Latest: Optiver adds liquidity to Austrian market, Stropro bolsters issuer pool

The Vienna Stock Exchange (VSE) has announced that Optiver has joined the exchange as a new trading member.

Optiver will provide liquidity across listed derivatives, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other structured products in pan-European shares on the VSE.

A total of 65 members are currently admitted to trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange

The Amsterdam-based company is one of the leading market making institutions and operates globally with offices in Amsterdam, London, Austin, Chicago, Sydney, Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore.

“With over 35 years of experience as a global market maker with a strong track record in equities, exchange-traded funds and listed derivatives, we are pleased to become a member of the Vienna Stock Exchange”, said Andrew Meyer (pictured), head of cash equity and ETF trading at Optiver.

Optiver joined earlier this summer Aquis Exchange to leverage its market making capabilities and provide liquidity to the cash equities market.

A total of 65 members, including 23 Austrian and 42 international banks and securities firms, are currently admitted to trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange.

The top market participants in the first half of 2022 include Morgan Stanley & Co (13.48%), J.P. Morgan SE (7.47%) ahead of BofA Securities Europe SA (6.98%), according to the VSE.

Stropro adds BNPP, Natixis to pool of issuer

Australian structured products platform Stropro has announced the addition of BNP Paribas (S&P: A+) and Natixis (S&P: A+) to its platform issuer panel.

‘We’ve added these two powerhouses due to their global reach across multiple asset classes,’ said Ben Streater (right), Stropro’s chief investment officer (CIO). ‘Both are award winning issuers of structured investments with strengths in 100% issuer protected income strategies, credit and equity linked products as well as their own institutional grade proprietary index solutions.’

The addition of two more major global banks will increase the platform’s product capabilities further, particularly with more principal protected offerings.

The addition of the two French banks brings the number of issuers quoting on the platform to eight including Société Générale, Credit Suisse, Citi, Macquarie, Marex and ZeroCap.

Canada’s SFL actions put/call to acquire AAM

Canadian financial services company Sun Life Financial (SLF) has agreed to acquire a 51% interest in Advisors Asset Management (AAM) for US$214 million (C$280 million), subject to customary adjustments with a put/call option to acquire the remaining 49% at the beginning of 2028.

AAM will be acquired through SLF’s institutional fixed income and alternatives asset manager, SLC Management.

The transaction, following closing conditions and regulatory approvals, is projected to be closed by the first half of 2023. Under the new ownership, AAM will become the US retail distribution arm of SLC Management.

Founded in 1979, AAM is an independent US retail distribution firm offering unit investment trusts (UITs), open- and closed-end mutual funds, separately managed accounts (SMAs), structured products and fixed-income markets, as well as portfolio analytics and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

AAM target market includes financial advisors at wirehouses, registered investment advisors (RIA's) and independent broker-dealers. As of 31 July 2022, the brokerage and advised business at AAM had around US$41.4 billion (C$55 billion) in assets.

Under the terms of the transaction, Sun Life has committed to invest up to US$400 million to launch SLC Management alternative products for the US retail market that will be distributed by AAM.  

‘There is significant potential in the alternatives space to deliver solid returns for the clients,” said Scott Colyer (above-right), CEO of Advisors Asset Management.

PE firm acquires Numerix

Risk management fintech Numerix has been acquired by Genstar Capital, a US private equity firm focused on investments in targeted segments of the financial services, healthcare, industrials, and software industries. Additional terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Numerix provides multi-asset class pricing tools to price and manage risk for any derivative instrument in addition to fixed income securities as well as analytics and quantitative research. 

Since 2018, Numerix has developed technology solutions aimed at automating pre-trade price discovery through XVA trading, market and counterparty credit risk management across all asset classes.

‘We look forward to expanding our footprint across the entire value chain in the front-to-risk market,’ said Steven O’Hanlon (right), chief executive officer and president of Numerix.

‘Numerix is capitalizing on several macro tailwinds including the digital transformation of capital markets, continued complex regulatory requirements and substantial market volatility across asset classes and geographies,’ said Scott Niehaus, director of Genstar.

Jefferies LLC served as financial advisor and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP served as legal counsel to Numerix. RBC Capital Markets served as financial advisor and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as legal counsel to Genstar.

Retirement plan participants sue union board over AllianzGI investments

Three United Brotherhood of Carpenters retirement plan participants have filed a class action lawsuit against the plan's board of trustees and its investment consultant, Callan, alleging breaches of fiduciary duties related to their investment in Allianz Global Investors funds.

According to the lawsuit filed on 2 August in the US District Court in Seattle, the board and Callan breached their duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 by investing in Allianz Global Investors' Structured Alpha enhanced-return strategies.

The employees allege that the board of trustees was invested in the AllianzGI Structured Alpha 1000 Plus and AllianzGI Structured Alpha U.S. Equity 250, and the portfolios, which make up nearly one-fifth of the retirement plans' portfolios, lost 92% and 54%, respectively, of their values when the strategies collapsed.

According to the court filing, the board filed suit against AllianzGI in November 2020, and Allianz settled the suit for $110 million in February, accounting for less than 45% of the plans' losses in the investments.

The employees are seeking that the board and Callan ‘personally make good to the plans all losses incurred as a result of the breaches of fiduciary duties’ because not all of the US$250 million in losses have been recovered, according to the filing.

As of Dec. 31, 2020, the Carpenters Retirement Plan of Western Washington and the Carpenters of Western Washington Individual Account Pension Plan had $1.7 billion and $564 million, respectively, in assets, according to the Seattle-based plans' most recent Form 5500 filings.

AllianzGI's Structured Alpha strategies suffered devastating losses in early 2020.

The US SEC discovered after an investigation what it called a ‘massive fraudulent scheme’ perpetuated by the strategy's three portfolio managers and ordered AllianzGI to pay more than US$1 billion to settle the SEC charges and over $5 billion in restitution to investors who lost a total of US$7 billion due to the collapse of Structured Alpha.

Click in the link to read the court filing.