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.
Explore the most informative hedge fund articles and take the news with you, using HedgeCo RSS.
Still want more? Browse the hedge fund blogs, authored by hedge fund industry experts.
Bloomberg - Artradis Fund Management Pte, RAB Capital Plc’s Northwest unit and Cannizaro (Hong Kong) Ltd. are cutting fees and locking up investors’ money for longer in new hedge funds that will buy bonds after prices fell in Asia.
Merrill Lynch & Co.’s prime brokerage unit has been approached by at least eight money managers about starting such funds in Asia to buy beaten-up fixed-income securities such as convertible bonds, said Eddie Guillemette, the firm’s regional co-head of global markets financing and services. Some of the hedge fund managers are offering to reduce management and performance-based fees by as much as 50 percent, he said.
“You’ve got people who are now setting up vehicles with long lockups to take advantage of distressed or stressed asset classes where the pricing is now at a multidecade level of cheapness,” said Richard Johnston, Hong Kong-based Asia head of hedge fund consulting firm Albourne Partners Ltd. The UBS Convertible Asia ex-Japan Index is down 37 percent in dollar terms this year.
Reuters - Ramius Capital, an activist hedge fund, is informing its investors that it will close four funds with a combined $550 million in assets, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the fund.
The assets of the four funds are focused in convertible bonds, distressed credit and securities of merging companies, the paper said.
Ramius’ biggest fund, the $2.1 billion multistrategy Ramius Fund, could shrink by about $500 million or more if investors stick with plans to pull out money, the paper said citing people familiar with the fund.
"Going forward, these strategies will continue to be important allocations in our multistrategy funds and will continue to be managed by the same portfolio teams," a spokesman for Ramius told the paper.
Bloomberg - Artradis Fund Management Pte, RAB Capital Plc’s Northwest unit and Cannizaro (Hong Kong) Ltd. are cutting fees and locking up investors’ money for longer in new hedge funds that will buy bonds after prices fell in Asia.
Merrill Lynch & Co.’s prime brokerage unit has been approached by at least eight money managers about starting such funds in Asia to buy beaten-up fixed-income securities such as convertible bonds, said Eddie Guillemette, the firm’s regional co-head of global markets financing and services. Some of the hedge fund managers are offering to reduce management and performance-based fees by as much as 50 percent, he said.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) - New York City-based Ramius Capital will close four of its hedge funds that manage about $550 million in capital, the Wall Street Journal reports citing people familiar with the matter.
The closing hedge funds are concentrated in convertible bonds, distressed credit and securities of merging companies.
Some of the money in these funds could be transferred to Ramius’ largest, $2.1 billion multi strategy fund. However, as the company deals with a wave of redemption requests, the multi strategy fund could be in danger of losing about $500 million of its value.
“Going forward, these strategies will continue to be important allocations in our multi-strategy fund and will continue to be managed by the same portfolio teams,” Ramius told the Wall Street Journal.
Ramius currently manages about $10 billion in capital. It recently offered its main hedge fund clients lower management fees to keep their loyalty with the firm.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
guardian.co.uk - Bolder hedge funds are looking to snap up convertible bonds at bargain prices, returning to an asset class that became a no-go area for them only a short while ago.
The convertible bond market has tumbled 44.5 percent since September, as hedge funds facing a wave of client redemptions paid back bank debt. Many said convertible arbitrage strategies were a thing of the past.
But yields are now reaching all-time highs and are starting to attract the first daring hedge funds back to the investment arena they traditionally dominated.
"You can buy a convertible right now on a 25 percent discount to the same bond issued by the same company," Emmanuel Roman of GLG Partners, one of Europe’s biggest hedge funds, told a recent conference.
"You get a 25 percent discount plus a call option. That doesn’t make any sense," he said.
AllAboutAlpha.com - Several pundits have recently pronounced the so-called “hedge fund model” to be dead (or at least “upended“). But is the patient clinically dead, or is it just having an out-of-body experience? After the recent trauma experienced by the sector, hedge fund administrators will likely play a central role in bringing the industry back from the other side.
Hans Hufschmid, the CEO of GlobeOp, one of the world’s biggest hedge fund administrators, recently told the FT that:
“There will be tremendous trading opportunities. We are seeing opportunities that we haven’t seen in our lifetime, just in terms of relative trading let alone directional…
“Convertible bonds are extremely cheap, there are mortgages that are extremely cheap and distressed assets that are extremely cheap. There are lots of opportunities that are ideal for hedge funds to take advantage of.
“Further, hedge funds will face less competition with investment bank proprietary trading desks largely disappearing from the market.”
CNBC - A Goldman Sachs hedge fund that launched in January with over $6 billion under management lost close to $1 billion by September, according to the Financial Times.
The fund, known as Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, has told investors it lost $989 million by September, the newspaper said on Monday.
Most of the fund’s losses stemmed from investments in commodities, basic materials, metals, mining, energy and agriculture, the FT said.
Losses from investments in convertible bonds — debt instruments that can convert into equity — also contributed to poor returns, the newspaper said.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) - Citadel Investment Group announced yesterday it will shut down its $1 billion fund of hedge funds portfolio and use the capital to invest in other businesses.
The Fusion fund was launched a year and a half ago, with nearly 95 percent of the capital coming entirely from Citadel. The money will be used to invest in businesses that finance new asset managers. The remaining 5 percent of capital will be returned to investors.
"We have seen strong interest in the incubation and seeding strategies that we’ve developed," Katie Spring, spokeswoman for Citadel told Bloomberg News. "We believe these will be important components of expanding investment talent over the years to come.”
This move comes after months of swirling rumors that the $18 billion firm, headed by Kenneth Griffin, may not be able to weather this year’s credit crisis. Citadel’s largest fund, the $10 billion Kensington Global Strategies, has fallen 30 percent this year stemming from losses tied to convertible bonds.
Seeding has seen a spike in popularity in recent years. It involves focusing on new and emerging funds and fund managers in hopes of someday partaking in profit sharing once the fund experiences success. Seeding is something that new hedge funds generally seek out if start-up capital isn’t readily available, to help get their fund off the ground. New hedge funds may receive anywhere from half a million dollars to several hundred million dollars.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
Minneapolis Star Tribune - Hedge fund manager Whitebox Advisors won’t let customers cash out, according to a national publication that follows the lightly regulated industry that manages money for affluent individuals and institutions.
The Minneapolis firm, which runs about $4 billion in investor assets through several funds and strategies, is drafting a letter to investors that explains recent investment losses and constraints and the terms under which investors may redeem some of their money, according to the Oct. 22 edition of Hedge Fund Alert.
The publication, which circulates among investment managers, said Goldman Sachs put Whitebox in a box earlier this month by requiring that the firm double the amount of collateral it puts up against margin loans used to trade convertible bonds. That puts Whitebox in a temporary squeeze because it must put up more of its own capital and devalued holdings against its margin accounts, which are trading accounts that use borrowed money in part to invest.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) - The largest hedge fund run by Citadel Investment Group has fallen 30 percent this year stemming from losses tied to convertible bonds. The $10 billion Kensington Global Strategies Fund has been hit hard by the credit crunch, prompting CEO Kennith Griffin to warn investors that returns may be extremely volatile in the next few weeks.
Yesterday, Mr. Griffin sent a letter to investors stating that September was the “single worst month, by far, in the history of Citadel. Our performance reflected extraordinary market conditions that I did not fully anticipate, combined with regulatory changes driven more by populism than policy.”
Rumors of the lagging performance were so strong that Mr. Griffin was forced to set the record straight. He also cited the temporary ban of short selling as one of the reasons for the losses, saying it “created material dislocations across many of our portfolios and disrupted our ability to assume and manage risk.”
Yesterday, Dealbreaker.com had published some of the swirling rumors highlighting Citadel’s problems, fueling fear and speculation in the market. The website eventually took the post down after Citadel expressed their disdain. Dealbreaker wrote: “We removed the citadel post after it was brought to our attention that it was a baseless rumor, and was irresponsible to repeat.”
Dealbreaker had pointed out that the fund uses 4 to 1 leverage, down from 7 to 1 earlier this year. Although they noted that this was high, it is not uncommon for hedge funds to use this much leverage, though some choose to use none. To put it into perspective, Long Term Capital Management and its infamous collapse used 25 to 1 leverage, or for every $1 they had, they borrowed $25.
Citadel was founded in 1990 and manages over $20 billion in assets throughout locations in the United States, Asia, England and Bermuda.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - Morningstar, Inc. reported that hedge funds reported the worst losses in the Morningstar Hedge Fund Index’s history, which began in January 2003.
In September, the Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund index dropped 7.87%, more than double August`s losses. Hedge funds entered the third quarter virtually flat for the year, but the index`s 13.17% third-quarter drop dragged year-to-date performance into the red.
"In September, the financial world as we know it turned upside down. We saw a shakeout in the hedge fund industry all around the globe. Hedge funds experienced poor borrowing, hedging, and trading conditions while liquidity dried up and volatility skyrocketed," said Morningstar hedge fund analyst Nadia Van Dalen.
Hedge funds were affected by extreme and unforeseen events during the month, including failures and takeovers of mortgage agencies, banks, insurers, and prime brokers.
As the world watched in anticipation of a U.S. government bailout, the global equity markets roiled. The Morningstar Global Equity Hedge Fund Index lost 11.22% in September. The Morningstar Europe Equity Hedge Fund Index declined 9.62% during the month but outperformed the MSCI Europe Index by more than five percentage points, while the Morningstar US Equity Hedge Fund Index underperformed the SandP 500 Index by more than one percentage point.
Developed Asia and emerging markets equity hedge funds managed to avoid some of the market losses, as these indexes outperformed the MSCI AC Asia Index and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by about five percentage points in September. For the year to date, however, these emerging markets funds have taken more than a 30% hit.
Hedging proved difficult for hedge funds this month. The SEC and the FSA announced temporary bans on shorting financial stocks. Many convertible arbitrage funds taking long positions in financial sector convertible bonds were unable to hedge with short stock positions. The Morningstar Convertible Arbitrage Hedge Fund Index lost 12.39% in September. Fortunately, some equity arbitrage hedge funds were able to avoid financials. The Morningstar Equity Arbitrage Hedge Fund Index lost only 4.60%.
Debt-oriented hedge funds also experienced hedging problems. Credit default swaps, a common way to hedge bond exposure, became more expensive and less attractive with fears of default and counterparty risk. Both the Morningstar Debt Arbitrage and the Morningstar Global Debt Hedge Fund Indexes underperformed global and U.S. bonds, losing 4.39% and 7.50% respectively. The Morningstar Distressed Securities Hedge Fund Index closed the month down 6.21% as risky debt yields rose.
Global trend following hedge funds actually profited from some of the downward trends in the market, as these funds trade stock index futures as well as interest rates, currencies, and commodities. The Morningstar Global Trend Hedge Fund Index lost only 1.26% in September, the best-performing category other than short equity. The Morningstar Global Non-trend Index, comprised of funds with a more macro-economic approach, slid only 1.56%.
Funds of funds performed in line with the Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index, outperforming the index by about 20 basis points in September, but falling slightly short for the quarter and year to date. The Morningstar Multistrategy Hedge Fund Index underperformed the overall index by about 200 basis points in September.
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!
Economist - Hedge funds are supposed to hedge. This year, they haven’t. The fund-weighted composite index compiled by Hedge Fund Research, a firm that tracks the industry, fell by 4.7% in September, the second-worst month on record. Since the start of the year it has lost 9.4%. The industry’s promises of “absolute returns” for investors now ring rather hollow.
To be fair to them, hedge funds have not been allowed to hedge. The restrictions on short-selling (betting on falling prices) imposed by regulators round the globe have played havoc with managers’ strategies in recent weeks.
Take the worst-performing strategy, convertible arbitrage, which lost the average fund 12% in the month. Convertible bonds are fixed-income securities that can be exchanged for shares in the issuing company. Historically, these bonds have been underpriced, because too low a value has been placed on the right to convert them to equity. So arbitrage managers have tended to buy the bonds and sell short the shares. Thanks to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ban on the shorting of more than 900 stocks from September 19th to October 8th, that strategy no longer worked. And since the managers could not short the shares, they had to sell the bonds. As a result, the bonds’ prices plunged.