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 – Lucidus Capital Partners LLP, a new joint-venture of hedge fund manager Bruce Kovner’s Caxton Associates LLC, has raised about $500 million for a high-yield debt hedge fund, three people familiar with the situation said.
Darryl Green, chief executive officer of Caxton Europe Asset Management in London, will co-manage the fund with Geoffrey Sherry, a Caxton portfolio manager based in New York, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information is private. The pair will continue to run a $1 billion high-yield bond fund for Caxton, the people said.
Caxton will have a 25 percent stake in the new firm with the balance held by Green, Sherry and other staff members, the people said. The fund will use Caxton’s infrastructure and controls to help attract institutional investors reluctant to put money into a startup fund firm.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Richard Bookbinder is launching TerraVerde Capital Partners LLC, one of the first ”green” hedge fund of funds in the United States. Bookbinder is Managing Member of Bookbinder Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund of funds, and a founding Principal of Sandler, O’Neill & Partners, L.P.
TerraVerde allocates capital to hedge funds devoted solely to reducing carbon emissions through clean-tech, renewable energy and other environmental sectors such as carbon trading, energy, solar, wind, water, reforestation and more.
”We’re in the early stages of a long-term, multi-generational growth cycle for carbon reduction strategies,” Bookbinder said. ”TerraVerde is focused on those green strategies that are capitalizing on the business potential driven by the need for energy security and clean energy use.”
While managing one of Bookbinder Capital’s other hedge fund of funds, Bookbinder studied the emergence of investment opportunities in the ”green” space. After an in-depth analysis of the industry, including meeting with hedge fund managers, green private equity funds, scientists, historians, and others, he came to the realization: investment funds with an environmental focus offer sufficient, attractive long-term investment opportunities to dedicate an entire strategy focused solely on the “green” space.
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HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – CEO and CIO of Hall Capital Partners, Kathryn Hall, will be awarded the 100 Women in Hedge Funds 2009 Industry Leadership Award at its New York Gala, on November 18, 2009.
Each year, the organization identifies a woman whose professional talent, business ethic, and passion for investing help define and advance the hedge fund industry’s standards of excellence. This year’s theme is Education and net proceeds from the NY Gala will be given to Computers for Youth.
Hall Capital Partners LLC was founded by Hill as Laurel Management Company in 1994, it currently manages more than $17 billion in assets. Hall formerly served as a General Partner of HFS Management Partners (predecessor to Farallon Capital Partners) and an early advisor to hedge fund investors.
"Katie stands out for her long history of working closely with investors to navigate the difficult landscape of hedge fund investing. She has bona fides as both an investor and hedge fund manger, and that experience gives her an especially insightful perspective in the current turbulent market," noted Lauren Malafronte, Director, Barclays Capital and Board member of 100 Women in Hedge Funds Foundation. "Katie has a well-established reputation for communication with investors; her leadership in this area makes her a role model for so many women in the industry.
Past awardees include Sonia Gardner, Avenue Capital; Jane Mendillo, Harvard Management Company; and Anne Dinning, D. E. Shaw group.
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!
Bloomberg – Darwin Capital Premier LS1 Fund, a hedge fund investing in Japanese stocks, has returned 31 percent since opening to investors in January as bets on companies including JP-Holdings Inc. and Daiken Medical Co. paid off.
The fund, advised by DarWin Capital Partners Ltd., began on Jan. 20 after running under a limited partnership structure since June 2006, according to Takafumi Sahoda, founding president of Darwin Capital in Tokyo. Prior to the January start, the strategy returned 224 percent in the 27 months through October 2008 compared with a 54 percent slide in the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average in the same period, he said.
Florida Times-Union – CSX Corp.’s proxy fight with two hedge funds ended in September with four nominees from The Children’s Investment Fund Management LLP and 3G Capital Partners Ltd. winning election to CSX’s board.
But even though the fight is long over, it continues to be in the news.
Last week, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro told a U.S. Senate subcommittee that the commission is considering new disclosure rules on equity swap arrangements. According to a Bloomberg News story, the SEC’s examination of equity swaps is a direct result of CSX’s battle with TCI and 3G.
MercoPress – US District Judge Thomas Griesa granted a contempt of court motion last week by bondholder Aurelius Capital Partners hedge fund, according to a transcript of a hearing in Manhattan federal court obtained over the weekend, reports Reuters.
Lawyers for Aurelius complained that they had not received documents the judge had ordered the agency, known as ANSES, to provide about transactions it made through a private brokerage.
Forbes – Following a brutal 2008 of losses, plunging assets and the Madoff scandal, the activities of the Obama administration were a primary worry among the nearly 500 hedge fund managers and other industry executives gathering at a Las Vegas conference this week.
‘When you have government intervention at the scale we have, you do something the markets abhor: you create uncertainty,’ said Sean Mathis founding partner of New Centurion Capital Partners. ‘We have uncertainty where markets are going and what the rules of the road will be.’
The Obama administration, even as it courts private investors to help buy up toxic bank assets, has targeted Wall Street bonuses and called for tougher market regulation.
Reuters UK – Hedge fund millionaire Bertrand des Pallieres’s SPQR Capital has launched a bid to trump BlueGem Water’s proposed stake building in stockbroker Panmure Gordon & Co.
SPQR said that, via vehicle P.G. Holdings, it proposed to take part in a placing of at least 43 percent of Panmure’s capital at a price of at least 28 pence per share, a minimum total spend of 17.4 million pounds.
Last month, private equity firm BlueGem Capital Partners said it would take a stake of 40 percent in Panmure at 24 pence per share.
BusinessWeek – The list of dissidents is much smaller than the original 20 or so hedge funds that veoted a pre-bankruptcy deal to reduce Chrysler’s outstanding secured debt. The list of hedge funds that are still members of the opposition group calling themselves Chrysler Non-Tarp Lenders is down to just six funds. In all, the funds control $295 million of Chrysler debt, a far cry from the nearly $1 billion the original group of 20 had controlled.
The dissidents included funds managed by Schultze Asset Management, Arrow Hedge Partners, Stairway Capital, OppenheimerFunds, Foxhill Capital Partners and Group G Partners. Early on, Stairway Capital and Oppenheimer had been identified as leaders of the Chrsyler holdouts, but the others funds had not.
Forbes – Gottex Fund Management Holdings Ltd has bought a controlling interest in SJC Capital Partners, a U.S.-based investment management firm.
The fund of hedge funds provider said SJC founder and Chief Investment Officer Stephen Czech and his team would join Gottex’s New York operations with immediate effect.
A hedge fund fraud that involved a pair of funds claiming to hold more than $800 million in assets has been halted, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a statement, the regulatory body said the two funds lost money and contain less than $1 million.
Bradley Ruderman is alleged to have raised more than $38 million from investors via the two hedge funds, Ruderman Capital Partners and Ruderman Capital Partners A.
He is accused of falsely claiming that the investment vehicles held positions in established securities such as Wal-Mart Stores, Apple and Microsoft, as well as stating prominent people were investors in his funds, when they were not.
Reuters – Three former executives at JPMorgan Asset Management plan to launch a Greater China hedge fund via a start-up in Hong Kong, tapping rising investor demand for Asian equities amid the global financial crisis.
"Greater China may be the first region to recover from the global economic crisis, and will certainly attract global fund flows," Lu Jun, one of the co-founders said in a telephone interview. "I think it’s good timing to launch the new fund."
Lu, previously a star fund manager at JPMorgan’s China fund venture, has teamed up with Man Wing Chung, former head of JPMorgan’s Greater China team, and Joseph Tang, who focused on Taiwan investment, to co-found JTM Capital Partners. The partners will start running a hedge fund in mid-June.
