Globe and Mail – Paris, so far, has emerged as the most serious challenger. But Mr. Sarkozy may be his own worst enemy on this file. The reason: He and his German allies are wholesale supporters of the European Union effort to rein in the hedge funds even though the funds can take little blame for the financial disaster.

If Mr. Sarkozy gets his way, the funds, which are a huge business in London, won’t jump on the Eurostar and re-emerge in Paris. They will leave the EU entirely for Switzerland (not an EU member; some funds have already moved there) or any of the financially ambitious Middle East and Asian cities – Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Shanghai – which are dangling gold and pearls before the big-name fund managers.

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Tags: abu dhabi, asian cities, challenger, european-union, eurostar, financial disaster, fund-managers, german allies, globe and mail, gold, hedge funds, own worst enemy, paris, pearls, sarkozy, shanghai, singapore, switzerland, union effort, wholesale

Business Spectator- Hedge funds sharply increased their bets against UK lender HBOS in the first days after the Financial Services Authority imposed new rules on June 13, targeting abusive short-selling and smooth the process for firms raising cash from rights issues, reports The Financial Times.

HBOS, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, which earlier issued its prospectus for a £4 billion rights issue has seen its shares drop below the rights issue price, as hedge funds revealed their positions.

US hedge fund Harbinger Capital said it held a 3.3 percent short position, worth about 345 million pounds, in HBOS, under the new disclosure rules for companies during rights issues.

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Tags: bias, challenger, goh, investment-funds, lead-investor, market-abuse, market-traders, mistrust, september-11, term-money