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.
Guardian.co.uk – Big gains on derivative bets linked to Volkswagen shares offset a decline in nine-month earnings at Porsche SE’s core sports car business, the heavily indebted holding company said on Friday.
Porsche, scrambling to shore up its tattered balance sheet, blamed lower volumes and revenue as well as investments on its upcoming fourth model line and hybrid powertrain technology but insisted that its returns remained relatively healthy.
"A high earnings margin was still achieved," the company said in a statement, while a company spokesman added that it was "nearly in the double-digits".
That is still a drop from Porsche’s traditional margins of near 20 percent when markets were strong.
Bloomberg – Convertible bonds that punished hedge funds in 2008 are driving returns at Canyon Partners and Citadel Investment Group LLC and helping companies from JetBlue Airways Corp. to Alliance Data Systems Corp. raise capital.
Canyon, the $14.4 billion investment firm run by former Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. bankers, gained more than 51 percent in its convertible fund through May 22, according to a May 29 letter sent to investors. Citadel posted a 21 percent return in its two main funds through May, aided by convertible bets.
New York Times – In mid-March, with the global stock markets plunging, Philippe Jabre, a hedge fund manager based in Geneva, started buying bombed out financial stocks in the United States, Europe and Asia.
A procession of sleepless nights followed as he wondered whether his bets would pan out, or send his nascent $2.5 billion fund outfit reeling.
Now, with his main fund up 30 percent this year, rest comes a little more easily.
Bloomberg – Flowering Tree Investment Management Pte, set up by the co-founder of New York-based Sansar Capital Management LLC, plans to grow its Asian equities hedge fund by about 20 times its starting capital within the next two years.
The Singapore-based fund made its first bets on rising and falling stocks in Asia outside Japan last month, starting with $12.5 million sourced from founding members, family and friends, founder Rajesh Sachdeva, 40, said in an interview yesterday. It will grow to $15 million to $16 million by July, and plans to reach $200 million to $300 million in two years.
Motley Fool – Hedge funds — private investment partnerships for wealthy individuals and institutions — are thought to be managed by well-informed, talented investors. Where are they placing their stock bets in this highly volatile market? And does the investing community agree? Let’s see what CAPS has to say on the matter. The Fool’s community of more than 130,000 uses the wisdom of crowds to determine which companies might be worth investing in.
Running a screen on companies with a market value greater than $2 billion, I found that the following five are near the top in terms of the increase in the percentage of shares owned by hedge funds:
Bloomberg – Goldman Sachs Group Inc., unbowed by the securities industry’s worst year since the Great Depression, increased its trading bets at the fastest rate on Wall Street.
Goldman Sachs’s so-called value-at-risk, the amount the New York-based bank estimates it could lose from trading in a day, jumped 22 percent to $240 million in the first quarter, twice what Morgan Stanley stands to lose, company reports show. VaR climbed 2.8 percent in the same period at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and dropped 14 percent at Credit Suisse Group AG.
Reuters – Japanese corporate pension funds have been cutting their domestic stock holdings and buying more domestic bonds to avoid risky bets amid financial turmoil, a JP Morgan Asset Management survey showed on Tuesday.
Pension funds on average lost about 18.4 percent on their investments in the financial year that ended in March, the survey of 75 funds found.
Here Is The City – According to recently published data (for the United States in particular), a large majority of short sellers are market makers who are hedging their bets on the options markets. They were not affected by the ban, which means that those who were using options to take synthetic short positions continued to do so.
The others involved in short selling are mainly hedge funds. The average return over the last ten years for hedge funds that used short-sale, convertible arbitrage and long/ short strategies was 3%, 4.75% and 7% respectively. One can hardly argue that they were over-informed and that they earned abnormal returns.
Bloomberg – Theodoro Messa’s Paineiras Hedge FIM hedge fund beat 96 percent of its peers this year on bets Brazilian bond yields will fall as the central banks slashes borrowing costs to shore up Latin America’s largest economy.
Messa is buying bonds and avoiding stocks because the global recession will persist longer than investors expect, requiring Brazilian policy makers to deepen interest rate cuts, he said. He predicts zero economic growth for Brazil in 2009.
WA Today – Richard Wallace has been ousted from the hedge fund he founded after the listed asset manager made losing bets throughout the financial crisis.
Mr Wallace, who is based in Sydney, will no longer manage the Australian-listed hedge fund for Wallace Absolute Return after the Supreme Court of NSW dismissed an injunction he filed seeking to block a termination notice.
The management agreement will be cancelled immediately, the company said yesterday.
MSNBC – Hedge funds are being offered a sweet deal to help the Obama administration rescue the U.S. banking system: A low-risk opportunity to scoop up soured bank assets that could one day make them a killing.
But the deal could make for an uneasy partnership.
The government also wants to closely police hedge funds, some of which have been accused of placing irresponsible bets that helped trigger the financial crisis. Such regulatory overhaul could reshape an industry known for secrecy and little oversight.
Denver Post – Hedge funds are being offered a deal to help the feds rescue the banking system: A low-risk opportunity to buy bad bank assets that could one day make them a killing.
But the deal could make for an uneasy partnership. The government also wants to closely police hedge funds — large investment pools that cater mainly to the rich — some of which have been accused of placing irresponsible bets that helped trigger the financial crisis. Such regulatory overhaul could reshape an industry known for secrecy and little oversight.
