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.
Bloomberg – Credit Suisse Group AG, which sold its Japanese asset management unit in June, will offer alternative investments including private-equity funds to attract the nation’s $800 billion in pension money.
Tokyo-based Credit Suisse Securities (Japan) Ltd., the Japanese brokerage unit of Switzerland’s second-largest bank, won approval on Oct. 2 from Japan’s Financial Services Agency to act as an investment management firm, according to Akira Takahashi, the head of the brokerage’s asset management group. The unit in August hired BlackRock Inc.’s Shinichiro Sato to head a six-member investment team, Takahashi said.
Bloomberg – MF Global Ltd., the securities firm spun off from the largest publicly traded hedge-fund manager, is opening a brokerage in Japan to take advantage of a void left by rivals exiting the world’s No. 2 equity market.
The firm will start in Tokyo this month with 25 employees including about seven analysts and 10 employees in sales and trading, Graham Elliott, the managing director of the new venture, said in an interview. Japan will be the fourth market in which Bermuda-based MF will offer equity research, he said.
Earthtimes – Lighthouse Prime Services, a division of Lighthouse Financial and a leading prime brokerage services provider dedicated to the needs of emerging and newly established hedge funds and managed account platforms, announces its upcoming slate of events as part of Lighthouse Prime Services’ Capital Introduction Program. Based upon the success of recent Lighthouse Prime Services’ Investor Roundtable events that took place in Chicago and San Francisco,
The Guardian – Hedge fund manager Man has moved to the top of the FTSE 100 risers, as traders heard talk it may dispose of its remaining stake in broker MF Global.
Man spun off the brokerage in July 2007 by means of a flotation in the US, but retained an 18.5% stake, worth around $130m. The suggestion it might now be looking to sell this has helped send Man shares 17.5p higher to 283.25p. In its latest annual report it classifies the residual MF shareholding as "available-for-sale financial assets."
Bloomberg – Randy Shain said he wasn’t stunned when hedge-fund managers Paul Greenwood and Stephen Walsh were arrested last month for allegedly misappropriating $554 million in client funds.
A probe three years ago by his First Advantage Investigative Services LLC found in public documents that a brokerage run by the pair had agreed to settle regulators’ claims that it improperly used customer assets as loan collateral and had been fined at least 11 times for violating rules at several U.S. exchanges. The firm neither admitted nor denied the allegations, which covered actions from August 1985 to January 1986.
Reuters – A hedge fund manager, a brokerage trader and a financial adviser were charged on Thursday with insider trading in the stock of supermarket chain Albertsons Inc, reaping total profits of about $7.5 million, according to court documents.
The criminal complaints were filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against Joseph Contorinis, a former employee at Jefferies Asset Management LLC, as well as trader Michael Koulouroudis and financial adviser Nicos Achillea Stephanou, whose employers were not immediately known.
Jefferies was not mentioned in the complaint against Contorinis. Firm spokesman Tom Tarrant said Contorinis left a year ago. He declined to comment on the charge or arrest of Contorinis by the FBI on Thursday.
Reuters – Daiwa Securities Group Inc, Japan’s second-largest brokerage, said that it would drop its plans for a large private equity fund after talks with Blackstone fell through.
Daiwa had been in talks with private equity firm Blackstone Group LP to form a fund targeting Asian companies, Daiwa Securities Chief Executive Shigeharu Suzuki told Reuters on Tuesday.
Suzuki said in August that the brokerage was aiming for a 500 billion yen ($5.4 billion) fund to diversify its revenue sources.
"Now we are looking at funds as large as 20 billion yen to 30 billion yen," he said on Tuesday
"It is difficult to collect 500 billion yen in private equity fund in this environment," he added.
Daiwa had been aiming to form a big fund with Blackstone which has expertise in this area, Suzuki said.
