Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
New York (HedgeCo.net) – The manager and founder of Los Angeles-based hedge fund Wellcap Partners and regular SeekingAlpha and Huffington Post contributor has reportedly committed suicide by gunshot to the head, according to Business Insider.
Alan Schram killed himself the day after “Real Housewives” husband Russell Armstrong was found hanged, the two were friends and business associates, connected through Tiger 21, an elite group for high-net-worth investors. Neither one of the men left a suicide note.
New York (HedgeCo.net) – According to regulatory filings a former Sino-Forest Chief Executive Officer and other insiders sold C$81 million ($83 million) of shares since the end of 2006, Bloomberg reported this morning. Hedge fund firm Paulson & Co., said they have sold their shares after loosing C$462 million in June.
“Former CEO, Allen Chan, who stepped down Aug. 28 after the Ontario Securities Commission suspended trading in Sino-Forest, sold C$3 million of stock, the filings show. Kai Kit Poon, with whom Chan founded the tree-plantation company in 1992, sold more than C$30.1 million. Chief Financial Officer David Horsley sold C$11.2 million of shares. Simon Murray, a director and also chairman of Glencore International Plc, sold $10.8 million.” Bloomberg reported.
Canada’s securities regulators said that Sino-Forest, “knew or should have known” that their actions perpetuated a fraud.
“The company no longer qualifies to be a constituent of the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index. Sino-Forest will be removed from the index at zero price after the close of trading on Sept. 16.” S&P said.
South Florida Business Journal – The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein’s law firm filed a new lawsuit Monday against executives of three hedge funds that invested in Rothstein’s fraud, and their family members.
The suit seeks almost $40 million from Murray Huberfeld, Mark Nordlicht and David Bodner, their wives and three companies associated with them: Regent Capital Partners LLC, Bodner Family Foundations and SFS Capital Funding LLC.
DealBook – A former salesman at a Silicon Valley research company is set to go on trial Wednesday on insider trading charges, the latest in the federal government’s sprawling investigation.
Federal prosecutors have accused James Fleishman, who worked at Primary Global Research, a small company in Mountain View, Calif., of orchestrating the exchange of secret information between hedge fund traders and employees at companies including Dell and Advanced Micro Devices.
Business Insider – There are new revelations regarding Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher’s hedge fund Fletcher Asset Management and its claims to investors, according the Wall Street Journal.
Pension funds claim that Fletcher promised 12% returns “guaranteed” (the manager says he meant it colloquially, not in the legal definition) and said that its funds could be liquidated within weeks.
Advanced Trading – Invictus Consulting Group, LLC announced the launch of a platform designed to allow hedge funds to conduct their own stress tests on banks. The firm said the service will give banks a clear snapshot about whether a bank is over, under or fairly valued in relation to its peers.
Invictus said that hedge funds typically use algorithms to conduct bank stress tests, but the source data those algorithms rely on are often incorrect, particularly when it concerns capital and earnings.
San Francisco Chronicle – Bearish bets by hedge funds on Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures increased to the highest level since before the financial crisis three years ago, Bank of America Corp.’s Mary Ann Bartels said.
“Readings are a ‘crowded short’ for the first time since June 2008,” Bartels, the New York-based head of technical and market analysis at Bank of America, wrote in a note yesterday.
Investment News – The typical family office invests more than a quarter of its clients’ assets with hedge funds, according to an Infovest21 LLC survey of family offices released today. By comparison, advisers allocate about 1% of their clients’ assets to funds of hedge funds.
Angelo Robles, founder of the Family Office Association, which represents single family offices, said the use of hedge fund in his members’ portfolios may be even greater. He estimates portfolios may be invested 35% to 40% in hedge funds.
Forbes – As the 2012 presidential elections approach on the horizons, questions remain about which way Wall Street will lean. In particular, hedge funds and private equity funds may soon bear a serious grudge against President Obama and his Democratic Party, despite having contributed so heavily to their electoral success in 2008.
Tax increases will almost certainly play some part in the Democrats’ proposal to the bipartisan Congressional committee, when they assemble to consider the minutiae of the $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts that are required pursuant to the debt ceiling deal agreed last month between Obama and Congress.
CNN – Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s both downgraded the company’s rating further into junk territory Monday morning, and S&P completely withdrew its rating on Sino-Forest shortly after announcing the downgrade.
The ratings cuts come after Canada’s stock governing body, the Ontario Securities Commission, demanded Friday that the Toronto Stock Exchange suspend trading of shares of the commercial forest plantation company.
New York (HedgeCo.net) – Los Angeles-based multi-strategy hedge fund manager, Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC., has announced the final close of the Tennenbaum Opportunities Fund VI, LLC. With capital commitments of $530 million from new and existing limited partners, the fund will focus on discounted and debt-for-control oriented market opportunities as well as complex, directly-originated financings.
“The successful fundraising stems from our consistent performance and from investors’ confidence in our ability to execute on quality investments,” said Mark Holdsworth, Managing Partner and co-founder of TCP. “We look forward to great opportunities over the coming months.”
TCP invests primarily in private and public companies across a broad range of industries. In 2009 TCP raised $454 million through its DIP Opportunity Fund, LLC, bringing its two-year fundraising total to approximately $1 billion. Since its founding, TCP has invested approximately $10 billion in almost 200 companies where the Firm can play a meaningful role.
“We are very pleased with the support we received from new and existing investors,” said Howard Levkowitz, Managing Partner and co-founder of TCP. “Many of the world’s most sophisticated institutional investors have chosen to invest with us and we are excited to continue working on behalf of our investors.”
Limited partners in the Fund include both public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, other financial institutions, foundations, endowments, family offices and high net worth individuals.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP served as Fund counsel while Greenhill & Co., LLC served as the Fund’s exclusive global placement agent.
Editing by Alex Akesson
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New York (HedgeCo.net) – Billionaire hedge fund manager Philip Falcone’s new satellite internet venture, LightSquared, and mobile satellite communications provider, Inmarsat, announced that they have coordinated resources to ensure that emergency services customers have reliable access to essential satellite communications to support their Hurricane Irene relief efforts.
“Given the tremendous impact Hurricane Irene has had on the east coast of the United States, it is vital that first responders have unfettered access to reliable communications,” said Sanjiv Ahuja, chairman and chief executive officer of LightSquared. “LightSquared, working with Inmarsat, is committed to ensuring that those on the front lines of this national emergency have seamless connectivity with one another.”
“During emergencies such as Hurricane Irene, reliable satellite communications is essential for emergency responders and government agencies,” said Andrew Sukawaty, chairman and chief executive officer of Inmarsat. “Together with LightSquared we have moved rapidly to ensure that we have sufficient capacity to support emergency management agencies and first responders.”
The deployment and operation of LightSquared’s network represent more than $14 billion of private investment over the next eight years. For the year ended 31 December 2010, Inmarsat plc had total revenue of $1,171.6 million.
New York (HedgeCo.net) – The manager and founder of Los Angeles-based hedge fund Wellcap Partners and regular SeekingAlpha and Huffington Post contributor has reportedly committed suicide by gunshot to the head, according to Business Insider.
