Bloomberg – Liongate Capital Management LLP, a London-based firm managing $2.2 billion, plans to raise $500 million for a fund of commodity hedge funds.

The Liongate Commodities Fund returned about 0.1 percent last year and 0.3 percent in January, when it operated with the firm’s capital of $40 million, the company said in a statement and a presentation. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index tracking 19 commodities lost 39 percent in the 13 months through Jan. 30.

“It’s an inauspicious time to invest in commodities,” said Tim Price, director of investments at London-based PFP Wealth Management, a financial adviser. “In the longer term, a shift to an inflation bias from the current deflation would represent a huge opportunity.”

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Bloomberg – The biggest-ever decline in commodities turned Pierre Andurand and Chris Levett into this year’s heroes for investors.

Andurand’s $1.1 billion BlueGold Capital Management LLP hedge fund in London almost tripled between its February debut and November by betting on higher oil prices in the first half of 2008 and then reversing the strategy, the 31-year-old manager said. Levett’s $3 billion London-based Clive Capital LLP returned 44 percent in the first 11 months of the year.

The first bear market in commodities since 2001, as measured by the UBS Bloomberg CMCI Index, cut investments in raw materials to $144 billion from a peak of $270 billion in the second quarter, Barclays Capital estimates. While the CMCI rose almost fivefold from 2001 to 2008, beating stocks and bonds, commodities measured by the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index fell 53 percent since June and are heading for the worst year in five decades.

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