| The transfer from Ernst & Young to McCann FitzGerald is completed |
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| The final stage of the transfer of the listing business from Ernst & Young to McCann FitzGerald Listing Services Ltd took place during the period under review. |
Davy Stockbrokers (Killian Buckley)
Belying the trend of offshore domiciled funds seeking a Dublin listing, the period under review was notable for an upsurge in IFSRA authorised umbrella funds adding to their existing structures.
Green Way Select Fund plc, an umbrella fund managed through the Credit Agricole Group, added a sub-fund to the Official List. The Macro Fund seeks to achieve significant capital appreciation over the longterm by investing on a global basis in open-ended offshore funds, using a top-down analysis.
In keeping with the opportunistic nature of investments this month, Putnam World Trust II launched a further sub-fund in its growing umbrella. Putnam Opportunistic Value Fund seeks capital appreciation mainly through investment in common stocks of mid-sized and large-sized U.S. companies.
Choosing debt rather than equity, Standard Life Investments (Global Liquidity Funds) p.l.c. added a Euro Liquidity Fund investing in diversified portfolio of high quality Euro denominated short term debt and debt related instruments.
Of course, a month could not go by without the usual mix of offshore funds listing. Arundel Fixed Income PLC, incorporated in the Isle of Man, uses a mix of specialist fixed income managers to provide investors with superior risk-adjusted long-term capital appreciation. American Express Asset Management Group Inc launched a Cayman domiciled fund - Advisory Convertible Arbitrage Fund (I) Inc which primarily uses convertible arbitrage strategies in the US market.
With the summer months behind us, Davy is set for a very busy autumn with a number of funds planning to launch in the coming months.
Goodbody Stockbrokers (Myles Daly & Maeve Lynch)
Goodbody Stockbrokers experienced another busy month with a number of investment funds and specialist security products successfully admitted to the Official List. A number of Cayman Island funds listed in the period under review including FrontPoint Offshore Japan Fund, a double master feeder structure, which feeds into a Cayman Islands limited partnership which in turn feeds into FrontPoint Japan L.P., a Delaware limited partnership. Diapason Rogers Commodity Index (Agriculture Segment) Fund, which is managed by Diapason Commodities Management, S.A., follows an investment objective to replicate, as closely as possible, the performance of the agriculture segment of the Rogers International Commodity Index. The investment objective of Bayes Capital Tactical Equity Fund Ltd, which listed three classes of shares, is to deliver to its investors positive returns by investing tactically in the G5 equity markets. Goldman Sachs Fundamental Currency Fund, an IFSRA authorised fund, also listed this month and aims to invest in the global currency and currency related markets.
On the specialist securities side, Goodbody Stockbrokers was involved in a number of listings, particularly listings of standalone/CDO type transactions. Standalone issuers included Vallauris CLO plc, an Irish issuer which listed a mixture of floating and fixed rate notes backed by a portfolio of collateral debt obligations; Stuyvesant CDO V Ltd., a Cayman Islands issuer of a single tranche of floating rate notes with Rabobank acting as both the investment and swap counterparty; Jubilee CDO IV BV, a Dutch issuer of 17 tranches of notes backed by a portfolio of collateral debt obligations consisting of senior secured leveraged and unleveraged loans, mezzanine loans and debt securities.
Finally, Alexandria Capital plc listed a number of new series of notes during the period while Banca Intesa S.p.A. and Intesa Bank Ireland p.l.c. updated the €17,000,000,000 Global Medium Term Note Programme.
JP Morgan Bank (Ireland ) PLC (Sinead O’Gorman)
In addition to the Irish listing and paying agency services we provide locally, JP Morgan also acted in such roles as trustee, custodian, principal paying agent, registrar, issue agent and calculation agent for the transactions detailed below.
ARLO Limited listed three new series of credit-linked notes under its US$5,000,000,000 Programme for the issue of notes and the making of alternative investments. Series 2004 (Troy) is a US dollar denominated series, Series 2004 (Umbria) and Series 2004 (Umbria II) are both euro denominated series. ARLO Limited is incorporated with limited liability in the Cayman Islands and each series was arranged by Barclays Bank PLC.
The end of July included the listing of the ‘Major’ Programme update. This is a multi-jurisdiction repackaging programme consisting of three Irish issuers (Signum Finance I Plc, Signum Finance II Plc and Signum Finance III Plc) and two Cayman issuers (Signum Rated Limited and GS Fund Products Limited). The arranger was Goldman Sachs International.
The beginning of August saw the listing of Series 2004 (Zebra II, Class A), (Zebra II, Class B), (Zebra II, Class C), (Zebra III, Class A) and (Zebra III, Class B) by ARLO IV Limited under its US$5,000,000,000 programme for the issue of notes and the making of alternative investments. All five series were arranged by Barclays Bank PLC.
Spices Finance Limited, a public company with limited liability in Jersey, listed an annual update to its US$5,000,000,000 asset-backed medium term note programme and Heather Finance Limited listed an annual update to its US$5,000,000,000 asset-backed medium term programme. Morgan Stanley acted as arranger for both transactions.
FIRST 2004-1 CLO, Ltd. & FIRST 2004-1 CLO Corp., arranged by JP Morgan, listed five tranches of US dollar denominated senior secured notes and senior secured interest deferrable notes. The notes, issued in registered form, are secured by a pool of CDO’s consisting of registered US Dollar denominated loans.
McCann FitzGerald Listing Services Limited (Eibhl?n Johnston)
The final stage of the transfer from Ernst & Young to McCann FitzGerald took place during the review period. In excess of four hundred company announcements and notices for our fund and specialist securities listing clients were released to the Exchange on 3rd August, marking the completion of the transfer of the listing team and our clients to McCann FitzGerald Listing Services Limited. This process was aided greatly by the assistance of James Ferguson and his team in the Company Announcements Office of the Exchange.
In addition, there were five new admissions to the Official List on the specialist securities side. For the most part these were standard CDO deals listing several classes of Notes. We also listed the notes issued by SVB Holdings, PLC. The issuer, incorporated in England and Wales, is a holding company involved in the reinsurance, co-insurance and counter-insurance business. The issuer’s notes are not rated and are backed by the full faith and credit of the issuer. Proceeds of the issue are used for general corporate purposes.
Investment funds listing continued to be busy with several new series of shares being listed for Aurora Offshore Fund Ltd. II, FrontPoint Offshore Healthcare Fund Ltd, Theorema Europe Fund, Ltd and Cognis I Fund. Two new sub-funds for Census Investments 26 plc and a further sub-fund for Tower Master Trust were also listed. Two new fund additions to the Official List were Iyber CSA Fund Limited on 3rd August, the first listing for McCann FitzGerald Listing Services Limited, and First Light Fund on 4th August. Iyber CSA Fund Limited is a Cayman Islands, master feeder structure, the investment objective of which is to seek to achieve superior risk adjusted returns by utilising capital structure arbitrage strategies to exploit relative mispricings across corporate capital structures. First Light Fund is a fund of funds the investment objective of which is to maintain a carefully selected hedge fund portfolio consisting of positions in high quality funds diversified across various investment styles with sufficient liquidity to produce significant returns with low volatility
NCB Stockbrokers (Joanne McEnteggart)
On the investment funds side for the period under review, PilotRock Capital, L.P. launched PilotRock Offshore Fund Limited, who intends to produce consistent, absolute returns for the shareholders through managing a portfolio of securities with low volatility and limited market correlation. Preserving the capital of the fund’s shareholders will be a critical element of this philosophy.
FMG Fund Managers Limited launched FMG Diversified Bio Med Hedge Fund Ltd, whose investment objective is to create a high return health care related fund by investing primarily with a number of successful hedge fund managers and to outperform the S&P 500 index.
The following sub-funds were added to Sanlam Universal Fund plc: Sanlam Euro Liquidity Fund, Sanlam Sterling Liquidity Fund, Sanlam Universal Bond Fund, Sanlam Universal Equity Fund, Sanlam World Equity Tracker Fund. The following sub-fund Sanlam Global Liquidity Fund was added to Sanlam Global Funds plc.
Further Shares Classes were added to Lion Fund, Third Point Offshore Fund Limited and Topiary Fund (Ireland) Plc. New share classes were also added to BTOP Multi-Strategy Fund Ltd. New Share classes were added to Liberty Ermitage Gold & Resources Fund Limited and Liberty Ermitage Selz Fund Ltd.
On the specialist security side, Morgan Stanley arranged another deal Duke Funding VII Ltd. and Duke Funding VII Inc, which listed twelve tranches of securities. Sachsen LB Europe plc listed one new series of notes under its medium term note programme Series No. 77 Floating Rate Notes due 2015. Merrill Lynch & Co. as initial purchaser arranged Hudson Straits CLO 2004, Ltd. and Hudson Straits CLO 2004, Corp., which listed eight tranches of notes. RBS Greenwich Capital arranged Veritas CLO I, Ltd. and Veritas CLO I, Inc., which listed four tranches of notes.
RSM Robson Rhodes LLP (Maureen Shannon)
RSM Robson Rhodes LLP acted as listing agent to Opal Funds (Ireland) plc (the company) which is an open-ended umbrella fund incorporated as a variable capital investment company in Ireland and authorised by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority pursuant to Part XIII of the Companies Act, 1990. The manager of the company is Tilney (Ireland) Limited. At present, the company comprises of one fund, the Opal Optimum Strategy Fund (the fund). The primary objective of the fund is to generate consistent long-term capital gains through a policy of investment in a diversified portfolio of collective investment schemes, whether open or closed-ended.
On the structured products side, we listed 2 deals, Octagon Investment Partners VI, Ltd which listed seven tranches of notes totaling 281,000,000. A portfolio of commercial loans secures the notes. Octagon Credit Investors, LLC, a portfolio company of J.P. Morgan Partners, LLC is the Collateral Manager. We also listed Clydesdale CLO 2004, Ltd which listed 10 tranches of notes totaling 350,000,000. The notes are secured by a portfolio of leveraged bank loans and high yield bonds.
The collateral manager to the deal is Nomura Corporate Research and Asset Management Inc. |
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