Equity and Quasi Equity

The shifting landscape of the wealth management sector has moved industry participants to refocus business strategies. Simultaneously, women have emerged as interested, committed, and knowledgeable investors. The spending power of women and the amount of wealth they control has grown significantly. Today, women represent a meaningful investor segment and capturing this segment is a massive opportunity for wealth management firms. However, to capture the segment, firms not only need to develop specific capabilities, but also the focus to meet the needs of the female investor.

Europe’s 22 million SMEs provide 67% of all EU jobs and generate 58% of total EU value added, yet they still often face greater difficulty in accessing the finance they need than their larger competitors. The European Economy journal has brought together financial experts to debate how to address this problem in its latest issue: “Who takes the risks for funding SMEs?”

Bank lending is the most common source of external finance for many SMEs and entrepreneurs, yet has proven challenging to newer, innovative and fast growing companies, as well as to those undertaking important transitions in their activities or seeking to de-leverage and improve their capital structures.

Hedge fund firms and other alternative asset managers are playing an increasingly important role in financing the economy, according to a new paper published by the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund association.

The paper says that private debt funds such as hedge funds now manage around $440 billion in assets, with some $64 billion of new capital allocated to the sector in 2014 alone.

Hedge funds are increasingly providing financing to small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as banks retreat from lending, according to a paper published by the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA).

Canaan Partners, is a VC firm that has moved big into the alternative finance space. With over $4.2 billion under management they have the fire power, and the tool kit, to move quickly into promising, early stage companies. Canaan targets two sectors; Technology and Healthcare companies which are based mainly in the US, India and Israel.

The British Business Bank’s equity report, published alongside this document, discusses how a lack of reliable data has represented a perennial problem over the years, hampering analysis of trends in equity markets. Typically, there has been some aggregated data available on venture capital investment, some information on investments supported by the EIS, SEIS and VCT tax reliefs, and little else.