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.
Sydney Morning Herald – The hedge fund industry says it supports federal government plans to ban naked short selling and impose a disclosure regime for covered short selling.
The Australian arm of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) said the group had been in talks with regulators and the federal government about legislation to go to parliament on Thursday.
But while it supported the naked short selling ban, moves to create greater transparency of covered short selling activity on the Australian stock exchange did not go far enough.
Times Online – Hedge funds were heading for a full-blown row with the German Government last night as it emerged that funds sitting on tens of billions of euro losses after short-selling Volkswagen could go bankrupt.
Porsche, VW’s biggest shareholder, stands to pocket a quick €6billion (£4.7billion) profit from the short-selling.
The London-based Alternative Investment Management Association (Aima), the hedge fund trade body, said yesterday that it planned to ask the European Union to clamp down on a controversial German legal loophole that allowed Porsche secretly to take its VW stake to almost 75 per cent.
Andrew Baker, Aima deputy chief executive, said: “This sounds somewhat irregular. If you tried that in this country, there would be a number of questions to be answered.”
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Global representative association for the hedge fund industry, the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), has issued updated guidance to its members on how to implement an Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process.
"The hedge fund industry has embraced the capital adequacy debate proactively and the sophisticated risk management techniques undertaken by hedge funds make this framework possible," Andrew Baker, AIMA’s Deputy Chief Executive, said, "Hedge fund managers employ progressive business management techniques and we are fortunate to be able to draw on the expertise of leading advisers from the industry to guide our membership on how to most effectively implement this process."
AIMA’s ICAAP Guidance Note – originally published in July 2007 – has been revised to address issues that have been identified now that firms and the FSA have gained more practical experience of the ICAAP; and to include examples of the processes that have been implemented by firms to date.
The Guidance Note was produced by an AIMA-led ICAAP Working Group, consisting of industry experts from compliance advisory, auditing and law firms.
Members of the group include: John Griffiths of MMS Regulatory Solutions; Stephen Burke of IMS Consulting Ltd; Uner Nabi of Deloitte and Touche LLP; Philip Niel of FIM Advisers LLP; Sarah Nowell of Ernst & Young LLP; Fiona Raistrick of BDO Stoy Hayward LLP; and Matthew Jones of the AIMA Regulatory and Tax Department.
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News.com.au – Kim Ivey, chairman of the Australian arm of the Alternative Investment Management Association said Australian banks no longer needed further government protection.
He said the ban was damaging market liquidity and denying investors the ability to protect their capital in falling markets.
"The situation has reached a stage where this extension of the short-selling ban will have severe and immutable long-term effects," said Mr Ivey.
"The markets are in disequilibrium – they are lurching all over the place because there is a vacuum of buying."
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission yesterday extended the ban on covered short-selling for non-financial stocks until November 19, but said a ban on shorting financial stocks would continue until January 27.
Globe and Mail – On monday, when North American markets cratered, was not the most auspicious day to launch a closed-end fund of hedge funds, but Star Hedge Managers Corp. has been quietly trading since then.
This fund invests in the hedge funds or portfolios run by Eric Sprott of Sprott Asset Management Inc., Rohit Sehgal of Dynamic Mutual Funds Ltd. and Normand Lamarche of Front Street Capital.
Star Hedge Managers, which closed down 39 cents yesterday at $9.35 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, raised $75-million through an initial public offering of $10 a unit. It had targeted raising $500-million.
"I’m surprised" that it did raise $75-million given the tough market environment, said Phil Schmitt, chairman of the Canadian unit of the Alternative Investment Management Association. "There’s still a market for quality managers."
Times Online- The hedge fund industry’s lobby group mounted a last-ditch attempt yesterday to persuade the City regulator to delay its controversial rules on short-selling, which are due to come into force tomorrow.
The Alternative Investment Management Association sent a letter to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) asking for more time for its members to prepare for the changes.
The association’s call was backed by Andrew Shrimpton, the former head of hedge fund regulation at the FSA. He said that the regulator should wait “until next Wednesday, at the earliest” to give the funds sufficient breathing space. “The FSA is skating on thin ice, using emergency powers to bring in these requirements, and is vulnerable to a legal challenge,” Mr Shrimpton said. “It should try to generate some goodwill with the industry by showing it can listen and back down in light of what it hears.”
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net)- Hedge Fund representative, the Managed Funds Association (MFA), has submitted comments on the Best Practices Reports released by the two Committees appointed by the U.S. President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG).
The Asset Managers’ Committee Report and the Investors’ Committee Report provide guidance for establishing best practices standards for the hedge fund industry and its investors.
"MFA has reviewed thoroughly the Asset Managers’ Committee Report and the Investors’ Committee Report, and we are broadly supportive of both sets of recommendations, which are comprehensive and substantive." Richard H. Baker, MFA President and CEO, said.
Andrew Baker, Deputy CEO of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) said, "We fully endorse the responses submitted by MFA to both committees… We are committed to the international harmonisation of sound practices for the alternative investment industry and look forward to leading this global approach with MFA as well as with all other industry stakeholders."
MFA represents members of the the global alternative investment industry. Including professionals in hedge funds, funds of funds and managed futures funds. MFA Members represent the vast majority of the largest hedge fund groups in the world who manage a substantial portion of the approximately $2 trillion invested in absolute return strategies.
Money Management- A survey of some of Australia’s biggest superannuation funds has found that they intend to increase their average allocations to hedge funds from 2.5 to 3.5 per cent over the next two to five years, according to a survey by the University of New South Wales Business School.
The survey, commissioned by the Australian chapter of the hedge fund industry body Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), researched the plans of some of Australia’s major superannuation funds.
