New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Halbis Capital Management of HSBC is upping the exposure in their European Alpha hedge fund thanks to cheap stock prices. Bill Maldonado, head of alternative investments, believes it is finally the right time to buy.

"Lots of stocks are trading on increditbly low multiples of 4 to 5 times 2009 earnings," Maldonado said in an interview with Reuters. "They’re pricing in quite a bad recession.”

The $300 million market neutral hedge fund takes both long and short positions. After cutting the gross exposure in recent months, the fund is now buying back into stocks after recent market turmoil made the prices even more attractive.

“We’re rebuilding now because we think the opportunities are definitely there, but we’re being very cautious,” he explained. Even if we see opportunities that are very, very appetizing, they can easily go against you another 10, 20, 30 percent.”

This move comes at a time when hedge funds are trying to recover from one of their worst years ever and when hedge funds across the board are freezing redemptions in hopes of staying afloat. Just last week, Deephaven Capital Management halted withdraws on two of their funds. Other reputable names that have imposed recent restrictions include Drake Capital Management, Citadel and Pardus Capital.

Maldonado explained that while returns on his European Alpha are already admirable at 3 percent, they are likely to improve because there is less hedge fund money competing for profitable trades thanks to reduced leverage and redemptions.

Julie Scuderi
Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net
Email: julie@hedgeco.net

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!
Be sure to check out our sister sites. www.hedgefundlounge.com, www.hedgefundtools.com, and www.hedgefundemployment.com

Tags: brokerages, confines, due-diligence-service, fellow-shareholders, fortune-off, fund-specialist, hooker, investment-arm, market-analysts, money-managers, new-york-times-co, retail-stocks, treasury-bonds, vision-japan

Reuters – U.S. private equity house Lone Star is seriously considering suing the South Korean government if it delays approval beyond September of the firm’s $6.3 billion sale of shares in a local bank, a newspaper reported on Friday.

English language daily The Korea Times said Lone Star was mulling a suit claiming losses from the government for delaying the sale of shares in Korea Exchange Bank.

Lone Star’s PR agency in Seoul declined to comment and a lawyer representing Lone Star was not available for immediate comment.

Last September, Lone Star LS.UL agreed to sell its 51 percent stake in KEB the country’s No. 6 lender, to UK-based HSBC for $6.3 billion.

But HSBC’s offer lapsed on July 31, with the government delaying approval of the KEB sale, citing legal uncertainties relating to Lone Star’s South Korean activities. The deal is still awaiting regulatory approval.

"Beleaguered with growing complaints from investors, Lone Star is considering returning its KEB shares in-kind to investors as one possible option, together with a block sale option," the Korea Times cited an unnamed source close to the deal as saying.

Read Complete Article 

Tags: afs, aftermath, beer-company, brainer, confines, david-hall, economic-recession, frank-morgan, fund-managers, investment-arm, investment-opportunities, proceedings, real-estate-information, trillion

Times Online- The Financial Services Authority took the unprecedented step of pressuring Britain’s five biggest banks into supporting the revised rescue capital-raising at Bradford & Bingley last week, The Times has learnt. HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and HBOS are understood to have each agreed to sub-underwrite £20 million-worth of the reworked £258 million rights issue.

The banks agreed to step in when Citigroup and UBS, the lead underwriters, could find no one to whom they could lay off some of the risk. Underwriters typically pass on some of the risk to institutions known as sub-underwriters. The FSA, worried that too much Bradford & Bingley stock would be left with UBS and Citigroup, which are already under pressure, decided in the middle of last week to ask the big five to take some of the risk.

Read Complete Article

Tags: allegations, beta, bond-market, chief-executive, confines, curbs, hbos, intangible-assets, market-abuse, newcastle, personal-reasons, royal-bank-of-scotland, september-11, stocks, summer-intern, term-debt, unprecedented-step