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.
Daily Telegraph – The funds collapsed as billions of dollars of bets made on mortgage-backed bonds and collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) unravelled, and when the time came to try to sell some of the funds’ sub-prime mortgages, no one wanted to buy them.
At the centre of those funds sat two men – hedge fund manager Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, the chief operating officer of Bear Stearns Asset Management (BSAM) – who were arrested a year later and charged with several counts of wire and securities fraud, following the loss of $1.4bn of investors’ money.
They face possible 20-year prison sentences, though both have consistently pleaded their innocence. The case against them will be set out at a trial slated to start in October. It centres on emails between the two – and with investors – in which both funds were referred to as "an awesome opportunity", despite allegations that both men knew of the problems within them.
Daily Telegraph – Mr Ralfe estimates that under "true market valuations" the hole in BT’s pension could have ballooned to over £11bn – more than the market capitalisation of the former state-owned telecoms company.
The claims came ahead of BT today revealing the results of a three-yearly review of its pension fund alongside a disastrous set of full-year results.
Reuters – The government is considering injecting as much as 10 billion pounds into Northern Rock to use the nationalised bank to ramp up mortgage lending, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The Treasury has yet to make a final decision on the plan, which may also see the bank hiring new staff, the newspaper reported in its Friday edition.
Spokesmen for the Treasury and Northern Rock, which is due to unveil a new business plan in the next few weeks, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Northern Rock became the first British casualty of the credit crunch in September 2007 when the bank, heavily dependent on wholesale markets for its funding, revealed that it had been forced to seek emergency support from the Bank of England.
The bank was nationalised in early 2008 after attempts to find a private sector buyer fell through.
Daily News and Analysis – With the last of the deadlines for hedge funds investors to file their redemption requests approaching, experts feel most of them may be done with their selling.
The Sensex has lost 1,761 points in the last 7 sessions as foreign investors unloaded equities worth over Rs 2,000 crore.
This is in sharp contrast to the first week of November, when they were net buyers for Rs 790 crore.
The renewed selling is seen as an effort by hedge funds to shore up their cash levels to meet the new wave of redemption requests around the November 15 deadline, analysts said.
