New Stream Capital launched a specialty energy finance investment fund focused on lending to the North American oil and gas sector. The New Stream Energy Solutions (NSES) fund provides working-capital loans to exploration and production (E&P) and distribution companies. The fund has approximately $100 million in assets and commitments.
NSES will leverage its ability to invest across the full spectrum of the capital structure -- from senior debt to direct ownership -- in order to tailor investments that fit the unique funding needs of each project. The goal of the fund is to generate a high rate of return while protecting principal with the underlying collateral value of the assets. NSES will focus primarily on transactions between $5 million and $40 million. Recently completed transactions include a $10 million financing for a natural gas producer in Kentucky, a $16 million financing for an oil and gas producer in Texas and a $28 million financing for an oil and gas producer in Texas.
"The launch of this energy finance fund enables investors to gain exposure to the energy markets without taking the directional risk normally associated with more typical trading strategies," said David A. Bryson, Managing Partner. "The energy sector offers a unique opportunity for investors. A significant number of lenders have scaled back due to the ongoing credit crisis precisely at the time when energy producers need to increase capacity."
Thursday, 9 October 2008
GXS Product Information Manager (PIM) 8.3
GXS, a leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions, today announced the commercial availability of GXS Product Information Manager (PIM) 8.3. New features now available include business process management (BPM) functionality to support greater visibility and control over workflow processes; management of master data associated with products or product categories; expanded web services API support for integration within a service oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure; ability to apply mass updates across a set of products or categories; and embedded GXS Application Integrator for tighter integration and data sharing across internal systems (i.e., enterprise resource planning, merchandising, warehousing, etc.). The product is available in two versions, Retailer Edition and Supplier Edition, to meet the unique data management needs of each company type.
GXS PIM enables retailers, suppliers and manufacturers to accelerate the introduction of new products into the marketplace, optimize sales of existing products and reduce order and shipping errors. As part of an overall master data management (MDM) strategy, companies can use PIM 8.3's capabilities to create a central repository for all product data and can consolidate, manage and publish product data across all internal systems and out to trading partners. Retailers are no longer satisfied with basic information about a product; they also want to ensure consumers are provided with detailed information about the product before they buy to reduce product returns. Examples of product master data that retailers provide to consumers include recipes, warranty information, assembly instructions, materials handling and disposal instructions. Suppliers need to manage product master data such as facilities, product dimensions, measurements, product ingredients, formulas and customer locations.
"Customer demands have evolved beyond the need to manage and collaborate on just product information. Customers want a solution that enables them to more easily manage workflow processes, to make mass upgrades across categories and provides greater extensibility outside the four walls of the business," said Pat. Salmonese, vice president of product information management at GXS. "The enhancements GXS has made to its PIM solutions ensure that only quality product content is shared between suppliers and retailers. It also ensures that customers are empowered to achieve greater collaboration with trading partners, tighter integration with internal IT systems and greater process automation across departments."
Some of the specific new features of GXS PIM available now are:
-- Workflow Escalation -- the ability to automatically escalate actions
that have not been completed within user-defined timeframes and to send
appropriate escalation notifications;
-- Extended Content Types -- the ability to create and manage customer
specific master data. Beyond primary product data, customers may use
GXS PIM to manage related or unrelated data within their enterprise.
Examples may include warranty specifications, ingredients, marketing
content, price/cost, customer data, locations, etc;
-- Enhanced Data Validation Engine -- the ability for customers to ensure
validation, compliance, transformation and cleansing of incoming data;
-- Mass Updates -- the ability to make a change once and have it instantly
apply across a selected set of products or categories;
-- Workflow Audit Reports -- work activity and status reporting to enable
customers to measure progress against their key performance indicators,
to identify bottlenecks in approval processes and to provide a snapshot
of workload at any point;
-- Expanded Web Services -- provides API Support for implementation in an
SOA environment; and
-- Embedded GXS Application Integrator -- improved ability for customers
to transform data for syndication and integration with other systems
such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), merchandising, logistics,
warehouse management, etc.
External data sharing initiatives require internal data accuracy to succeed. As part of a complete MDM program or as a focused product data initiative, GXS Product Information Manager helps companies establish a central resource for accurate, consistent product data. This data can then be easily replicated throughout internal systems as well as to external business partners, thereby reducing the bottom line impact of bad product data and even providing top line revenue growth. GXS PIM collects product data from many sources, directs it to the appropriate manager for approval and integrates it into all back-office systems. The benefits of an MDM for Product Data solution such as GXS PIM include reduced time-to-market for new products, more knowledgeable sales staff, stronger and richer content for consumer review and buying decisions, multi-channel (web site, in-store, warehouse, catalogs, etc.) consistency, fewer invoice disputes and transportation and logistics cost savings. GXS PIM is available as both hosted and on-premise software for retailers and suppliers.
GXS PIM enables retailers, suppliers and manufacturers to accelerate the introduction of new products into the marketplace, optimize sales of existing products and reduce order and shipping errors. As part of an overall master data management (MDM) strategy, companies can use PIM 8.3's capabilities to create a central repository for all product data and can consolidate, manage and publish product data across all internal systems and out to trading partners. Retailers are no longer satisfied with basic information about a product; they also want to ensure consumers are provided with detailed information about the product before they buy to reduce product returns. Examples of product master data that retailers provide to consumers include recipes, warranty information, assembly instructions, materials handling and disposal instructions. Suppliers need to manage product master data such as facilities, product dimensions, measurements, product ingredients, formulas and customer locations.
"Customer demands have evolved beyond the need to manage and collaborate on just product information. Customers want a solution that enables them to more easily manage workflow processes, to make mass upgrades across categories and provides greater extensibility outside the four walls of the business," said Pat. Salmonese, vice president of product information management at GXS. "The enhancements GXS has made to its PIM solutions ensure that only quality product content is shared between suppliers and retailers. It also ensures that customers are empowered to achieve greater collaboration with trading partners, tighter integration with internal IT systems and greater process automation across departments."
Some of the specific new features of GXS PIM available now are:
-- Workflow Escalation -- the ability to automatically escalate actions
that have not been completed within user-defined timeframes and to send
appropriate escalation notifications;
-- Extended Content Types -- the ability to create and manage customer
specific master data. Beyond primary product data, customers may use
GXS PIM to manage related or unrelated data within their enterprise.
Examples may include warranty specifications, ingredients, marketing
content, price/cost, customer data, locations, etc;
-- Enhanced Data Validation Engine -- the ability for customers to ensure
validation, compliance, transformation and cleansing of incoming data;
-- Mass Updates -- the ability to make a change once and have it instantly
apply across a selected set of products or categories;
-- Workflow Audit Reports -- work activity and status reporting to enable
customers to measure progress against their key performance indicators,
to identify bottlenecks in approval processes and to provide a snapshot
of workload at any point;
-- Expanded Web Services -- provides API Support for implementation in an
SOA environment; and
-- Embedded GXS Application Integrator -- improved ability for customers
to transform data for syndication and integration with other systems
such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), merchandising, logistics,
warehouse management, etc.
External data sharing initiatives require internal data accuracy to succeed. As part of a complete MDM program or as a focused product data initiative, GXS Product Information Manager helps companies establish a central resource for accurate, consistent product data. This data can then be easily replicated throughout internal systems as well as to external business partners, thereby reducing the bottom line impact of bad product data and even providing top line revenue growth. GXS PIM collects product data from many sources, directs it to the appropriate manager for approval and integrates it into all back-office systems. The benefits of an MDM for Product Data solution such as GXS PIM include reduced time-to-market for new products, more knowledgeable sales staff, stronger and richer content for consumer review and buying decisions, multi-channel (web site, in-store, warehouse, catalogs, etc.) consistency, fewer invoice disputes and transportation and logistics cost savings. GXS PIM is available as both hosted and on-premise software for retailers and suppliers.
Mylan Interest Rate Swap
Mylan Inc. (NYSE:MYL) announced today that it has completed $500 million of interest-rate swaps to fix the interest rate of a portion of its term loan borrowings to take advantage of the recent decline in medium term dollar interest rates. The swaps serve to fix the interest cost on this debt through year-end 2010 at a rate of 6.03%. The company has now executed $2 billion of interest rate swaps at a weighted average rate of 6.55%.
Additionally, the company reconfirmed its previous guidance of a full-year 2008 weighted average cost of financing of approximately 6.5%.
"We believe we have put in place a capital structure that is ideal for this difficult credit environment," said Mylan Vice Chairman and CEO Robert J. Coury. "With protection against short-term interest rate fluctuations, no significant near-term debt maturities, a current cash balance in excess of $700 million, a committed undrawn revolving credit facility and no requirement to access the credit markets, Mylan could hardly be in a stronger position to deal with the current economic climate."
Additionally, the company reconfirmed its previous guidance of a full-year 2008 weighted average cost of financing of approximately 6.5%.
"We believe we have put in place a capital structure that is ideal for this difficult credit environment," said Mylan Vice Chairman and CEO Robert J. Coury. "With protection against short-term interest rate fluctuations, no significant near-term debt maturities, a current cash balance in excess of $700 million, a committed undrawn revolving credit facility and no requirement to access the credit markets, Mylan could hardly be in a stronger position to deal with the current economic climate."
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
John Thomas Financial
John Thomas Financial, Inc., a licensed, full service broker dealer offering client-centric retail brokerage and investment banking services, today announced that Wayne S. Kaufman, CMT and Chief Market Analyst at John Thomas Financial, was a featured analyst on CNBC from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange along with Douglas Roberts, John Manley, and CNBC's Dylan Ratigan, Maria Bartiromo and David Faber.
As the market begin plummeting and the DOW fell 800 points Mr. Kaufman was on the floor of the exchange with CNBC to bring clarity to a very chaotic market. CNBC has featured Wayne for his much respected market observations and analytical expertise. Kaufman authors the popular daily market letter, "The Kaufman Report," which includes technical and fundamental analysis of the U.S. equities markets, general investment philosophies and reviews of prevailing political, economic and business trends that are impacting the financial markets.
With over 10 years experience as a technical and fundamental market analyst with several Wall Street firms, Kaufman has been widely quoted in the financial media, including CNBC, Bloomberg Radio, Barron's and the Wall Street Journal. Holding the designation of Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and a licensed Research Analyst, Kaufman has served as an online instructor teaching CMT candidates "Level 3" coursework for the Market Technicians Association (MTA), the leading national organization of technical analysts in the United States. The MTA's CMT program is considered the industry's gold standard in technical analysis. Kaufman graduated from the University of Michigan where he earned a Bachelors degree in Liberal Arts.
"When the market is down 800 points and everyone on the street is in a panic CNBC, one of the most respected financial news powerhouses in the world, calls upon Wayne Kaufman to get the facts. Wayne's market analysis, expertise and experience is why even in a down market our firm, John Thomas Financial, is building a solid foundation where our Financial Consultants are receiving the necessary information to guide their clients in this tough economic environment," stated Thomas Belesis, the firm's founder and CEO.
As the market begin plummeting and the DOW fell 800 points Mr. Kaufman was on the floor of the exchange with CNBC to bring clarity to a very chaotic market. CNBC has featured Wayne for his much respected market observations and analytical expertise. Kaufman authors the popular daily market letter, "The Kaufman Report," which includes technical and fundamental analysis of the U.S. equities markets, general investment philosophies and reviews of prevailing political, economic and business trends that are impacting the financial markets.
With over 10 years experience as a technical and fundamental market analyst with several Wall Street firms, Kaufman has been widely quoted in the financial media, including CNBC, Bloomberg Radio, Barron's and the Wall Street Journal. Holding the designation of Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and a licensed Research Analyst, Kaufman has served as an online instructor teaching CMT candidates "Level 3" coursework for the Market Technicians Association (MTA), the leading national organization of technical analysts in the United States. The MTA's CMT program is considered the industry's gold standard in technical analysis. Kaufman graduated from the University of Michigan where he earned a Bachelors degree in Liberal Arts.
"When the market is down 800 points and everyone on the street is in a panic CNBC, one of the most respected financial news powerhouses in the world, calls upon Wayne Kaufman to get the facts. Wayne's market analysis, expertise and experience is why even in a down market our firm, John Thomas Financial, is building a solid foundation where our Financial Consultants are receiving the necessary information to guide their clients in this tough economic environment," stated Thomas Belesis, the firm's founder and CEO.
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Tervela Launches Options Market Solution
Tervela, announced an integrated options market solution designed to exceed the unique and challenging demands of the options industry. The offering couples the Tervela Message Network(TM) with professional services and high-performance options processing capabilities to deliver the predictable low latency, ultra-high message throughput, resiliency and scale required in today's volatile, high-volume trading marketplace.
"As firms pursue cross-asset strategies and add options processing to their trading environments, the demands that legacy financial messaging systems are required to handle increase," said Kevin McPartland, senior analyst, TABB Group. "Market makers and other firms looking to leverage options must be able to seamlessly integrate messaging systems and critical applications like FIX engines, algorithms, market adapters and feed handlers to their current architectures to prevent against system failures or their competition will leap ahead of them - and stay there."
Tervela's options market solution is available as a five-phase program that seamlessly integrates with existing infrastructures to get firms up and running to reliably handle fluctuating market conditions. By integrating various components of the Tervela Message Network with Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA) data, exchange feeds, last known value services, book services, FIX processing, archival and more, the program can be customized to meet immediate market data distribution, options market making, automated trading and co-location requirements while laying a scalable foundation for the future.
"In today's volatile marketplace, no one understands what peak is anymore. You just can't approach an options project with an equities mentality; it's far more extreme," said J. Barry Thompson, Co-Founder and CTO of Tervela. "Consider the Options Clearing Corporation who just last month set a new daily volume record of 26,647,538 contracts. Events like this further validate the need for a scalable messaging solution that can easily handle high-volume, latency-sensitive data distribution."
"As firms pursue cross-asset strategies and add options processing to their trading environments, the demands that legacy financial messaging systems are required to handle increase," said Kevin McPartland, senior analyst, TABB Group. "Market makers and other firms looking to leverage options must be able to seamlessly integrate messaging systems and critical applications like FIX engines, algorithms, market adapters and feed handlers to their current architectures to prevent against system failures or their competition will leap ahead of them - and stay there."
Tervela's options market solution is available as a five-phase program that seamlessly integrates with existing infrastructures to get firms up and running to reliably handle fluctuating market conditions. By integrating various components of the Tervela Message Network with Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA) data, exchange feeds, last known value services, book services, FIX processing, archival and more, the program can be customized to meet immediate market data distribution, options market making, automated trading and co-location requirements while laying a scalable foundation for the future.
"In today's volatile marketplace, no one understands what peak is anymore. You just can't approach an options project with an equities mentality; it's far more extreme," said J. Barry Thompson, Co-Founder and CTO of Tervela. "Consider the Options Clearing Corporation who just last month set a new daily volume record of 26,647,538 contracts. Events like this further validate the need for a scalable messaging solution that can easily handle high-volume, latency-sensitive data distribution."
CME Group and Citadel Claim First Central Counterparty Clearing Facility
CME Group and Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C., a leading alternative investment and technology firm, today announced they have executed a non-binding term sheet to launch a joint venture company within 30 days, which will be the first electronic trading platform that is fully integrated with a central counterparty clearing facility for Credit Default Swaps (CDS). CME Clearing, the world's largest derivatives clearing house, will be the central counterparty for this solution.
The joint venture will operate as an independent organization with its own board of directors and management team. CME Group and Citadel have invited major CDS market participants to join as Founding Members by allocating up to 30 percent of the equity in the venture, and by offering certain market maker privileges to such Founding Members. The equity and market maker incentives are designed to encourage participants to both migrate existing positions and to trade new CDS contracts on the platform.
As a fully integrated trading and clearing solution, the joint venture will provide the following benefits to market participants:
-- Enhanced liquidity through standardized contracts with fixed coupons for all the leading CDS indices and their underlying single-name components, with OTC market conventions, including credit event procedures;
-- CME Group's well-established clearing, settlement and risk management capabilities with Citadel's state-of-the-art technology for price discovery, matching engine, and risk management analytics;
-- Facilities to convert existing bilateral trades to standardized contracts and straight through processing into CME Clearing, reducing bilateral credit risks, outstanding notional balances and capital requirements while providing more flexibility for trading in and out of existing positions; and,
-- The joint venture has entered into preliminary licensing discussions with Markit, a leading financial information services company that owns the most widely traded CDS indices and Markit RED, the industry-standard CDS identifiers.
In today's environment, effective risk management is more important than ever as investors seek transparent, secure and liquid market alternatives, particularly for credit default swaps," said CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy. "Combining Citadel's leading CDS technology with the renowned safety and soundness of CME Clearing, this joint venture is a best-of-both-worlds solution that will reduce much of the systematic risk inherent in the current CDS market structure."
"It is imperative to bring stability and transparency to the CDS market," said Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO of Citadel Investment Group. "This venture is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art solution that addresses today's immediate concerns and provides tremendous opportunity for market users into the future."
"Recent market events highlight the urgent need to reduce counterparty credit risks in the CDS market as well as the other over-the-counter markets. Our innovative new partnership with Citadel, and our invitation to leading market participants to join this first-ever integrated solution, is a key turning point in improving the functioning of these important markets," said Craig Donohue, Chief Executive Officer of CME Group. "This platform provides an important opportunity for market participants to demonstrate to customers and regulators alike how these markets can be better organized to meet legitimate hedging and trading needs while reducing operational and credit risks that have grown unchecked in the OTC market."
The joint venture will operate as an independent organization with its own board of directors and management team. CME Group and Citadel have invited major CDS market participants to join as Founding Members by allocating up to 30 percent of the equity in the venture, and by offering certain market maker privileges to such Founding Members. The equity and market maker incentives are designed to encourage participants to both migrate existing positions and to trade new CDS contracts on the platform.
As a fully integrated trading and clearing solution, the joint venture will provide the following benefits to market participants:
-- Enhanced liquidity through standardized contracts with fixed coupons for all the leading CDS indices and their underlying single-name components, with OTC market conventions, including credit event procedures;
-- CME Group's well-established clearing, settlement and risk management capabilities with Citadel's state-of-the-art technology for price discovery, matching engine, and risk management analytics;
-- Facilities to convert existing bilateral trades to standardized contracts and straight through processing into CME Clearing, reducing bilateral credit risks, outstanding notional balances and capital requirements while providing more flexibility for trading in and out of existing positions; and,
-- The joint venture has entered into preliminary licensing discussions with Markit, a leading financial information services company that owns the most widely traded CDS indices and Markit RED, the industry-standard CDS identifiers.
In today's environment, effective risk management is more important than ever as investors seek transparent, secure and liquid market alternatives, particularly for credit default swaps," said CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy. "Combining Citadel's leading CDS technology with the renowned safety and soundness of CME Clearing, this joint venture is a best-of-both-worlds solution that will reduce much of the systematic risk inherent in the current CDS market structure."
"It is imperative to bring stability and transparency to the CDS market," said Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO of Citadel Investment Group. "This venture is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art solution that addresses today's immediate concerns and provides tremendous opportunity for market users into the future."
"Recent market events highlight the urgent need to reduce counterparty credit risks in the CDS market as well as the other over-the-counter markets. Our innovative new partnership with Citadel, and our invitation to leading market participants to join this first-ever integrated solution, is a key turning point in improving the functioning of these important markets," said Craig Donohue, Chief Executive Officer of CME Group. "This platform provides an important opportunity for market participants to demonstrate to customers and regulators alike how these markets can be better organized to meet legitimate hedging and trading needs while reducing operational and credit risks that have grown unchecked in the OTC market."
ICE Millions Added In November
ICE Futures U.S.(TM) will launch a suite of million-currency-unit foreign exchange (FX) futures contracts on November 6, 2008. The new futures contracts, known as ICE Millions and first announced on September 24, combine the benefits of futures and OTC products, bringing additional transactional efficiencies and risk management tools to the FX marketplace. ICE Millions are ten times the notional value of the existing suite of ICE FX futures and options contracts. ICE Futures U.S. also lists the U.S. Dollar Index(R) futures, which will remain the existing notional size of $1000 times the index value.\
The following contracts comprise the suite of 12 FX pairs:
Million Euro-U.S. dollar (IEO)
Million British pound - U.S. dollar (IMP)
Million U.S. dollar - Canadian dollar (ISV)
Million U.S. dollar - Japanese yen (ISN)
Million U.S. dollar - Swiss franc (IMF)
Million U.S. dollar - Swedish krona (IKX)
Million Euro - British pound (IGB)
Million Euro - Canadian dollar (IEP)
Million Euro - Japanese yen (IEJ)
Million Euro - Swedish krona (IRK)
Million Euro - Swiss franc (IRZ)
Million Aussie dollar - U.S. dollar (IAU)
Beginning November 6, ICE Millions will trade electronically on the ICE trading platform, which features the fastest trade execution times in the futures industry today. The primary benefits of the ICE Millions contracts include:
-- Centralized clearing and transaction anonymity, both of which are inherent in futures market transactions;
-- Transaction cost efficiencies compared to existing futures and OTC FX offerings;
-- Deep liquidity with at least 10 market makers;
-- Contract prices quoted using over-the-counter market convention (i.e.: the Million Euro-U.S. dollar contract will be quoted in U.S. dollars per Euro to five decimal places).
-- The rate for ICE Millions futures contracts is $1.35 per side, or per million currency unit, inclusive of exchange and clearing fees.
-- Simplicity of hedging cash market exposure with OTC-style contract design and quotation methodology for funds and proprietary traders active in the cash FX markets; and
-- Elimination of the need to roll daily cash positions.
The following contracts comprise the suite of 12 FX pairs:
Million Euro-U.S. dollar (IEO)
Million British pound - U.S. dollar (IMP)
Million U.S. dollar - Canadian dollar (ISV)
Million U.S. dollar - Japanese yen (ISN)
Million U.S. dollar - Swiss franc (IMF)
Million U.S. dollar - Swedish krona (IKX)
Million Euro - British pound (IGB)
Million Euro - Canadian dollar (IEP)
Million Euro - Japanese yen (IEJ)
Million Euro - Swedish krona (IRK)
Million Euro - Swiss franc (IRZ)
Million Aussie dollar - U.S. dollar (IAU)
Beginning November 6, ICE Millions will trade electronically on the ICE trading platform, which features the fastest trade execution times in the futures industry today. The primary benefits of the ICE Millions contracts include:
-- Centralized clearing and transaction anonymity, both of which are inherent in futures market transactions;
-- Transaction cost efficiencies compared to existing futures and OTC FX offerings;
-- Deep liquidity with at least 10 market makers;
-- Contract prices quoted using over-the-counter market convention (i.e.: the Million Euro-U.S. dollar contract will be quoted in U.S. dollars per Euro to five decimal places).
-- The rate for ICE Millions futures contracts is $1.35 per side, or per million currency unit, inclusive of exchange and clearing fees.
-- Simplicity of hedging cash market exposure with OTC-style contract design and quotation methodology for funds and proprietary traders active in the cash FX markets; and
-- Elimination of the need to roll daily cash positions.
Greenhill Managing Director Appointed
Christopher Cooke will join the investment bank Greenhill, as a Managing Director in its recently formed Fund Placement Group. Mr. Cooke, who previously worked as a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers with the other members of the Firm's Fund Placement Advisory group, will be based in London and will focus on extending the group's capabilities to the European market.
Mr. Cooke was most recently with CQS, a leading London based hedge fund, as a member of the Fund Raising and Investor Relations team. Prior to joining CQS in 2007, he was a London-based Managing Director at Lehman Brothers where he was responsible for European and Middle East fund raising for Buy-out funds, Fund of Funds, Co-investment funds and Real Estate funds. Prior to his time at Lehman, Mr. Cooke was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs for five years. He began his career at the Royal Bank of Canada.
Mr. Cooke holds a BA from Georgetown University, Washington D.C. and an MBA from Fordham University, New York City.
Simon A. Borrows, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Greenhill, said, "Our intention is to extend our Fund Placement Advisory business across global markets, just as we have done with our M&A and Restructuring advisory business. Chris has broad experience and a wealth of relationships that will significantly advance this strategy."
Mr. Cooke was most recently with CQS, a leading London based hedge fund, as a member of the Fund Raising and Investor Relations team. Prior to joining CQS in 2007, he was a London-based Managing Director at Lehman Brothers where he was responsible for European and Middle East fund raising for Buy-out funds, Fund of Funds, Co-investment funds and Real Estate funds. Prior to his time at Lehman, Mr. Cooke was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs for five years. He began his career at the Royal Bank of Canada.
Mr. Cooke holds a BA from Georgetown University, Washington D.C. and an MBA from Fordham University, New York City.
Simon A. Borrows, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Greenhill, said, "Our intention is to extend our Fund Placement Advisory business across global markets, just as we have done with our M&A and Restructuring advisory business. Chris has broad experience and a wealth of relationships that will significantly advance this strategy."
ELX Appoints CEO
ELX Electronic Liquidity Exchange, has appointd Neal L. Wolkoff as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Wolkoff has more than 20 years of experience as an exchange executive, most recently as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the American Stock Exchange and previously as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Neal's record of effective leadership, deep knowledge of the futures industry and commitment to market integrity make him an excellent choice for ELX," said Tom Rubio, Chairman of the ELX Supervisory Board and Managing Partner of Breakwater, a leading Chicago-based trading firm.
"As CEO, Neal will play a major role in establishing ELX as a vigorous, competitive exchange, focused on delivering superior cost-efficiency, innovation and service to all futures market participants," added Catherine Bartzos, a Managing Director of J.P. Morgan and member of the Supervisory Board's Operating Committee.
Mr. Wolkoff said: "ELX will offer an open and competitive exchange focused on the needs of all market participants and their customers. In a new environment in which most market participants directly access exchanges through advanced trading technology, ELX has unprecedented opportunities to build liquidity by offering a structure tailored to the requirements of high- volume electronic trading. Initially, ELX will focus on the significant opportunity to bring lower transaction costs, successful innovation, and greater speed and efficiency to the global market in U.S. Treasury futures contracts. I look forward to talking with market participants in the months ahead about how ELX can best meet their needs and the needs of their customers."
"Neal's record of effective leadership, deep knowledge of the futures industry and commitment to market integrity make him an excellent choice for ELX," said Tom Rubio, Chairman of the ELX Supervisory Board and Managing Partner of Breakwater, a leading Chicago-based trading firm.
"As CEO, Neal will play a major role in establishing ELX as a vigorous, competitive exchange, focused on delivering superior cost-efficiency, innovation and service to all futures market participants," added Catherine Bartzos, a Managing Director of J.P. Morgan and member of the Supervisory Board's Operating Committee.
Mr. Wolkoff said: "ELX will offer an open and competitive exchange focused on the needs of all market participants and their customers. In a new environment in which most market participants directly access exchanges through advanced trading technology, ELX has unprecedented opportunities to build liquidity by offering a structure tailored to the requirements of high- volume electronic trading. Initially, ELX will focus on the significant opportunity to bring lower transaction costs, successful innovation, and greater speed and efficiency to the global market in U.S. Treasury futures contracts. I look forward to talking with market participants in the months ahead about how ELX can best meet their needs and the needs of their customers."
SunGard Claims Short Selling Protection
SunGard's Protegent suite of compliance solutions supports financial services firms' efforts in managing the temporary, emergency short-selling ban enacted by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) on the shares of more than 800 financial companies. Current Protegent customers are already equipped to rapidly comply with the order and closely monitor short selling trends of employees.
The latest release of Protegent PTA, an employee trading and code of ethics compliance solution, provides rule logic to help firms monitor and prevent short selling of securities of the publicly-traded financial services firms on the SEC's list. Protegent PTA's new "Restricted List by Activity Type" rule logic, as well as its existing short selling rule, helps firms to prevent the short selling of these securities. SunGard is providing a restricted list of the included financial firms to customers of the latest version of Protegent PTA that can easily be uploaded into the application, as well as issuing step-by-step documentation on how to configure, test, and implement the rule.
Protegent Trading Compliance, a compliance lifecycle and business management solution for institutional equities trading businesses, provides firms the ability to monitor all sell short customer orders for securities located on the threshold list. This information is archived, maintained for three years, and readily accessible within Protegent Trading Compliance. With this information readily available in one system, firms can perform their due diligence, research and surveillance on any short sale transaction in any security on a threshold list. Protegent Trading Compliance also provides the tools to monitor, research, and react to regulatory inquiries in a timely fashion.
SunGard's Protegent Surveillance, a software application for brokerage compliance, is able to highlight the potentially unsuitable activity associated with short selling and naked short selling, through its T + 1 alerting feature. As a rules-based compliance solution, Protegent Surveillance helps mitigate internal and regulatory risk by identifying questionable transactions and positions, improving field supervision processes and audits and analyzing client and account activity against firm defined mandates.
"Financial services firms consistently rely on SunGard to help them quickly adapt to volatile market conditions and corresponding regulatory changes," said Raj Mahajan, president of SunGard's Trading business. "Our customers can continue to depend on our ability to respond proactively to these changes to help them to maintain compliance and protect the interests of their firms and clients."
The latest release of Protegent PTA, an employee trading and code of ethics compliance solution, provides rule logic to help firms monitor and prevent short selling of securities of the publicly-traded financial services firms on the SEC's list. Protegent PTA's new "Restricted List by Activity Type" rule logic, as well as its existing short selling rule, helps firms to prevent the short selling of these securities. SunGard is providing a restricted list of the included financial firms to customers of the latest version of Protegent PTA that can easily be uploaded into the application, as well as issuing step-by-step documentation on how to configure, test, and implement the rule.
Protegent Trading Compliance, a compliance lifecycle and business management solution for institutional equities trading businesses, provides firms the ability to monitor all sell short customer orders for securities located on the threshold list. This information is archived, maintained for three years, and readily accessible within Protegent Trading Compliance. With this information readily available in one system, firms can perform their due diligence, research and surveillance on any short sale transaction in any security on a threshold list. Protegent Trading Compliance also provides the tools to monitor, research, and react to regulatory inquiries in a timely fashion.
SunGard's Protegent Surveillance, a software application for brokerage compliance, is able to highlight the potentially unsuitable activity associated with short selling and naked short selling, through its T + 1 alerting feature. As a rules-based compliance solution, Protegent Surveillance helps mitigate internal and regulatory risk by identifying questionable transactions and positions, improving field supervision processes and audits and analyzing client and account activity against firm defined mandates.
"Financial services firms consistently rely on SunGard to help them quickly adapt to volatile market conditions and corresponding regulatory changes," said Raj Mahajan, president of SunGard's Trading business. "Our customers can continue to depend on our ability to respond proactively to these changes to help them to maintain compliance and protect the interests of their firms and clients."
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