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 – Stuart Gulliver, HSBC Holdings Plc’s investment banking chief, said he sees a “significant opportunity” to boost revenue from hedge funds after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse last year.
“We’ve seen a number of hedge funds moving their accounts to HSBC because their main concern is getting their money back,” Gulliver, HSBC’s head of global banking and markets unit, told investors at a Nomura Holdings Inc. conference in London today. “We can give people leverage in a segregated account, so they don’t have the operational risk that came out when Lehman Brothers failed.”
About 700 clients of Lehman’s European division, including MKM Longboat Capital Advisors LLP and GLG Partners Inc., lost control of assets when the investment bank filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history last year. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Lehman’s U.K. administrator, said last month it may take a decade to distribute $9 billion owed to creditors.
Forbes – Global fund of hedge funds firm FRM Capital Advisors (FCA) said on Tuesday it will invest up to $60 million in New York-based asset manager WestSpring’s first fund.
Specialist hedge fund seeder FCA said the investment is part of a strategic tie up with WestSpring, which is scheduled to launch the fund in September. The firm will try to combine fundamental and quantitative approaches to credit analysis.
‘We are confident in WestSpring’s ability to build a high quality alternative investment business and we believe this strategic relationship is a great opportunity for our investors,’ said Clive Peggram, chief executive of FCA.
Reuters – Global fund of hedge funds firm FRM Capital Advisors (FCA) said on Tuesday it will invest up to $60 million in New York-based asset manager WestSpring’s first fund.
Specialist hedge fund seeder FCA said the investment is part of a strategic tie up with WestSpring, which is scheduled to launch the fund in September. The firm will try to combine fundamental and quantitative approaches to credit analysis.
Reuters India – Global fund of hedge funds firm FRM Capital Advisors said on Tuesday it will invest up to $60 million in New York-based asset manager WestSpring’s first fund.
Specialist hedge fund seeder FCA said the investment is part of a strategic tie up with WestSpring, which is scheduled to launch the fund in September. The firm will try to combine fundamental and quantitative approaches to credit analysis.
”We are confident in WestSpring’s ability to build a high quality alternative investment business and we believe this strategic relationship is a great opportunity for our investors,” said Clive Peggram, chief executive of FCA.
The Guardian – Bayswater Asset Management, a computer-driven hedge fund shut down last year after big losses during the credit crisis, has relaunched after revamping its risk management controls, its new backers said on Wednesday. San Francisco-based Bayswater had initially been backed at its launch in 2004 with $25 million from Man Global Strategies, part of hedge fund giant Man Group.
However, its strategy of trying to exploit inefficiencies in global markets lost 12 percent in the six months to September 2007 and it returned money to investors after being caught out by a vicious circle of deleveraging in July and August that hit many computer-driven funds. The firm has now relaunched with large-scale changes to its risk management system and added a manual override, according to Revere Capital Advisors, which has seeded the fund with an initial $10 million and also plans to buy an equity stake in the firm, a spokesman said.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Hedge fund and alternative investment advisory company, Tru/Alpha Capital Advisors (TACA), is being launched to specialize in international alternative markets, advising institutional and corporate clients, as well as high-net worth individuals.
Based in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, TACA is headed by Harvard-graduate and past Morgan Stanley executive Monty Bruell. Mixing its full-scale advisory expertise and network of reputable partners, TACA’s team brings years of experience, credentials and proven performance in the alternative and International investment marketplace.
The company is one of few African-American owned wealth and asset management companies in the southeast.
Tru/Alpha’s niche in the international and alternative markets offers more focused insight and expertise on strategies such as international equities, international fixed-income, structured notes, commodities and hedge funds among others.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Triangle Business Journal – As BioDelivery Sciences International awaits approval of its first product, a New York hedge fund has gained control of enough BDSI shares to become its largest shareholder.
With what looks like one goal in mind – making a lot of money.
Elliott International Capital Advisors is the same firm that tried to shake up Raleigh-based BDSI with a management change two years ago. That was at a time when the company was developing Onsolis, a small disk placed on the inside of the cheek that quickly delivers the drug fentanyl to cancer patients suffering breakthrough pain.
Bloomberg – FRM Capital Advisors Ltd., a unit of London-based asset manager Financial Risk Management Ltd., plans to make as much as $300 million of strategic investments in hedge funds this year, including its first in Asia.
FRM Capital may invest in six more managers in 2009, with two expected by June and its first Asian deal in the third quarter, Chief Operating Officer Patric de Gentile-Williams said. The London-based company makes strategic investments in hedge funds for two to four years in exchange for a share of their fee incomes for as long as 10 years.
Record losses and redemptions have cut hedge funds’ assets and fee revenue, making them more reliant on so-called seeders like FRM Capital. Some investment banks, insurers and private equity houses have exited the hedge fund seeding business amid the credit crisis, said de Gentile-Williams.
Bloomberg - Philip Duff, Morgan Stanley’s former chief financial officer, last month fired 80 of the 100 people at his 11-month-old hedge fund, and now he’s looking to sublet excess office space in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Record losses and terminations at hedge funds like Duff Capital Advisors have reduced Connecticut’s tax revenue, and that means the city schools in Bridgeport, 25 miles north, may soon have less space. Facing an anticipated $12 million drop in state aid, Superintendent John Ramos says he may close some of his 35 schools.
Officials across the state face similar cuts. After income- tax-fueled surpluses that totaled $3.6 billion from 2004 through last year, Connecticut’s budget now has a $1.1 billion gap, according to state Comptroller Nancy Wyman. The deficit is forecast to grow by $6 billion by 2011. Quarterly taxes on bonuses and capital gains — which make up 40 percent of income tax collections — dropped 20 percent in one year to $568.2 million last month, Governor Jodi Rell said.
Reuters – Hedge fund firm Duff Capital Advisors, launched last year to help pension funds, endowments and insurers meet long-term funding obligations, laid off most of its staff, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The company remains in business and is now focusing mostly on providing risk analysis and advice, said the person who was not authorized to speak about the matter publicly. Previously Duff Capital also offered hedge fund products.
The company once had about 100 people working for it.
Hedge fund industry veteran Phil Duff, a former chief financial officer at Morgan Stanley and top executive at famous hedge fund firm Tiger Management, set up Duff Capital Advisors in March 2008, shortly before the financial crisis exploded. He launched the firm only a few months after having sold his previous firm, FrontPoint Partners, to Morgan Stanley.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Todd Groome is joining Diversified Global Asset Management (DGAM) as a Managing Director, effective February 1, 2009. Responsible for business development, Groome will also advise the investment team on macro investment themes and the global economic and policy environment.
"I am extremely pleased to join DGAM, a firm that is known for its expertise in hedge fund investing, its focus on business and operational integrity, and its leading edge thinking in a variety of investment areas, including in particular DGAM’s strong commitment to building strategic relationships with its clients." Todd Groome said." Groome will be based out of DGAM’s Toronto office.
With a wealth of experience in capital markets in both the public and private sectors, previously positioned as Managing Director and Head of the Financial Institutions Groups of Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse in London, managing the European High Yield origination business for a period of time.
He also worked with Merrill Lynch and was a consultant to Hovde Capital Advisors, a hedge fund and merchant banking operation in Washington, focusing on financial institutions.
In December, 2008, Groome was named non-Executive Chairman of the Alternative Investment Management Association ("AIMA"), with effect from January 1, 2009.
George Main, CEO of DGAM, commented further, saying "I am delighted that Todd Groome will be joining the firm. Todd’s deep experience, insights and stature in the global financial community will be invaluable assets as we take DGAM into our next growth phase."
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
North by Northwestern – By the start of his 9 a.m. class, Weinberg freshman Brian Levin has begun watching his investments.
When the markets open, he checks his models to try to predict what will happen in the markets, and then starts formulating investment positions. He calls other professionals and traders on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade to see what they’re doing that day, or if there are any rumors going around the trading community. He adjusts his investment positions throughout the day until 3 p.m. when the equity market closes.
Levin has been investing since he was 13 years old. Three years ago, he took on clients and founded the hedge fund BDL Capital Advisors, which he still runs today — when he’s not in class. Levin has over forty clients, an office in Vernon Hills, IL, and a snazzy website. Despite the current economic downturn, 2008 was BDL Capital Adviser’s best year yet financially.
