Opalesque

By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London: 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 Goldman Sachs (UCITS L/S US equities); Natural Capital (green); RWC Partners (US L/S funds); Bookbinder Capital (green); Magister Ludi Capital (global macro); TrueBeta (rules-driven); ADM; ACG (Japan market neutral); and probably SRM Global. Polygon closed its Global Opportunities fund and is raising money for two new hedge funds.

Amber Capital Investment Management got back its assets from Lehman Brothers’ prime-brokerage unit and plans to return about $600m, or 60% of its hedge funds’s NAV to investors; UK hedge fund Lansdowne Partners stopped accepting investments in its flagship fund; RAB Capital reported H1 loss of $4.5m with AUM down $600m and said clients are returning to some hedge funds; Martin Currie Investment attained conformity with the Hedge Fund Standards Board’s (HFSB) best practices for hedge fund managers; and Nicola Horlick is rumoured to be seeking to regain influence at Bramdean Alternatives.

The following trends were noted: Hedged mutual funds (HMFs) may be a dominant trend in the next hedge fund industry cycle; 20 out of 22 hedge fund managers interviewed by Moonraker Fund Management in the U.S. are buying gold to protect their personal wealth against excessive inflation; and “position calibration” is becoming a source of alpha.

For full story: http://www.opalesque.com/53839/Review_of_hedge_fund_launches_closures_trends839.html

By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London: 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 Centaurus (event-driven); Tribridge (special sits); Instinct Capital (Japan); DS Credit Strategies (ABS); TKNG Capital (global macro); Golden Hedge Umbrella (multi-strats); GLG (long-only FoHFs); Silkstone Capital (E.M.); and AGS Capital (PIPE, fixed income, reserve equity).

The Lyxor investable index was flat in June (+2.2% YTD); the Eurekahedge Hedge funds Index was up 0.2% (9.54% YTD); the Parker FX Index was down 0.25% (0.19 YTD); and the Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index posted its largest quarterly increase (9.25%), -0.20% in June, 8.93% YTD, with estimated asset flows of -$1,350.6m in May; HFR found that the hedge fund industry assets had surged as performance was leading to an industry recovery, assets invested in the hedge fund industry had increased by $100bn in Q2-2009, which ended at $1.43tln.

Revere Capital Advisors, an investment group focused on emerging hedge funds managers, announced the re-launch of San Francisco global macro manager Bayswater A.M.; Union Bancaire Privee (UBP) may turn 70% of its underlying hedge fund investments into highly liquid managed accounts.

Swiss hedge fund Jabre Capital eased its redemptions terms; Abbey restructured its Global Macro Fund to offer investors weekly liquidity; Dutch FoHFs manager Attica is letting investors subscribe and redeem again from its flagship fund; Howard Marks, the chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, joined the rallying cry against sky-high fees paid to managers of hedge funds in a recent letter to clients; London hedge fund Polar Capital Partners imposed an innovative fee on investors withdrawing from one of its funds to help cover any losses to the portfolio; NYC Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers removed the provisions of gates and side-pockets from its flagship fund.

Full story: http://www.opalesque.com/AMW/50/Review_of_hedge_fund_launches_closures_trends50.html

One of U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s initiative, called the Public-Private Investment Program, or PPIP, has lost momentum, reported the Wall Street Journal on Monday, as big banks are worried about having to sell at fire-sale prices while small banks fear they would be shut out. Potential buyers balk at the risk of doing business with the government, concerned that politicians might demonize them for making big profits (coverage).

On March 23, 2009, the FDIC, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury announced the Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets – which is designed to provide liquidity for toxic assets on the balance sheets of financial institutions. It is part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as implemented by Geithner. The major stock market indexes in the U.S. rallied on the day of the announcement.

PPIP has two parts, addressing both the legacy loans (which has since been postponed) and legacy securities (which is apparently still going ahead). The funds are meant to come from TARP monies, private investors, and from loans from the Federal Reserve’s Term Asset Lending Facility (TALF).

Large banks, which had positive revenues in Q1-2009 (some say partly due to the relaxation of the mark-to-market rules of FAS 157) and managed to raise significant capital through sales and share offerings, do not seem overly keen on participating.

Earlier this month, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton Investments, Invesco, PIMCO and Western Asset Management were reportedly among the candidates to run funds for the legacy securities portion of the PPIP. Blackrock last month claimed in a release: “the PPIP is one of the most important initiatives recently launched by the government and one that should, over time, help stabilize the banking system.” Bloomberg.com has just confirmed that the Treasury Department was set to name 8 to 10 asset managers for the PPIP this week . Once the asset managers have signed deals with Treasury, they each will be expected to raise at least $500m of private capital within 12 weeks.

Read full article here: http://www.opalesque.com/53173/New_York_Roundtable_HF_managers_are_afraid173.html

The full 33 page Opalesque NY Roundtable can be downloaded here for free (select Roundtable subscription):  http://www.opalesque.com/RT/RoundtableNY2009.html