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.
Herald – When you think about future financial stability, ask yourself this contrarian question: Why is it that the nefarious hedge funds, supposedly the bad boys of the financial world, actually came through last year’s crisis in relatively good shape?
It was widely predicted that these funds, which invest huge pools of capital for their wealthy clients, would have a crackup like that of the regulated banks. Some did go under, but the general catastrophe never happened. Why? The answer partly is that the hedge funds still had to live by the old capitalist rules: There was no lender of last resort to bail them out. So these unregulated managers turned out to be more cautious than the regulated ones.
BBC News – The UK has “particular difficulties” regulating hedge funds “to put it politely”, Mr Steinbrueck told the weekly German news magazine.
“There clearly is a lobby in London that wants to defend its competitive advantage tooth and claw,” Mr Steinbrueck told Stern magazine. Germany and France have led calls for more restrictions on banks, which have been resisted by the US and UK.
Evening Standard – Jim Chanos said that Mr Brown, while Chancellor of the Exchequer, was given a briefing that predicted banks were in dire danger – more than a year before the crisis hit last year.
Mr Chanos, who made his name correctly predicting the downfall of Enron, said that Mr Brown and other G7 finance ministers were told of the “canary in the coal mine” but chose to carry on regardless.
Reuters – Early-stage investors in hedge funds should not be too greedy when negotiating with start-ups or it may hit their own investment, warns Man Investments, which this week agreed a short-term deal with an Asian start-up fund.
Net outflows of $300 billion between October and June, and the closure of the seeding operations of some banks, specialist funds and large hedge funds, have tipped the balance in favor of investors willing to back small funds.
Some seed investors now say conditions are fantastic for their strategy, allowing them good access to the best funds, often on favorable terms or by committing less capital.
Bloomberg – President Barack Obama sent Congress his plan to rein in the $592 trillion over-the-counter derivatives industry, a measure that would cut into a profitable market for banks led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The proposal issued yesterday would pressure derivatives users such as banks and hedge funds to move away from opaque customized contracts by imposing higher capital and margin requirements on the instruments. Standardized derivatives would be moved to regulated exchanges or trading platforms and sent through official clearinghouses, according to the draft measure.
Times Online – A group of banks that financed the £450 million leveraged buy-out (LBO) of car wash group IMO will take control of the struggling business leaving a rival group of hedge fund investors with nothing.
In a High Court decision that lawyers say will damage hedge funds’ interests in dozens of ailing private equity deals, a judge awarded 100 per cent of IMO’s equity to the banks, led by HBOS.
The hedge funds, which also lent money to back the 2006 buy-out, argued that they were entitled to some equity in the business, which is being restructured after defaulting on its debts in March.
Caribbean Net News – The UK Serious Fraud Office is investigating sales of credit-default swaps and structured-finance products, including collateralized debt obligations, prior to the credit crisis, following up an earlier investigation into a hedge fund and a related British Virgin Islands-registered company.
The SFO is looking into whether banks sold such products with flawed valuations, said Sam Jaffa, a spokesman for the government agency in London. No specific companies or credit rating agencies have been targeted under the investigation, he said.
“We’re looking generically at what might give us a cause for concern or a possible lead for finding out more,” Jaffa said in an e-mail Monday. “There’s no suggesting that across- the-board valuations were flawed. However, how valuations are arrived at, what is bundled into the funds and how they were sold are areas of interest.”
Bloomberg – The U.K. Serious Fraud Office is investigating sales of structured-finance products such as credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations prior to the global financial crisis.
The SFO is looking into whether banks that sold the products knew that valuations were flawed, SFO spokesman Sam Jaffa said today. Jaffa said no specific companies have been targeted as part of the investigation.
“It’s one of those red flag areas that we’re looking at,” Jaffa said.
Bloomberg – Geneva banks, which began investing client money in funds of hedge funds during the 1960s, are struggling to rebuild the business after market losses and Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme cut assets by 72 percent.
The assets of funds of funds managed from Geneva slumped to $15 billion in May from $54.2 billion at the end of 2007, according to data compiled by Singapore-based Eurekahedge Pte. Almost 25 percent of the 227 funds operating in the city at the end of last year shut in the first five months of 2009 and only six opened, less than a fifth of the 2008 number.
Barron – President Obama took credit Wednesday for the recovery in the financial markets while at the same time decrying Wall Street’s profits and the big bonuses that will be paid out as a result.
In his prime-time news conference, Obama said that if shaming those on Wall Street who take home multi-billion-dollar bonuses doesn’t work, he vowed to make sure shareholders of those companies were made aware of the compensation being doled out.
In the absence of "remorse" of Wall Streeters for raking in big paychecks once again, the president said financial regulatory reform would be necessary to prevent banks from taking risks that he said caused the financial crisis necessitating government bailouts.
Bloomberg – Geneva banks, which began investing client money in funds of hedge funds during the 1960s, are struggling to rebuild the business after market losses and Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme cut assets by 72 percent.
The assets of funds of funds managed from Geneva slumped to $15 billion in May from $54.2 billion at the end of 2007, according to data compiled by Singapore-based Eurekahedge Pte. Almost 25 percent of the 227 funds operating in the city at the end of last year shut in the first five months of 2009 and only six opened, less than a fifth of the 2008 number.
The Guardian – Value of assets held by the world’s sovereign wealth funds fell to $3 trillion this year from $3.6 trillion at end-2007 as the credit crisis nearly halved their equity portfolio, according to Deutsche Bank.
The German bank’s report on state-owned investment funds also highlighted their positive long-term prospects, with their total assets under management likely to more than double to $7 trillion in the next 10 years.
Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), which have replaced hedge funds and private equity as major movers of corporate mergers and acquisitions, have taken a dent in their wealth after pouring $80 billion into major banks just before the credit crisis escalated into major market turmoil.
