NAIC Welcomes New Member!

NAIC proudly announced that Matarin Capital Management - http://matarin.com has joined the trade association. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, Matarin Capital combines fundamental and quantitative investment approaches that use proprietary methodology that identifies mispricing opportunities to meet the firm's objective of delivering superior risk-adjusted investment returns to clients. Matarin Capital follows a focused, disciplined, measured approach in every aspect of its investment pursuits designed to provide more consistent investment returns, while avoiding big bets that may result in big losses.

NAIC Roadshow 2017 Tour Concludes in New York City

The NAIC Roadshow made its last stop on November 22 in New York City to meet with City Comptroller Scott Stringer, Deputy Comptroller and CIO Scott Evans, Chief Diversity Officer Wendy Garcia, and several senior members of the administrative and investment teams. The meeting included comprehensive updates and constructive feedback regarding NYC’s progress against the Comptroller’s previously stated goal: for the asset managers of the $175 billion pension plan to be more inclusive.

Comptroller Stringer and Scott Evans repeatedly requested feedback on the Office’s efforts to date and suggestions regarding what more they could and should be doing to be more inclusive of diverse and emerging managers. Since Comptroller Stringer took office, the total allocations are up 16%, with MWBE firm allocations up 26%, non-MWBE firms up just 15% and emerging MWBE firms up 17%. As a follow-up to the meeting, NAIC will be preparing a letter to Comptroller with a consolidated list of recommendations for increasing NYC’s utilization of diverse and emerging managers.

Amendments to Form ADV are Now Effective

Amendments to Form ADV became effective on October 1st. Unless you registered with the SEC on or after October 1st or have had a material change requiring an "other-than-annual" amendment since that date, you have not yet seen the following on the amended Form ADV. The new Form ADV requires investment advisors to also report on their separately managed accounts. The following information is requested: the percentage of assets in separately managed accounts, the use of derivatives, and borrowings in their accounts by gross notional exposure. Advisors with less than $10 billion in regulatory assets under management will continue to update Form ADV annually while advisors with more than $10 billion in regulatory assets under management are now required to report two times a year. In this installment of Compliance Corner, NAIC partner ICSGroup explains the list of changes as well as how advisors can proceed.

NAIC Members in the News

Clearlake Capital Leads Financing Round for GRC Solutions Provider

MetricStream, Inc., the independent market leader in Governance, Risk and Compliance applications and solutions, announced that it has completed a $65 million financing round led by Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. EDBI, a Singapore based global fund, joined Clearlake as a new investor, and existing investors including Goldman Sachs, Sageview Capital, and others also participated in the round. Prashant Mehrotra, Partner at Clearlake, will join MetricStream’s board of directors. MetricStream’s solutions improve business performance by streamlining and strengthening an enterprise’s risk management, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, vendor governance, and quality management practices. Its solutions are used in dozens of industries, including Financial Services, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Energy and Utilities, Food, Retail, CPG, Government, Hi-Tech and Manufacturing.

One Rock Capital Acquires Foam Solutions Manufacturer

One Rock Capital Partners, LLC announced that one of its affiliates has completed the acquisition of FXI Holdings, Inc. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Headquartered in Media, Pa., FXI is a leader in providing innovative foam solutions driven by consumer insights and state-of-the-art research and development. FXI’s foam products are used in a variety of end markets including bedding, furniture, transportation, medical, filtration and acoustics.

On the Move

John Swainson Joins Siris Capital Group as Executive Partner

Siris Capital Group, LLC announced that John Swainson, most recently president of the Dell Software group, has joined Siris as an executive partner. In his new role, Mr. Swainson will work closely with Siris’ investment professionals and other executive partners to identify and validate potential investment opportunities for Siris as well as assist in the oversight and operations of Siris’ portfolio companies. With over 30 years of industry experience and senior leadership roles at global corporations, Mr. Swainson brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the enterprise technology software sector. During his tenure there, through a combination of strategic acquisitions and organic growth, Mr. Swainson and his team created a $1.5 billion software organization of 6,000 people that strongly complemented Dell’s corporate strategy.

The Carlyle Group Adds Idris Mohammed as Managing Director to Sub-Saharan Africa Team

The Carlyle Group announced that Idris Mohammed has been appointed Managing Director on Carlyle’s Sub-Saharan African Fund team (CSSAF). Mr. Mohammed has more than 15 years of private equity experience spanning the U.S. and Africa. He began his private equity career at Goldman Sachs in New York where he was a member of the Special Situations Group and helped build the clean energy investing business before deciding to return home to invest in Africa. In 2007, Mr. Mohammed joined DPI at inception where he was based in London and then moved to Lagos to head that office. He helped raise two funds at DPI and led a number of acquisitions across Africa, including in Botswana, Nigeria and Egypt. Mr. Mohammed received his BSc in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University and his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.