CityWire.co.uk- Punch-drunk investors have – perhaps a little predictably – interpreted the news as Paulson preparing to call the bottom of the market. And it is certainly an interesting development from the man widely considered to be the ‘greatest’ financial speculator since George Soros.

Some words of caution, though. All of today’s reports explicitly stress that the launch of the fund is not yet a forgone conclusion – a deliberate message that almost certainly emanates from the great man himself.

Like many others before him, Paulson appears to be using the media to test investor appetite for such a fund (so much cheaper and quicker than marketing or one-to-one meetings).

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Tags: benchmarks, credit-strategies, first-avenue, investment-partners, martin-currie, medallion, papua-new-guinea, pzena

Independant- European Union Financial Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has defended hedge funds in relation to the fallout from the US subprime mortgage market collapse.

The move comes in tandem with a report commissioned by French President Nicolas Sarkozy which states that France should join a German initiative asking the European Union’s executive arm to propose measures boosting hedge fund transparency.

Berlin has been pushing for the creation of a code of conduct for hedge funds within the group of Eight club of industrialised nations, even though regulators show little appetite for imposing tougher rules on the industry. Mr McCreevy is considered a general critic of regulation in financial markets.

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Tags: 163, benchmarks, carnage, credit-default-swap, cross-border, invoices, ivey, macdonald, repercussions

Thomson Financial- BH Global Ltd., the second fund of hedge funds feeder fund to be floated by Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, said it has raised $1 billion from its initial public offering in London, twice the amount expected.

Lord Turnbull, BH Global Chairman said, "To have raised $1 billion in these markets is a great result and certainly beyond our initial target of $500 million… This result clearly demonstrates investor appetite for high quality closed-ended funds." The company placed 70.8 million shares and also has an over-allotment option of up to $100 million, which is exercisable until June 22.

Its IPO comprised about 36.39 million U.S. dollar shares, about 11.24 million euro shares and about 23.19 million sterling shares — priced at $10, 10 euros and 10 pounds per share.

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Tags: 100-million, benchmarks, da-vinci, farmland, finance, first-avenue, global-coordinator, high-performance, london-interbank-offered-rate, merrill, shareholders-association, year-to-date