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.
Boston Globe – A Boston law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against a hedge fund controlled by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. for placing all of the fund’s assets with Bernard Madoff, who is facing life in prison for conducting a massive fraud.
The lead plaintiff is Lawrence J. Rothschild, a Needham businessman who invested about $1.1 million with the Rye Select Broad Market XL Fund, according to the lawsuit, filed yesterday in Massachusetts Superior Court.
The suit alleges that Rye did not explicitly say that it placed all of its assets with Madoff, and that the firm’s parent, Tremont Partners Inc. (also part of MassMutual), ignored red flags about Madoff’s activities.
Times Online – The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, which oversees $38 billion, voted to fire hedge-fund firm Austin Capital Management after losing $12 million with alleged Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff.
The state pension board also decided at a meeting in Boston today to dismiss Ivy Asset Management, the hedge-fund unit of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., because several senior managers have left the firm. About $430 million in pension assets were invested with Ivy and $130 million with Austin, the board said.
Austin invested pension assets with Tremont Partners, the hedge-fund unit of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. Tremont placed money through its Rye Select Broad Market Prime Fund LP with Madoff, the New York financier accused of fraud in a scheme that may have cost clients $50 billion.
Milwaukee Business Journal – An activist British hedge fund has taken a 5 percent stake inSovereign Bankcorp Inc.,according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
London-based Toscafund Asset Management said its passive stake amounts to 33.5 million shares.
Banco Santander Central Hispano, Spain’s largest bank, owns roughly a quarter of Sovereign’s stock and ultimately can exercise an option to buy the Philadelphia-based bank.
Sovereign has struggled after years of rapid expansion through acquisition. The bank’s stock price has fallen in the last year from roughly $20 and bottomed out at $7 as it suffered negative earnings caused by some problem loans. The stock closed down 1 percent Thursday at $9.52. Under new CEO Joseph Campanelli, Sovereign has focused the last year on reducing the size of its balance sheet risk and zeroing in on its core mid-Atlantic and New England retail markets.
Reuters HK- SAIL Advisors Ltd, one of Asia’s largest homegrown fund of hedge fund managers, said on Wednesday it hired former Goldman Sachs Group Inc managing director Vincent Duhamel as its new chief executive.
Hong Kong-based Duhamel will replace Eliza Lau, who previously served as both chief executive and chief investment officer. SAIL said Lau would remain as CIO and continue to oversee its portfolios. The Hong Kong-based firm had about $2.5 billion in assets under management as of the end of June.
Duhamel, who will start as CEO on September 17, was with Goldman in Asia from 2005 until earlier this year.
The Canadian executive initially ran its asset management business in the region, before the role was taken over by Oliver Bolitho. He moved on to help lead the unit’s sovereign wealth fund and central bank strategy.
