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.
Telegraph.co.uk – Mayor Boris Johnson will welcome guests, thought to include Tony Blair, Elton John and Jemima Khan, who have paid up to £100,000-a-table to be at the event at the former Eurostar terminal at Waterloo.
Despite being dubbed Britain’s most extravagant party, the organisers said it will be more low key.
Arpad "Arki" Busson, the French financier and chairman of the dinner’s charity Absolute Return for Kids, said: "We have cut the costs of staging the event by two-thirds and there are two-thirds less luxury lots too. We have to be reflective and respecting of the times."
Whereas in past years, Prince, Elton John and Stevie Wonder have performed, this year the entertainment will be provided by the London Chamber Orchestra.
Bloomberg – Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, the New York-based hedge-fund manager that went public last year, eliminated at least 10 jobs in Asia, including partner Raaj Shah, said two people familiar with the matter.
The cuts made last week, out of a global workforce of about 460, included employees in the firm’s credit and distressed- investment units, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t publicly announced.
“We have made some minor reductions in Asia, and we remain committed to the region,” the company said today in an e-mailed statement. Hong Kong-based Shah referred calls to the company.
Citadel Investment Group LLC, the Chicago-based firm run by Kenneth Griffin, and New York-based Ramius LLC have also laid off staff in Asia as hedge funds suffer their biggest annual loss and highest investor withdrawals since at least 1990. The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index declined 23 percent this year through Dec. 5 amid a global credit squeeze and a more than 40 percent decline in the MSCI World Index.
Bloomberg – Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. will shift more of its 11 trillion yen ($100 billion) in assets to hedge funds and scour the globe for bargains as the credit squeeze forces down prices.
Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., a unit of Japan’s biggest casualty insurer, may boost its investments in hedge funds by as much as 30 billion yen annually, said Fumihiro Nakajima, who runs the firm’s hedge fund investment group. The insurer has almost 200 billion yen in this asset class, he said.
“Our goal is to gradually increase hedge funds investments,” said Nakajima, 44, in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “In the wake of subprime loan problems, there will be an opportunity to invest in hedge funds that invest in the credit market,” including high-yield bonds and credit-default swaps.
Financial Times – Hedge funds have more than $2,900bn under management, according to a survey of valuers of their assets, sharply up on last year in spite of the credit crunch and a series of high-profile problems in the industry.
The survey of assets under administration by Hedge Fund Manager Week, a trade magazine, showed the total had jumped 20 per cent in the past year and continued to climb over the past six months even as the credit squeeze intensified.
The scale of the growth – up by $230bn in the six months to April – suggests concerns about hedge fund losses and a slowdown in flows of new money into the industry may be overstated.
However, the rate of growth is slowing, with the 9 per cent rise in the most recent six months well below the 17 per cent growth in the magazine’s last survey.
Hedge fund administrators act as independent valuers of hedge fund assets, giving investors updates and providing regulatory, legal and accounting services.
They are used by almost all European hedge funds and an increasing number of US funds, who are under pressure from investors to provide independent valuations.
Valuation practices are being closely scrutinised by regulators, with hedge funds in the UK and US setting up codes of best practice this year, with a focus on how to deal with hard-to-value assets such as private equity or structured credit.
