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.
Stamford Advocate – With a new regulatory regime hanging over the industry’s head and a field of shellshocked investors looking for safety, it may seem that hedge fund managers are poised to make a rush into the mutual fund arena.
But there’s a disagreement over how many hedge fund managers will follow AQR Capital Management LLC of Greenwich and others into mutual funds.
Ben Alpert, a hedge fund analyst at Morningstar Inc., said he expects the move will be significant. But David Kabiller, founding principal and head of client strategies for AQR Capital Management, said he wouldn’t bet it will be very big.
Greenwich Time – With a new regulatory regime hanging over the industry’s head and a field of shellshocked investors looking for safety, it may seem that hedge fund managers are poised to make a rush into the mutual fund arena.
But there’s a disagreement over how many hedge fund managers will follow AQR Capital Management LLC of Greenwich and others into mutual funds.
Ben Alpert, a hedge fund analyst at Morningstar Inc., said he expects the move will be significant. But David Kabiller, founding principal and head of client strategies for AQR Capital Management, said he wouldn’t bet it will be very big.
CNN Money – AQR Capital Management LLC, among the world’s largest hedge fund managers, will introduce another hedge fund-style mutual fund next month, as it expands its reach beyond the biggest investors.
Greenwich, Connecticut-based AQR, a $20 billion firm led by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc star Cliff Asness, led a new wave of hedge funds marketing to the masses when it launched the AQR Diversified Arbitrage Fund in January.
"We, in about two weeks, expect to introduce a whole new series of style exposures for retail investors," AQR co-founder David Kabiller told Reuters in a rare interview.
St. George Daily Spectrum – According to the Center for Responsive Politics, hedge funds and private equity firms donated $2,992,456 to the Obama campaign in the 2008 cycle. Obama, vocal critic of the campaign finance practice known as "bundling," accepted more than $200,000 in bundled contributions from billionaire hedge-fund manager James Torrey, more than $100,000 in bundled contributions from billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Tudor Jones and more than $50,000 in bundled contributions from billionaire hedge-fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin, chief executive officer of Citadel Investment Group in Chicago.
In an extraordinarily candid open letter to Obama, hedge-fund manager Cliff Asness defended his industry from the president’s "backwards and libelous" charges. "Managers have a fiduciary obligation to look after their clients’ money as best they can, not to support the president, nor to oppose him, nor otherwise advance their political views," Asness wrote. He has oversight of some $20 billion at AQR Capital Management, LLC, which is not involved in the Chrysler case.
Reuters – Prominent hedge fund manager Clifford Asness has struck back at the Obama administration, saying hedge funds had the right and responsibility to hold out on last week’s Chrysler LLC restructuring deal.
"Managers have a fiduciary obligation to look after their clients’ money as best they can, not to support the President, nor to oppose him, nor otherwise advance their political views," Asness, who oversees about $20 billion at AQR Capital Management, LLC wrote in an undated letter.
