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.
The Independent – Grimly aware that a European Commission crackdown on regulation of hedge funds and private equity spells disaster for the EU’s predominantly London-based industry, Treasury ministers have been desperately lobbying their counterparts in Brussels for months, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Now, however, the Americans have woken up to the fact that many of their hedge funds would find it impossible to do business in the EU under proposals for regulatory reform. In recent weeks, US Treasury officials have thus been touring the EU, letting their displeasure be known.
It appears that the Americans’ involvement is already paying dividends. Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, was quietly letting it be known yesterday that it will ensure some sort of compromise is brokered. The Alternative Investment Management Association, which represents the sector’s interests, now thinks disaster may be averted.
The Independent – Three major European and US hedge fund groups yesterday pledged to work towards worldwide best practice standards after G20 ministers outlined plans to regulate the freewheeling sector.
The London-based Alternative Investment Management Association and US counterparts the President’s Working Group and the Managed Funds Association have written to the Financial Stability Forum to draw together different industry standards, of which the first draft is expected by the end of next month, said Andrew Baker, head of AIMA.
The organisations are discussing a global standard on issues such as disclosure, risk management, dealing with conflicts of interest within an organisation and statements about operational and business controls.
New York Times – While his counterparts at other big hedge funds are trying to figure out whether they can stay in business, the fund manager John Paulson continues to rack up enormous profits. DealBook has obtained Mr. Paulson’s confidential year-end letter to his undoubtedly gleeful investors.
The 20-page report details how Mr. Paulson’s firm, Paulson & Company, which manages nearly $29 billion in assets, avoided the huge losses plaguing other funds, and it gives his firm’s outlook for this year.
Paulson Advantage Plus, the firm’s largest fund with roughly $7 billion in assets, returned a whopping 37.6 percent net of fees for 2008. Another version of the fund, which does not use borrowed money to amplify its return, recorded gains of about 24 percent, according to the letter.
