retirement plan participants.

The term soft dollars refers to a Wall Street practice, especially in the asset management and securities industries, and means the benefits provided to an asset manager by a broker-dealer as a result of commissions generated from a financial transaction executed by the broker-dealer for client accounts or funds managed by the asset manager. In a soft dollar arrangement, the investment manager directs commissions generated by a client's or fund's transactions to a broker-dealer or other trading venue. Soft dollars, in contrast to hard dollars which have to be reported, are incorporated into brokerage fees and paid expenses, which may not be reported separately. Most investment managers follow the limitations detailed in Section 28(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In particular, if soft dollar arrangements are entered into with respect to registered investment companies and pension plans, compliance with Section 28(e) is generally required. However, hedge funds, which are generally not registered, may not be subject to the limitations of Section 28(e) and, thus, in some cases, the fund's commissions may be used for the adviser's benefit. In situations where fund commissions are used outside of the Section 28(e) safe harbor, full and comprehensive disclosure must be provided to fund investors.

Charles Schwab Corporation American financial services company

The Charles Schwab Corporation is an American multinational financial services company. It offers banking, commercial banking, investing and related services including consulting, and wealth management advisory services to both retail and institutional clients. It has over 360 branches, primarily in financial centers in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is the 7th largest banking institution in the United States with over US$8.5 trillion in client assets. It had 29.0 million active brokerage accounts, 2.1 million corporate retirement plan participants, 1.5 million banking accounts, and $8.5 trillion in client assets as of February 7, 2022. It was founded in San Francisco, California, and is headquartered in Westlake, Texas.

In finance, a contract for difference (CFD) is a legally binding agreement that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between two parties, typically described as "buyer" and "seller", stipulating that the buyer will pay to the seller the difference between the current value of an asset and its value at contract time. If the closing trade price is higher than the opening price, then the seller will pay the buyer the difference, and that will be the buyer’s profit. The opposite is also true. That is, if the current asset price is lower at the exit price than the value at the contract’s opening, then the seller, rather than the buyer, will benefit from the difference.

Prime brokerage is the generic name for a bundled package of services offered by investment banks, wealth management firms, and securities dealers to hedge funds which need the ability to borrow securities and cash in order to be able to invest on a netted basis and achieve an absolute return. The prime broker provides a centralized securities clearing facility for the hedge fund so the hedge fund's collateral requirements are netted across all deals handled by the prime broker. These two features are advantageous to their clients.

A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment. A fund of funds may be "fettered", meaning that it invests only in funds managed by the same investment company, or "unfettered", meaning that it can invest in external funds run by other managers.

Ameriprise Financial Financial services company

Ameriprise Financial, Inc. is a diversified financial services company and bank holding company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It provides financial planning products and services, including wealth management, asset management, insurance, annuities, and estate planning.

A custodian bank, or simply custodian, is a specialized financial institution responsible for providing securities services. It safeguards assets of asset managers, insurance companies, hedge funds, and is not engaged in "traditional" commercial or consumer/retail banking like lending. The role of a custodian in such a case would be to:

EFG Hermes Holding S.A.E. is an Egyptian financial services company present in the Middle East, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia regions and specializes in securities brokerage, asset management, investment banking, private equity and research in addition to finance lease, factoring, microfinance, Financial technology, mortgage, and insurance. EFG Hermes serves a range of clients including sovereign wealth funds, endowments, corporations, financial institutions, high-net-worth clients and individual customers. EFG Hermes is listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) and London (LSE) stock exchanges. EFG Hermes has offices in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Pakistan, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria, UK, United States and Bangladesh with over 4,500 people from 25 nationalities. They serve clients from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States.

Liongate Capital Management

Liongate Capital Management was a global investment management firm, focused on creating and managing fund of hedge fund investments for institutional and private investors. Liongate, founded in 2003 by Jeff Holland, Ben Funk and Randall Dillard, managed a range of funds of hedge funds in both commingled funds and tailored, single client portfolios. The firm, which at it peak managed over USD 3 billion with an additional USD 4 billion in assets under advisory, had a global reach with offices in London, New York, Zurich, Dubai, Malta and Mumbai. The Liongate partners sold the firm to Principal Financial Group in 2013 as the large US insurer and asset manager wanted a hedge fund research platform in order to quickly ramp up retail hedge fund distribution in the US.

Triad Securities Corp. was founded in 1976 as a full-service agency only discount brokerage firm. Currently, it has its corporate headquarters in the Wall Street area of New York City. Triad’s products and services comprise three categories: prime brokerage, the New Issue Service, and U.S. and international equity and fixed income execution.

Thomas Belesis was the founder and CEO of John Thomas Financial, a New York City-based financial services company that was shut down when financial regulators accused him of fraud and the business of being a boiler room.

Digital Currency Group American venture capital company

Digital Currency Group (DCG) is a venture capital company focusing on the digital currency market. It is located in Stamford, Connecticut. The company has five subsidiaries which are CoinDesk, Foundry, Genesis, Grayscale Investments, and Luno.

Securities market participants (United States)

Securities market participants in the United States include corporations and governments issuing securities, persons and corporations buying and selling a security, the broker-dealers and exchanges which facilitate such trading, banks which safe keep assets, and regulators who monitor the markets' activities. Investors buy and sell through broker-dealers and have their assets retained by either their executing broker-dealer, a custodian bank or a prime broker. These transactions take place in the environment of equity and equity options exchanges, regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or derivative exchanges, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For transactions involving stocks and bonds, transfer agents assure that the ownership in each transaction is properly assigned to and held on behalf of each investor.

Citco, also known as the Citco Group of Companies and the Curaçao International Trust Co., is a privately owned global hedge fund administrator headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, founded in 1948. It is the world's largest hedge fund administrator, managing over $1 trillion in assets under administration.

References

  1. ↑ "The investor's view of capital introduction". Hedgeweek. 2018-09-18. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  2. ↑ "Sales & Trading".
  3. ↑ "Why Aren't Hedge Funds Advertising?". The New Yorker . 31 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "Running a Hedge Fund – Wells Fargo Securities". Archived from the original on 2014-07-06. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.