2013 Symposium

The HedgeNews Africa Symposium was held on February 21, 2013 in Cape Town. The Symposium is the must-attend event in the African alternative asset management calendar, bringing together leading managers, investors and service providers to discuss shifting investment landscapes amid a year of great challenges and great change. For full coverage see our April print edition or click on the links below.

               Simon Ruddick and Gary Linford

From the developed market of South Africa to the nascent economies across Africa, leading industry players both interrogated and informed – helping the industry to achieve new levels of accountability, transparency and excellence based on high-level peer-to-peer interaction. The event was followed by the HedgeNews Africa Awards dinner, recognising the best risk-adjusted performance amongst South African and African hedge funds in the calendar year 2012.

Two distinguished speakers led the day’s discussions at the HedgeNews Africa Symposium on February 21, with Albourne Partners’ Simon Ruddick and Gary Linford from HighWater Limited delivering keynote addresses at the focused one-day event.

The Symposium, held in Cape Town each year, brings together leading investors and managers from Africa and further afield to discuss and debate important issues in the alternative investment world. Based in London, Ruddick is the managing director and co-founder of Albourne Partners, the world's largest hedge fund advisory firm, which he co-founded in March 1994.

Albourne has more than 250 clients with more than US$300 billion invested in hedge funds.

Ruddick is a well-known international speaker on industry matters and his contribution to the day’s discussions was eagerly anticipated. Albourne was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2006 and again in 2009, and Ruddick received Lifetime Achievement Awards from Global Custodian in 2010 and from Hedge Fund Review in 2012, along with the International Leadership Award from the American Red Cross. Earlier this year, Albourne was ranked first in HFM Week’s Investor Power 30, the top most influential investors and advisors in the hedge fund space.

Albourne has also led a number of industry-wide initiatives with no commercial agenda, including the Open Protocol Enabling Risk Aggregation and the hedge fund working group formed as part of the United Nations PRI initiatives. In addition, Ruddick has been a trustee of the Hedge Funds Standard Board since 2008. Based in the Caymans Islands, Linford is the founder of HighWater Limited, which provides independent directors and related services to the alternative investment industry.

He has been closely involved with many top global hedge funds and their investors post the 2008 financial crisis, as well as staying abreast of regulatory trends, and will bring valuable insight to the industry in this part of the world. Linford was previously head of the Investment & Securities Division of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) where his primary responsibility was the effective oversight of the investment fund sector, including the authorisation of hedge funds, fund administrators and investment managers as well as ongoing oversight.

Now in its fourth year, the Symposium has an established track record of attracting a top-tier audience, providing an important annual opportunity for high-level interaction. Besides the keynote addresses, the day’s agenda will include focused panel discussions from a range of leading managers and investors, both domestic and international, on timely and pertinent topics.

Conference Discussion Topics 2013

• KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Simon Ruddick, Albourne Partners
• KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Gary Linford, HighWater Limited
• REGULATORY UPDATE: Robert Foster, Capital Exchange Partners
• PANEL SESSION: THE GLOBAL/MACRO VIEW
• PANEL SESSION: FOCUSING ON AFRICA
• PANEL SESSION: South African equities
• PANEL SESSION: Fixed income, credit and interest rates
• PANEL SESSION: Commodities
• PANEL SESSION: Creating the ideal hedge fund portfolio
• PANEL SESSION: What is effective due diligence?
• PANEL SESSION: Building profitable portfolios
• PANEL SESSION: Growing the African industry

Booking rates for 2014

Standard booking rate $1,150 / R8,000
25% discount for named HedgeNews Africa subscriber $860 / R6,000
15% discount for hedge fund managers / investors $980 / R6,800

If you are a not-for-profit hedge fund investor or pension fund trustee, you may be eligible for a discount. Please contact Aiden Davis on events@hedgenewsafrica.com.

To download the Symposium booking form, please click here.

The HedgeNews Africa Symposium 2013 programme has been approved by the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa. Members who attend will receive 6.5 CPD (continuous professional development) points, which are required to develop and maintain their capabilities to perform competently within their professional environments.

2012 Symposium Topics