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English Eastday – Investors continued to withdraw capital from hedge funds in the first quarter of 2009, redeeming nearly 103 billion U.S. dollars, according to data released on Tuesday.
The redemption figure, about 7.3 percent of overall hedge fund assets, was down from the record quarterly withdrawals in the fourth quarter of 2008 of over 152 billion dollars, said Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research (HFR).
Total hedge fund industry capital declined to 1.33 trillion dollars as of the end of the first quarter of 2009, 600 billion dollars below the its peak at the end of the second quarter of 2008 and 75 billion dollars less than the total asset at the year-end 2008.
Globe and Mail – The multimillion-dollar bills continue to creep up on the Olympic village project.
The city has stashed $25-million into a contingency reserve for the project, while its property endowment fund has now disbursed $100-million for the city’s own "public-realm" improvements for the new neighbourhood.
Those amounts are on top of the half a billion dollars that the city had lent to the private builders of the Olympic village by the end of last month, which is about two-thirds of the $860-million the project is anticipated to cost by the end.
Reuters Shanghai – The investment banking arm of China Construction Bank plans to launch a 5 billion yuan ($731.3 million) fund to focus on investments in the country’s rapidly growing heathcare sector, state media reported on Tuesday.
Hong Kong-based CCB International is leading the fundraising but has not yet reached the initial target of 5 billion yuan, the online edition of the official Xinhua News Agency (www.xinhuanet.com) said.
Once launched, the fund would focus on investments in healthcare-related sectors including pharmacy, medical equipment manufacturing, medical institutions and services, Xinhua quoted CCB International’s chief executive, Hu Zhanghong, as saying.
Reuters – Shanghai has decided to let foreign investors, including private equity and venture capital funds, register legally as local equities investment firms as China’s financial hub moves to lure more overseas investment.
Foreign investors with a focus on Chinese equities can set up a Shanghai-registered entity with initial capital of 100 million yuan ($14.56 million) or more with the legal status of a local investment company and receive special tax treatment, according to a city government document dated Aug. 11 and obtained by Reuters on Friday.
Qualified foreign investors would include private equity funds, venture capital funds, buyout funds and hedge funds, it said.
Reuters Shanghai- Ten new China-focused private equity funds raised $12 billion (six billion pounds) in the second quarter, but poor market conditions have forced foreign funds to delay exits of their investments through IPOs and secondary offerings, consultant firm Zero2IPO said on Thursday.
The second-quarter figure is up 107.6 percent from the same period of 2007 but down nearly 40 percent from the first quarter of this year, according to the firm’s quarterly report.
Some 8.1 percent of capital raised by the 10 funds in the second quarter, or $972 million, target investments in Chinese property markets despite China’s tight monetary policy, which may hurt its real estate industry.
Detroit Free Press- Delphi Corp. has hired a Detroit investment bank to find a buyer for its brake business, which has been for sale for more than two years.
The Troy supplier said Monday that it hired W.Y. Campbell & Co., owned by Comerica Bank, to sell the business, which employs 1,000 people, including 100 in Michigan.
Delphi already has sold portions of its brake business in Mexico and Saginaw. Delphi hired W.Y. Campbell to sell the rest of the business, which includes technical centers in Brighton, Dayton, Ohio, and Shanghai, as well as three factories in Mexico and China. The brake business is expected to generate $295 million in revenue this year.
Delphi, with total sales of $22.3 billion last year, is trying to sell its brake business at time when it has become tougher for companies to find buyers for unwanted units.
Quamnet.com – Private equity firm Carlyle Group said it has agreed to invest 87 mln usd in Shanghai-based chemical company Sinorgchem (Group) Co.
Sinorgchem is the largest Chinese supplier of para-phenylenediames (PPDs), a key chemical additive in the production of rubber products which help avert premature ageing of rubber. The company has an annual capacity of 45,000 tons of PPDs.
