The BVI-registered fund invests mainly in systematic trading and global macro funds, but may also include a small allocation to other non-directional strategies. GAM Trading II, managed by the group’s multi-manager team, last year has generated an 8.6% return. Since its inception in 1997, the vehicle has delivered positive returns every year.

GAM head of UK mutual funds Martin Harrison has said in his comments that “the new leveraged fund is designed for investors with a strong positive view of GAM Trading II, who want to enhance their exposure for the same amount of capital. Minimum investment amount is £15,000, with initial charge of 5% and annual management charge of 1.7%.

Castlestone said it has already secured $25 million for the BVI fund, plus another $25 million in commitments. The firm is going to create a diversified collection of museum-quality modern art including impressionist works, sculpture, post-war art, urban art and photography. Also, the firm is designed to run for eight years in order to get long-term returns, not a quick trading scheme.

Castlestone said, “The fund’s manager has been advising on modern art investment since 2000. We will be supported by representatives from top auction houses, dealers and artists themselves.” According to the firm’s information, current prospects for art prices look very good, as increasing urbanization around the world has led to a global boom in museum construction.

Castlestone anticipates the 40% distribution in global equity indexes, and 60% in managed futures hedge funds. The firm noticed that in the last two years, investing in  managed futures was one of the few strategies which continued to return healthy profits to investors.

Castlestone currently manages US$700 mln of total assets gold bullion, precious metals, commodity, stock indexes, currencies and hedge funds.

Venulum Property Investment produced the excellent returns and helped lift the overall performance of the funds. Giles Cadman, Chairman of the Venulum Group, explained that they “have an established team who utilise their skill and experience to create value.” By his words, the group is often criticised for not taking enough risk in the property market, but the last few months have shown that “markets can change and wipe out value very quickly.”

CFO of Venulum Group, Richard Lowden, said that as Venulum is a private company owned by a family trust, and investing on behalf of private individuals, the opportunities to compare its returns with competing funds are limited.

The funds of the BVI Group are privately held, so its listings are not in the public domain, but brokers and independent financial advisors who subscribe to Bloomberg have access to them. The process of registering company’s funds with Bloomberg involves due diligence that is carried out by Bloomberg on Venulum and the Private Placement Memorandums of the funds. Then, it is the responsibility of Group’s BVI administrator Folio Administrators Limited to update the monthly share prices.

Group’s SFO Richard Lowden is sure that the funds will hold up in the dowturn, because the company has taken the risk by focusing on the public sector housing market, and investing cautiously over the past two years, in expectation of the current downturn.

Eximbank sold 5% of stake to British Virgin Islands-registered VOF Investment Ltd, 4.5% to MAE under South Korea’s top mutual fund Mirae Asset group, and 0.5% to Mirrae Asset Maps Opportunity Vietnam Equity Balanced Fund1.

Fil-Estate informed the stock exchange that it signed an agreement on the bonds with a professional British Virgin Islands-registered fund Lim Asia Special Situation Master Fund Ltd.

The bonds issued by Fil-Estate can be converted into company shares of stock at a rate of P1.50 per share within 5 years. They carry a coupon rate of 4%, with an intended yield-to-maturity of 14% in case the notes are not converted by holders within 5 years.

According to Fil-Estate, proceeds from the bond issue will be used for funding the development of its projects. The projects to be funded include phases 5 and 6 of Manila Southwoods in Metro Manila; Boracay Villas, Forest Hills in Antipolo City; Sto. Domingo Residential Tower and Thomas Residences in Quezon City; Sta. Barbara Heights in Iloilo province; as well as Newport Hills and Nasugbu Harbortown in Batangas province.

Commenting on the acquistion, Mr. Lewnowski, the founder and former owner of Olympia Capital International, stated that “The combination of Olympia Capital’s and CACEIS’s experience in alternatives, financial strength and quality is in the best interest of our clients. CACEIS’s significant experience in providing customised services to the alternative investment community and its financial stability reflected by an impressive AA- rating from Standard and Poor’s will enable us to deliver new and innovative services to our clients on a global basis”.

Being listed on the Irish Stock Exchange is an important step in the BVI fund’s objective of providing the highest possible level of transparency to investors. Carlo Scevola, president of Resolute Capital, has said, “This listing is further evidence of our commitment to provide our investors with the maximum visibility into our fund operations. We strongly believe greater transparency leads to better informed investors and, ultimately, more predictable, less volatile markets.”

Resolute Capital Growth Fund is a professional investment fund registered in the British Virgin Islands, licensed with the BVI Financial Services Commission. Since 2003, it specializes on low-volatility, market-neutral and performance-driven trading strategies, and invests primarily in currencies. Annual returns of the fund are about 30%, and declared maximum risk made 2%. The fund has developed proprietary methodologies to provide investors with high returns through any type of market conditions.

The Company listing was effective from 24 July 2007, for the authorised share capital consisting of 4,999,900 shares of this BVI company. The shares are to be distributed to Qualified Investors by the appointed placement agent, Renaissance Capital Investment Management Limited, another company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The Common Shares listing of RenFin II was sponsored by Reid Management Limited.

The investment objective of the BVI company listed is to achieve medium term capital growth through Investments in Financial Institutions in the Russian Region, Central and Eastern Europe. These plans were defined by the Investment Manager as undertaking an initial offering, or undertaking mergers and acquisitions in the next 3-4 years.

Spinnaker Funds said in its statement that the stock was acquired on July 9. The shares were bought from United Investment Inc, PT Philadel Terra Lestara, and businessman Pieter Tanuri. The Fund Group representatives said also that the purchase will launch a mandatory tender offer, as required by the capital markets regulator, to acquire more shares from the public. Currently, 49.57% of company’s stock is held by the public.

The tender offer price was set at the same level of 215 rupiah, but the BVI Funds did not specify in its statement how many additional shares of Indonesian company it plans to purchase.