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HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – International hedge fund manager and Swiss banking group, SYZ & CO, has acquired 50% of the asset management company owned by Spanish alternative investment group N+1.
The joint venture, named “N+1 SYZ Gestión”, will provide asset management services to high level clients in Spain, providing discretionary or advisory mandates for large family groups or institutional clients, as well as for investment funds and funds of hedge funds.
“As has been the case in Italy, we have preferred entering into a partnership with a solid and well-established local partner. This enables us to provide offerings that are adapted to the specific nature of the local market”, said Alfredo Piacentini, Managing Partner at Banque SYZ & CO. “We are particularly satisfied with our partnership with N+1, a group we have known for many years, and with which we share the same vision and values.”
“The Spanish asset management market is in the midst of dramatic change and today there is real demand for high level international asset management expertise; our alliance with SYZ & CO will enable us to successfully meet this demand”, said Santiago Eguidazu, N+1’s President. “SYZ & CO enjoys a strong reputation in the Spanish market and there are strong synergies between our two asset management groups.”
N+1 Group company currently has approximately CHF 400million ($353 million) in assets under management. The transaction is subject to approval by the CNMV, the Spanish financial markets regulatory authority.
SYZ & CO’s total assets under management now exceed CHF 20bn ($18.6 billion).
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Reuters – Hedge funds using technical indicators are likely to fare better in the next two years than those purely basing their strategy on economic fundamentals, a survey of around 200 investors showed on Wednesday.
The survey of asset managers, institutions, and high net worth investors at the Global Alternative Investment Management (GAIM) Fund of Funds conference in Geneva showed 36 percent saw such trading-based strategies set to outperform in 2009-2010.
These strategies generally use technical indicators or a combination of technical and fundamental indicators to make short or medium-term bets on market movements.
Long/short equity strategies were chosen by 16.7 percent. Long/short managers vary their overall market exposure via long positions in those equities that they expect to outperform the broader market and short positions in those expected to underperform.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge funds measured by both the Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index ("GGHFI") and the Greenwich Composite Investable Index ("GI2") significantly outperformed equity indices despite posting their greatest losses since August 1998 during September.
"It was a perfect storm for both credit/equity markets and hedge funds in September," said Thomas Whelan, Greenwich CEO, "The already deflated values of financial firms provided the perfect trap for value investors while government intervention limited the ability of hedge funds to effectively mitigate their risk. Simultaneously, the continued freezing of credit markets combined with investor redemptions forced fixed-income funds to liquidate or otherwise mark down assets at depressed prices. The results of the market turmoil and unpredictable regulatory environment are evident in their returns this month."
Long/Short Equity managers fared better than both US and foreign equity markets during the month, but still were subject to unpredictable market movements, losing -6.69%. Both Growth and Value funds struggled to find profitable trades, returning -8.16% and -7.05%, respectively. Short Selling managers by contrast enjoyed their most profitable month this year, advancing +9.27% on average. Year-to-date, Short Selling funds have gained 17% and remain the best performing subsector of hedge fund strategies.
Market Neutral funds were not immune to market forces during September, as they felt the effects of dysfunctional credit markets, declining -4.49%.
Despite the marked weakness in hedge funds in September, not all hedge fund strategy groups moved lower for the month. Directional Trading funds advanced by +0.51% on average, led by Futures managers who capitalized on declining commodity values. Macro managers did not fare as well, losing -3.62% on the month.
Specialty Strategy managers were the weakest performing strategy group for the month of September, with funds losing -7.33% on average. Emerging Markets funds were once again the main reason behind the losses as these managers shed nearly 10% during the month.
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New York Post – Despite headlines about hedge funds that got decimated after making complicated bets on mortgages or energy, the most basic investment strategy of picking which stocks will rise and which will fall – known as long-short equity strategy – is turning out to be one that’s giving hedge-fund managers fits.
Indeed, hedge funds are finding that today’s choppy markets are proving to be tougher to navigate than the terrible years following the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. And it helps to explain why so many hedge funds have called it quits and instead are moving into cash.
The hedge-fund industry is seeing its worst results in recent memory, down an average of 4.09 percent year-to-date, according to the Hennessee Hedge Fund Index. Long-short equity funds, rarely expected to be losers, are nevertheless down 3.2 percent for the year.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Baer Capital has announced the launch of their new fund that invests in Indian equities, distressed debt and derivatives, further propelling Dubai’s prominence in the hedge fund industry. The Beacon India Alpha Equity Fund is the latest fund aimed at capitalizing on India’s emerging markets.
‘We are extremely excited about the launch of the Beacon India Alpha Equity Fund which is a long short equity fund focused on listed Indian equities and managed by Baer Capital Partners International Ltd,” said Brij Singh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Baer Capital Partners. “The Beacon India Alpha Equity Fund is an integral part of our mission to create a ‘Best in Class’ alternative asset management platform focused on India.”
This is the second hedge fund for Baer, who also manages a $220 million private equity fund centering on opportunities in India. Norton Rose (Middle East) LLP has advised Baer on both the structure of the private equity fund and the hedge fund. Baer isn’t the only company captivated by the potential of India. Donald Trump Jr. just recently launched a fund focused on acquiring luxury properties in the subcontinent.
In addition, big players in the hedge fund arena like D.E. Shaw, Renaissance Technologies and Och-Ziff Capital Management have already established their presence in the Indian market.
Baer Capital Partners was established in 2006 and focuses on investment management, corporate finance and wealth advisory.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@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! Be sure to check out our sister sites. For more information, visit www.hedgeconetworks.com
New York, July 8, 2008 — The Absolute Return New Funds Survey, published in the July/August issue of Absolute Return magazine, shows that new hedge fund launches this year in the Americas totaled $19.5 billion, with the top five funds amassing $13.7 billion, for more than 70% of the total. The number of fund launches is down 50% from last year, highlighting the growing barriers to entry for start-up managers and indicating that large capital flows are continuing to go to established, brand-name firms.
According to Absolute Return, 35 new funds began trading with a total of $19.5 billion between January 1 and June 30, 2008. That’s significantly more capital than in the same period in 2007, when 72 new funds launched with $14 billion. This year, five funds were formed with more than $1 billion each, in contrast to three funds that managed to surpass the billion-dollar mark in last year’s first half. Long/short equity funds dominated, followed by funds that invest in mortgaged-backed securities and those pursuing distressed strategies.
The survey also reported that Goldman Sachs Asset Management amassed $8.1 billion of the $19.5 billion total with $7 billion in its Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, an equity long/short fund, and $1.1 billion in Goldman Mortgage Credit Opportunities. The second-largest launch was Conatus Capital Management’s Conatus Capital Partners fund, which had $2.3 billion. Other sizeable launches included Lone Pine Capital’s $1.8 billion emerging markets fund, Lone Dragon Pine Fund, and Highliner Investment Group’s Alyeska Fund, a market-neutral fund that ended the first half with $1.5 billion.
Total assets under management in the hedge fund industry are $2.65 trillion, according to HedgeFund Intelligence.
About Absolute Return
Absolute Return is the leading source of U.S. hedge fund news and information featuring proprietary data and analysis on more than 3,000 single-manager hedge funds in the Americas. Absolute Return, a monthly magazine, and the Absolute Return Directory and Database, are divisions of HedgeFund Intelligence, a global provider of hedge fund news and data. For more information, please visit www.hedgefundintelligence.com/ar/
FINalternatives- Bedrock Alternative Asset Management in May launched its Global Diversified Fund, a fund of funds covering private equity, hedge funds, real estate and commodities, combined with traditional stock and bond investments.
The fund will invest in a 15 to 25 underlying hedge fund managers, with exposure to event-driven, long/short equity, managed futures, global macro distressed, volatility and emerging markets strategies. Some 70% of its portfolio was weighted toward hedge funds, followed by equities (19%) and cash (8.4%). The firm is limiting its p.e. and real estate exposure to no more than 15% and commodities at 10%.
The US$65 million fund finished its first month of trading up an estimated 0.68%. Its hedge funds sub-portfolio was the strongest contributor to its performance in May, providing almost two-thirds of its gains, according to the firm.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net)- Investcorp’s hedge fund co-managers said they have raised over $2 billion for their Single Manager Platform. Debuted in 2005, the platform supports emerging talent in the hedge fund industry.
Deepak Gurnani, managing director and co-head of hedge funds said, "Reaching the $2 billion milestone is a testament to the quality of the managers who have partnered with us."
"We’ve tailored the program to the interests of sophisticated institutional investors that want to diversify their hedge fund holdings by including the industry’s rising stars in their portfolios," Ibrahim Gharghour, managing director and co-head of hedge funds added.
Investcorp provides between $50 million and $100 million in seed capital to the managers along with support for marketing and ongoing risk monitoring to avoid style-drift and other operational concerns. Investcorp’s hedge funds team of more than 100 professionals oversees approximately $8 billion in assets under management, of which approximately $2 billion is proprietary capital.
The Single Manager Platform is part of Investcorp’s larger suite of hedge fund solutions, which includes fund of funds, customized portfolios and structured products. Today, it has more than 30 institutional investors in the platform, which comprises six managers with a range of investing strategies.
The six managers currently in the program are Cura Capital Management, a fixed income relative value manager based in New York, Interlachen Capital Group, a multi-strategy firm based in Minneapolis, Silverback Asset Management, a convertible arbitrage focused management firm based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Stoneworks Asset Management, a global macro investment platform based in London, Washington Corner Capital Management, a distressed and credit-based investment platform based in Florham Park, New Jersey and WMG Asia, an Asian long/short equity strategy management firm based in Hong Kong.
Hank Murphy is the head of development for the Single Manager Platform.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – New York hedge fund Manhasset Capital will start the liquidation process later this month after the decision was made by the fund’s seeder to pull out their $100 million initial investment.
A spokesperson for Fairfield stated, ““As part of a normal rebalancing of capital, FGG has indeed decided to close its co-branded single manager fund, Fairfield Manhasset Offshore Fund Ltd., which we created as part of an agreement with Manhasset Capital Management. However, we cannot comment on any of Manhasset Capital’s choices; they run their own business and have their own investors, and it would be incorrect to state that FGG had caused Manhasset’s current or future decisions.”
Fairfield Greenwich Group, who seeded Manhasset’s offshore fund and had a three-year profit sharing agreement with the firm, decided to pull out just a month and a half after the agreement expired on May 1st. Manhasset ran an onshore fund as well, which engaged in a long/short equity strategy and focused on mid-cap U.S stocks. Total assets of both funds were around $165 million.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@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! Be sure to check out our sister sites. For more information, visit www.hedgeconetworks.com
Money Management- Despite tightening credit conditions, hedge funds are continuing to gain favour, with the latest Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index up 2 per cent in May.
The president of Credit Suisse Index Company, Oliver Schupp, said the index had been up in circumstances where hedge funds had continued to generate positive performance across strategies.
“We estimate that each of the 10 hedge fund sectors will end May with gains for the month, with long/short equity being the highest performing sector,” he said.
West Palm Beach (Hedgeco.net)- The Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index(GGHFI)reported May returns of +2.01% while the Greenwich Composite Investable Index returned +1.66%. The May Index currently includes 1345 constituent funds.
By comparison, the S&P 500 showed gains of +1.29%, while MSCI World Equity and FTSE 100 indices posted returns of +1.11% and -0.56%.
"Across the board, hedge funds performed well in May. But the real story is told when comparing year-to-date performance," notes Margaret Gilbert, Managing Director. "Hedge funds are positive for the year compared to the major equity indices which still remain negative."
For the second month in a row, Long/Short Equity managers were the best performing strategy group, posting a gain of +2.35%. Directional Trading managers, the best performing strategy group so far this year, exhibited another strong month, returning +2.00%.
Specialty Strategy managers were the second-best performing strategy group, returning +2.10% on average. The Market Neutral Group averaged +1.39% on the month as Event Driven managers continued to find opportunities in uncertain markets.
Asian Investor – The Shaka Japan fund has been launched in New York by hedge fund manager Shaka Capital Management. It is a new start-up, launched in January of this year with partners’ capital, and has an estimated capacity of $1 billion.
Arif Imam is Shaka’s business manager and is a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, responsible for global distribution of Japanese equities.
The portfolio manager is Alexandre de Bethmann who formerly worked at Federated Global and TIAA-CREF.
Shaka’s trader is Douglas Butcher, who was also a managing director at Morgan Stanley where he handled client trading for Japanese equities.
Target return is 12-15% per year on a Sharpe Ratio of 1.2 to 1.5. It is a Japan-only long/short equity fund concentrating on the top 250 stocks in that market. The focus on large-cap stocks is in part because of the very liquid state of the short borrow that lends to running a truly efficient hedged fund.
