Opalesque

The French hedge fund industry currently manages around €7bn (US$9.8bn) – compared to €20bn ($28bn) before the credit crisis started – said Paris-based UFG Group’s president Xavier Lépine to AFP last week.

Sophie van Straelen, managing director of the advisory firm Asterias Ltd, a management consultant specializing in the French, Spanish and Italian hedge fund industry, told Opalesque the credit crisis had led to the disappearance of a number of direct managers in France and a sharp drop in AuM.

Around 450 funds (including active monetary funds) are managed in France, 144 of which being single-manager hedge funds. There are around 100 hedge fund managers in France (half of which manage single-manger funds) who ran €11bn as at end-Sept-08. The assets have gone down since, to around €7bn in March 2009 – compared to €39bn in September 2007. The ‘Asterias Survey France 2009’ states that 40% of the decrease in assets was due to the absence of several managers – who had to discontinue their funds.

Full story: http://www.opalesque.com/53517/French_hedge_funds_are_recovering_too_after517.html

A roundup of last week’s hedge fund launches, closures, index performance, trends, regulatory, legal and financial events pertaining to the alternative investments world.

Last week, we heard of fund launches from PCE Investors (liquid macro); FX Concepts (currency UCITS); Minsen, Shangya, Huiding Zixia (domestic China); Ospraie (equity + commodity); Differential Investment Partners; Rydex SGI (L/S commodity); Thames River (Africa); Sabre (managed futures); and Blacksquare (UCITs FoFs).

As for start-ups, a former Morgan Stanley team set up a company under the umbrella of Dutch global macro fund Worldview to focus on strategic asset allocation for institutional clients; a former AIG manager launched VOC Capital in London to offer commodities futures absolute return strategies; the Active Trader Forum hedge fund hotel has started providing desks for jobless NY traders; and Ronnie Wu, CIO of Penjing Asset Management Ltd is to start a pool of money dedicated to seeding new hedge funds.

JWM Partners closed its Relative Value Opportunity II fund and JWM’s London chief Adrian Eterovic is planning a new fund.

- The Credit Suisse Alternative Index Replication indices were flat in June but positive YTD;
- Newedge CTA Index -1.77%, -4.51% YTD, Short-Term Traders Index -0.37%, -0.89% YTD;
- HFRX Absolute Return Index -1.19% (est.), -2.57% YTD;
- Hennessee’s main index +0.64%, +11.74% YTD;
- HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index +0.13% (est.), +9.41% YTD;
- Absolute Return Composite index returns +0.40% (est.), +6.30% YTD;
- Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index +0.48% (est.), +7.23% YTD;
- Eurekahedge Hedge Fund index -0.02% (est.), +9.38% YTD, asset inflows of $4bn (+0.3%) to $1.33tn;
- HedgeFund.net’s index +0.28%, +9.23% YTD, assets +0.38%, but -8% in 2009;
- Barclay Hedge Fund Index +0.63% (est.), +11.18% YTD, Barclay CTA Index -0.81% (est.), -0.74% YTD;
- And all four hedge fund strategies published by Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes posted positive returns in June.

Full story: http://www.opalesque.com/AMW/48/Review_of_hedge_fund_launches_closures_trends48.html

PCE Investors Limited, an alternative investment manager representing total assets under management of more than $1.3bn, announced today that it has launched the Gyldmark Liquid Macro Fund. Gyldmark will provide investors with exposure to a pure macro strategy by minimizing other risk factors including illiquidity of investments, lack of disclosure and redemption restrictions as well as credit, counterparty, operational and fraud risk.

Gyldmark will integrate three factors: macro fundamentals (business cycle dynamics, structural economic, social and technological shifts, government policy impact and geopolitics), market themes (commentary, research and professional press, investor perceptions and flows, and key market drivers), and technical conditions (price action, momentum and emerging trends, investor positioning and sentiment data, and stop loss and target levels), in order to identify investment opportunities. Gyldmark will invest in exchange-traded instruments, highly liquid foreign currencies and major government bond markets.

Led by an experienced team of individuals with a proven track record of delivering uncorrelated returns; Mahmood Noorani, Chief Investment Officer; Alastair Hollingdale, Portfolio Manager and George Hatjoullis, Strategist; will provide an in depth marco-economic and policy understanding drawn from their successful history of building and managing trading businesses.

Mr Noorani, formerly with BlueCrest Capital, added: “It was the events of 2008 that convinced us that now is the right time for what we want to do. Our relationship with PCE presents us with an opportunity to achieve our goals.”

Legal counsel to the fund are Dechert and Walkers. Administration is provided by PNC Global Investment Servicing and auditors are Grant Thornton.

London-based PCE realises investor value through a range of strategies managed by experienced and skilled investment professionals. PCE operates its funds through a partnership ethos whereby portfolio managers are afforded independent investment creativity, as well as economies of scale, the benefits of strong central business leadership and operational excellence. PCE Investors is part of the SW1 Capital company.

http://www.opalesque.com/53261/Hedge_fund_platform_PCE_Investors_launches_Gyldmark261.html