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Bloomberg - John Costas and Michael Hutchins, are reuniting to start a financial services firm after running UBS AG’s hedge fund Dillon Read Capital Management LLC, according to people familiar with their plans.
Costas, 52, took over UBS’s investment bank in 2001 and spun off the proprietary trading desk to form Dillon Read in 2005. Zurich-based UBS shut down the unit in May 2007 and said it accounted for $3 billion of the $19 billion in losses the bank reported that year. Hutchins, 53, was president of Dillon Read and previously headed the debt unit of UBS.
Reuters – Multibillion dollar hedge fund firm Magnetar Capital has shut its London risk arbitrage desk and cut seven jobs, the firm told Reuters on Monday, as the industry goes through its biggest crisis.
A spokesman said four traders and three support staff had left the 15-person London office of Magnetar, which runs multi-strategy hedge funds.
"There’s been an appropriate reduction in the office to reflect the decision of the firm not currently to do risk arbitrage out of its London office," the spokesman said.
Reuters – GSO Capital Partners LP, Blackstone Group’s $25 billion credit hedge fund, is closing its Asia investment desk after failing to find attractive investments in the region, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The four-member team, led by Asia-Pacific head Timothy Donahue, will be relocated to either London or New York, the sources said, adding that GSO’s Asia fund raising team would remain in place.
The sources, who did not want to be identified because the information was not public, said GSO was shutting its Asia desk because there were better debt and credit investment opportunities in the United States and Europe.
Times Online – A French investment manager who entrusted $2.1 billion (£1.42 billion) with Bernard Madoff was found dead in New York yesterday.
Thierry de la Villehuchet is thought to have committed suicide. He was found early yesterday morning in his office on Madison Avenue by a security guard.
He was found at his desk with both wrists slashed, with a box cutter (similar to a Stanley knife) and a bottle of sleeping pills on the floor, according to the Associated Press, citing NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.
Mr Villehuchet, 65, was the co-founder and chief executive of Access International Advisors, a fund management company.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) Hedge fund billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller has pulled his bid for his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers that he originally placed over nine months ago. Rooney brothers Tim, John, Pat and Art Jr., had been wavering on their decision of whether or not to sell each of their 16 percent shares to the head of Duquesne Capital Management, only to have Druckenmiller walk away in the end.
Druckenmiller, a die-hard Steelers fan, had been trying for months to acquire a majority stake in the franchise. However, brother number five Dan was adamant on keeping the Steelers in the Rooney clan. Disagreements between parties and other complex issues stalled the process and kept Druckenmiller waiting.
“Based on recent developments, it has become clear that the Rooneys need substantial additional time to assess their options,” Druckenmiller said in a statement. “I do not wish to complicate these efforts, and I also do not want the lingering uncertainty about my possible involvement to become a distraction to my business and my family.”
NFL commission Roger Goodell has expressed that he wants at least one owner of the franchise to have a minimum 30 percent stake in the team. Dan, who also owns 16 percent, was originally trying to find an investor that would front him the cash needed to buy out his brothers, hence the original relationship with Stanley Druckenmiller. However, Druckenmiller wished for a majority stake in the company all to himself, and had proposed a cash offer estimated at $640 million.
Dan was also prompted to buy his brothers out when it was revealed that the Rooney family dabbles in gaming and casinos, an act that Goodell does not want franchise owners a part of. Patrick and John run the Palm Beach Kennel Club by the West Palm Beach, Florida airport while Tim operates Empire City located in Yonkers, New York.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
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