YOUDEVISE LAUNCHES FIRST COMMERCIAL PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR FUNDS OF HEDGE FUNDS

(LONDON) 02 May, 2006 – youDevise, a leading provider of on-demand applications for financial markets, today announced the launch of the first portfolio management system for funds of hedge funds (FoHFs) for solving critical management, risk, compliance and cost issues, particularly those resulting from over-reliance on error-prone spreadsheets.

The Hedge Fund Information Provider (the HIP) also introduces Straight Through Processing (STP) methods to the FoHF industry, which is estimated to account for $693 billion, or one-third, of all hedge fund assets under management, according to the Barclay Group. Known for its use in stock transactions, STP will enable FoHFs and their administrators, as well as hedge funds, to exchange some data electronically, reducing reliance on phone calls, faxes, emails, and multiple spreadsheet entries.

"The HIP brings management of funds of hedge funds into the 21st century", said Simon Ewart, COO and CFO of Key Asset Management of London, which, with $1.2 billion under management, was a main sponsor among a team of FoHFs that participated with youDevise in researching and developing the HIP.

"The HIP solves the most pressing information management needs of every fund of hedge fund manager", said Owain McNeill, Business Manager of alternative investments at youDevise. Its major capabilities include:

• Portfolio Management – Tracking and evaluating investments in underlying funds.
• Shadow Accounting – Monitoring, reconciling and forecasting portfolio cash, payables/receivables, and FX balances.
• Liquidity – Determining how much cash is redeemable from hedge funds over time.
• FX Hedging – Calculating exposure, hedging needs and determining gains/losses on existing hedges.

The HIP also provides compliance with investment guidelines, eliminates the need for multiple data entry, and enables automatic electronic feeds from external third-party administration and in-house systems.

The HIP is securely accessed using a standard Internet browser on an on-demand basis, and supports FoHFs of all sizes and complexities. The web-hosted format allows customers to initiate its use in days, with full migration in less than a month’s time, and provides exceptional security. Annual fees are a fraction of the cost of developing in-house systems.

The underlying technology is the same as that employed by youDevise to build the Repository & Distribution Center (RDC) for Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Merrill Lynch. The RDC is an industry utility that enables the secure exchange of trade ideas between brokerage firms and their money manager and hedge fund clients.

youDevise developed the HIP in collaboration with leading FoHFs after its research team found almost all FoHFs were experiencing three widespread difficulties using spreadsheets to manage their businesses.

1. Because the business is becoming more complex, it is extremely challenging to value accurately portfolios and track liquidity using spreadsheets. “Investments made in funds of hedge funds can have different share classes, with multiple structures, denominated in various currencies,” Mr. McNeill explained. “For fund of hedge fund investments made in hedge funds, subscriptions and redemptions typically involve unique lockup terms, notice periods, fee and settlement schedules, and gating. Terms can be overridden for particular trades. Fees are calculated using complex methodologies and equalization adjustments, and prices arrive at different times, on estimated or confirmed bases, making it difficult to determine which price to use when valuing a hedge fund investment.”
2. FoHF spreadsheet data are seriously prone to error. “As many studies have shown, more than 90% of audited spreadsheets contain errors,” Mr. McNeill said. “This is compounded at funds of hedge funds, which are dependent on one or two people for developing and updating their spreadsheets. The spreadsheets rely on untested macros and links to other spreadsheets. Information comes in over the phone, via faxes and through unstructured emails, and then is entered into spreadsheets manually, sometimes in triplicate. This exposes fund of hedge fund managers to a high degree of risk, particularly now that they are becoming subject to more regulatory scrutiny and are more frequently reporting intra-month results to clients.”
3. Managers cannot access up-to-date information on performance, cash, liquidity and FX hedging needs. “The situation is suboptimal for fast, well-informed decision making,” Mr. McNeill concluded.

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Contacts:

Owain McNeill, youDevise Limited, London
+44 (0)20 7826 4319
owain.mcneill@youdevise.com

Simon Ewart, CFO/COO, Key Asset Management
+44 (0)20 7016 6200
sewart@keyhedge.com

Alan Hennebery, financial Controller, Key Asset Management
+44 (0)20 7016 6200
ahennebery@keyhedge.com

Jeff McKenzie, Anreder & Company, New York City +1-212-532-3232
jeff.mckenzie@anreder.com

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About youDevise Limited:
youDevise Limited (www.youDevise.com), based in London, provides on-demand applications for financial markets. The company’s leading applications provide portfolio management for liquid and illiquid assets. They include the Trade Idea Monitor (the TIM), for the high-speed communication of equity trade ideas and portfolio ideas between institutional brokers and their money manager and hedge fund clients, and the Hedge Fund Information Provider (the HIP), the first commercially available portfolio management system for funds of hedge funds. All youDevise’ applications leverage its proprietary Information Distribution Server (IDS), which facilitates the exchange of data between different market participants.

About Key Asset Management:
Key Asset Management (http://www.keyhedge.com), with offices in London, Oslo, Stockholm, Geneva and New York, manages a range of hedge fund products for institutional and private clients. Key is a pioneer in the Fund of Hedge Funds industry, having launched, in 1990, Key Hedge Fund, Inc., a multi-strategy fund of hedge funds which has generated positive returns every year for the last 16 years.