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.
British asset manager Blue Crest is winding down its Specialty Asset Finance Fund after losses and redemptions forced the fund to close many positions at a heavy loss, sources familiar with the fund told Reuters.
BlueCrest declined to comment on the fund.
Three industry sources said the fund, which had assets of $200 million late last year, is one of many using an asset based lending (ABL) Strategy to be vexed by redemptions this year, with leveraged funds such as BlueCrest’s hit particularly hard.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - BK Communications Group (BKCG) today announced a strategic partnership with James Velgot, a Wall Street visual communications pioneer who was most recently Director of Global Branding at AllianceBernstein. Velgot will offer his brand identity and visual communications expertise on a consulting basis, as part of BKCG’s best-of-breed team of strategic partners that complements the firm’s services.
BKCG provides comprehensive solutions for investment managers’ marketing and client communications efforts – helping firms in the areas of message development and materials creation in every medium from pitchbooks to investor communications to websites, as well as presentation coaching.
“This partnership strengthens our ability to provide our clients with a suite of tools for more successful capital raising and client retention,” said Kevin Kasper, one of BKCG’S Principals. “Jim Velgot’s expertise is a great match with ours, and it’s a proven combination.” Kasper was referring to successful client engagements already completed or under way by BKCG with Velgot as strategic partner, including high-end deliverables for a global alternative asset manager and a prominent boutique service provider.
“Jim represents a very unusual combination of project management skills and visual creativity,” observed Eric Brand, a Principal of BKCG. “I know from the inside, having worked closely with him on many successful projects at AllianceBernstein – some of which are still in use today.”
James Velgot’s 25-year career has been dedicated to fostering next-generation visual communications, building one of Wall Street’s most respected design capabilities and overseeing global rebranding at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co./AllianceBernstein. Now a successful consultant for investment managers as well as such icons as the Manhattan Institute and the New York Historical Society, Velgot provides brand identity and communications consultation across the entire spectrum of delivery media – including print, web, interactive media, satellite broadcasting, and multi-language live webcasting.
The client engagements on which BKCG and James Velgot are collaborating join a growing roster for BKCG, which has seen an enthusiastic response from the investment management industry since its founding in January 2009. The demand for greater transparency and the need to cut costs are driving more and more investment managers and service providers to outsource their marketing and client service communications. BKCG’s experience, expertise, and scalability represent a compelling solution.
The firm plans to continue to add top-tier strategic partners to its team in response to client demand.
Editing by Alex Akesson
For HedgeCo.Net Email: alex@hedgeco.net
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Bloomberg – Colonial First State, Australia’s biggest asset manager, may seek an alliance with a hedge fund to offer customers a strategy capable of profiting in rising or falling markets.
The manager of about A$130 billion ($103 billion) has A$4 billion of client money in five boutique funds. Sydney-based Colonial started the alliance business in 2002 to broaden the range of strategies offered and has tie-ups with firms such as the Al Gore-backed Generation Investment Management LLP.
“We don’t have anyone who specializes in absolute returns,” Graham Hand, Colonial’s general manager of funding and alliances, said in an interview in Sydney. “If we can get the right idea working, that would compliment what we’re doing. So we’re looking at a few possible deals in that space.”
Reuters – UK asset manager Bramdean Alternatives named Petersfield Asset Management Limited on Tuesday, as the bidder to rival the proposal by property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz’s investment vehicle, Elsina, to oust its current board.
Bramdean said in a statement that Petersfield Asset Management Limited, is beneficially owned by Nicola Horlick, who founded Bramdean Alternatives in 2005.
Financial Post – Barclays PLC, the U.K.’s third-largest bank, is in talks with BlackRock Inc. and other bidders to sell its asset management division for more than US$10-billion.
BlackRock, the world’s biggest publicly traded asset manager, is the leading contender to buy Barclays Global Investors, people familiar with the situation said June 6. London-based Barclays has also held talks about selling BGI to Bank of New York Mellon Corp, the people added. The bank is seeking more than US$12-billion for the unit, and may keep a 20% stake in the merged company, one of the people said.
Retaining a stake "is an intelligent way to structure the deal," said Danny Clarke, a Liverpool-based analyst at Capital Group PLC, who has a "hold" rating on Barclays. "It strikes a balance between short and long-term goals, boosting capital and retaining some earnings."
Reuters UK – Pension fund manager Hermes has called for a shake-up of the hedge fund industry, demanding greater transparency and fee structures closer aligned to performance.
The asset manager, which runs BT’s giant pension fund, said it wanted to set up an action committee to help drive through reforms on disclosure.
"I believe that hedge funds want to do the right thing," Matteo Dante Perruccio, head of Hermes’ hedge fund arm, told The Sunday Times.
Bloomberg – Abax Global Capital Ltd., a Hong Kong-based asset manager part-owned by Morgan Stanley, plans to open a hedge fund backed by Tudor Investment Corp. to outside investors for the first time.
The Abax Dymon Asia Macro Fund, which started with $113 million in August 2008, seeks to profit from regional economic trends. The fund will have a “clawback” arrangement under which half of the 20 percent performance fee earned is repaid to investors if the fund loses money in the next year.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Alternative asset manager, Duet Group, has launched the first Middle East and North Africa (MENA) multistrategy hedge fund "Duet MENA Opportunities Fund". The new fund will target both equity and fixed income markets in the MENA region and will be managed by Duet MENA Limited, a DIFC licensed asset manager.
Rabih Sultani, Chief Investment Officer, will manage the fund under the leadership of Hedi Ben Mlouka, Chief Executive Officer of Duet MENA. Rabih brings over 9 years of fund management and research experience across equities and fixed income.
"The investment team has one of the longest established track records in the Middle East." Hedi Ben Mlouka said, "The current unfolding crisis has created unprecedented opportunities in global markets. Such opportunities appear to be even more eye-catching in the MENA region, and we, Duet Group, are well positioned to take advantage of these prospects for our clients. I am pleased to announce that Duet’s commitment to the Middle East has led to the allocation of significant capital to the fund from existing shareholders and clients".
The new hedge fund will deploy three main investment strategies: Conviction, Relative Arbitrage and Opportunistic trading. These will be premised on pricing dislocations and valuation imbalances that are created from time to time under the influence of economic, political and capital flow factors.
The hedge fund manager has $2 billion of equity under management and their flagship hedge fund ‘Duet Global Opportunities Fund’ was awarded Best Equity Market Neutral Fund of the year in 2007 by Euro Hedge and HFM.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Bloomberg – FRM Capital Advisors Ltd., a unit of London-based asset manager Financial Risk Management Ltd., plans to make as much as $300 million of strategic investments in hedge funds this year, including its first in Asia.
FRM Capital may invest in six more managers in 2009, with two expected by June and its first Asian deal in the third quarter, Chief Operating Officer Patric de Gentile-Williams said. The London-based company makes strategic investments in hedge funds for two to four years in exchange for a share of their fee incomes for as long as 10 years.
Record losses and redemptions have cut hedge funds’ assets and fee revenue, making them more reliant on so-called seeders like FRM Capital. Some investment banks, insurers and private equity houses have exited the hedge fund seeding business amid the credit crisis, said de Gentile-Williams.
Bloomberg - Pengana Capital Ltd., a Sydney- based asset manager that oversees A$1.5 billion ($1.1 billion), aims to increase the amount of hedge fund assets that bet on market swings by six times in two years.
Pengana is seeking to grow assets managed by its Chicago- based volatility team to $2.5 billion from about $420 million currently, Russel Pillemer, co-founder and chief executive officer, said in an interview yesterday. Pengana’s Global Volatility Master Fund returned 19.3 percent last year, while the hedge fund industry fell an average 19 percent.
Bloomberg – Hari Kumar, a founding partner of New York-based asset manager TPG-Axon Capital Management LP, is starting his own hedge fund with $75 million of initial capital from him and a partner, said two people familiar with the plan.
LionRock Capital Pte, based in Singapore, will begin investing June 1 with the money from Kumar and Julian Snaith, the people said. The multistrategy fund will focus on trading Asia-Pacific stocks, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public.
LionRock may raise capital from external investors at a later date, though the timing and terms haven’t been decided, they added. Kumar and Snaith declined to comment when reached through e-mail.
Washington Post – About half a dozen investment managers have put forward bids, ranging between $400 million to $800 million, for troubled insurer American International Group’s asset management business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Private equity firms Ashmore Investment Management, Hellman & Friedman LLC, Rhone Group and TA Associates as well as mutual fund manager Franklin Templeton and asset manager Southgate Alternative Investments are among those who have shown interest, the Journal said in a report on its website.
