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.
Report On Business – Onex Corp. is offering retail investors a chance to put their cash beside its executives’ money in a distressed-debt fund that has recently delivered eye-popping returns.
The country’s largest private equity firm said yesterday that it plans an initial public offering of the OCP Credit Strategy Fund, which will offer individuals access to strategies that have returned 41 per cent so far this year.
The new fund is run by a team known as Onex Credit Partners, an 11-person group based in New Jersey that has managed an internal portfolio for Onex since 2001 that now holds $65-million. Backers of this fund include Onex founder and chief executive officer Gerry Schwartz and other senior Onex executives.
BusinessInsider – Hedge funds and investment banks are trading Lehman bankruptcy claims. And it’s not just a matter of a couple of distressed debt funds buying the claims—it really looks like they are being actively traded.
Credit Suisse, for instance, bought a $423 million claim from Citadel recently. And now it is looking to sell a $1 billion claim, according to Bloomberg.
We’re not quite sure how this market is working yet or how actively the claims are being traded. According to Bloomberg, Elliott Management, King Street Capital and Paulson & Co collectively have accumulated $13 billion of claims against Lehman. Silver Point Capital is also a buyer.
Reuters UK – Lenders to Eggborough, a large coal-fired power station, have exercised an option to acquire the plant, owner EDF said on Thursday.
The lenders, which include Bluebay’s distressed-debt fund, gained the right to acquire the 1,960 MW station through a restructuring of British Energy, acquired by the French utility at the beginning of 2009.
“EDF confirms that British Energy’s lending banks have exercised their option to acquire the Eggborough coal power station under the restructuring agreements made by the British government in 2005,” EDF unit EDF Energy said in a statement. The news was earlier reported by the Financial Times.
CNBC Stocks – The hedge fund says that with a “doomsday scenario off the table” in the second quarter, it put capital to work in distressed debt and significantly undervalued turn-around situations.
In terms of asset allocation, the fund reports that by June 30, net exposure in its long/short strategy was 37 percent, up from -3.4 percent on April 1. Allocation to credit grew to over 40 percent and risk arbitrage, 20 percent of the portfolio.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – BTIG LLC. announced that it has expanded its Prime Brokerage group to offer fixed income services, including trading and portfolio financing. The expansion into fixed income is in conjunction with the launch of BTIG’s Global Fixed Income Group in February of this year, which focuses on sales and trading of credit products across the full credit spectrum from investment grade to distressed debt.
BTIG Prime Brokerage previously covered equity and equity options and made the move to fixed income to better meet the needs of its hedge fund clients in today’s market.
“As our clients became more interested in fixed income products, we saw a huge need and opportunity to expand our services,” Justin Press, Managing Director and Co-Head of Prime Brokerage, said. “We have created a one-of-a-kind fixed income offering that will bridge the gap for hedge fund managers who have traditionally been operating in equities only.”
BTIG’s Prime Brokerage clients also benefit from the firm’s full range of expertise and services, including Outsource Trading, Market Intelligence, International Trading, and access to the Equity Derivatives team, Capital Introduction team and Commission Management services. The Prime Brokerage group was launched in January 2004 and caters to start-up and existing long/short equity hedge funds. Prime Brokerage and middle office operations have a combined 40+ professionals.
The Global Fixed Income Group has added 50+ professionals since its launch earlier this year.
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New York Times Blogs – In his court testimony on Wednesday in New York, Mr. Wilson — formerly a senior executive of Silver Point Capital, a hedge fund specializing in distressed-debt investments — described some of the negotiation process that shaped G.M.’s bankruptcy case. The administration’s auto task force had decided upon an asset sale plan by mid-May, as G.M. began a debt-exchange offer with its bondholders as part of a government-supported restructuring plan.
By pursuing an asset sale, G.M. could be assured of greater speed, certainty and the ability to shed unwanted liabilities, Mr. Wilson said.
Because the government was essentially G.M.’s lender of last resort, it could effectively dictate what it found acceptable as a turnaround plan, Mr. Wilson testified.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Institutional brokerage and hedge fund services company BTIG LLC, announced the further expansion of its Global Fixed Income Group with four new hires.
The Global Fixed Income Group was launched in February of this year by Jon Bass, formerly of UBS, and John Purcell, formerly of Citigroup. The group focuses on sales and trading of credit products, which will cover the full credit spectrum from investment grade to distressed debt.
George Chalhoub has joined BTIG from Deutsche Bank where he ran the high yield proprietary portfolio on the high yield desk. Chalhoub spent 15 years in high yield research at Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.
Mychal Harrison and Todd Sycoff have been hired as high yield traders in New York. Harrison joins BTIG from Barclays where he last traded high yield cash and credit default swaps. He began his career at Goldman Sachs in high yield syndicate before transitioning into high yield trading. Sycoff comes to BTIG from Bear Stearns where he was last on the buy side as the high yield portfolio manager in the asset management division. Prior to that, Sycoff spent 16 years on the trading desks of Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch as the head high yield trader.
Chris LeVine comes to BTIG from UBS where he was an executive director in the Fixed Income Sales Group focusing on investment grade and high yield credit. He will be in fixed income sales in BTIG’s New York office. Prior to UBS, LeVine worked at MarketAxess, Trading Edge and started his career at Morgan Stanley after Graduating Cornell University.
“We have been focused on expanding the firm’s capabilities in fixed income over the past few months and are excited to have George, Mychal, Todd and Chris join the group,” Jon Bass, Co-Head of Global Fixed Income, said. “Their combined experience will greatly enhance the efforts of our new division.”
“We have been able to attract top talent with deep institutional relationships and respected reputations on the Street that will help us better serve our clients in the fixed income area,” John Purcell, Co-Head of Global Fixed Income, said. “During the coming weeks, we expect to announce additional hires in fixed income as part of our overall plan to grow the group to 60 people globally this year.”
The Global Fixed Income Group was launched in February of this year by Bass, formerly of UBS, and Purcell, formerly of Citigroup, who together bring 50 years of fixed income experience to the BTIG team. The group focuses on sales and trading of credit products, which will cover the full credit spectrum from investment grade to distressed debt.
BTIG serves nearly 1,000 institutional customers and offers services from four divisions: Institutional Trading, Prime Brokerage, Outsource Trading and Direct Market Access. BTIG has offices in New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Greenwich, Red Bank, Aspen and Orinda. The firm also has affiliates in London, Hong Kong and Sydney.
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Reuters – Hedge fund manager Steven Persky plans to start betting on companies’ bad fortunes again.
Persky, who runs $1 billion hedge fund firm Dalton Investments, said on Wednesday he will re-launch his distressed debt strategy three years after liquidating two similar portfolios when the strong economy made such investing difficult.
Now that times have changed dramatically, Persky is among a handful of fund managers who expect to make money for their wealthy clients in the distressed area.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Singapore hedge fund manager, 3 Degrees Asset Management, is launching ADF Prime Ltd, a credit opportunities fund that will invest primarily in the performing debt obligations of Asian companies that have been mispriced as a result of the Global Financial Crisis.
3 Degrees also manages the award winning Asian Debt Fund, an Asian distressed debt fund that has been active since 2004.
In Asia, debt prices have corrected far more sharply than in the US and Europe. This is driven by technical factors, the fund manager says, as Asian investment banks unwind their portfolios, global hedge funds close their Asian operations, and capital is generally pulled from the region.
The new fund will capitalize on the systemic inefficiencies endemic to Asian credit markets. Due to the limited number of players, and the highly relationship‐driven nature of Asian markets, inefficiencies are being exaggerated by the global financial crisis.
Targeting quality companies that either have, or can generate, enough cash flow to repay maturing debt without dependence on capital markets, the fund seeks annual, unlevered net returns in excess of 25%.
3 Degrees has received numerous awards, including “Best Asian Distressed Debt Fund” and “Best Singapore Hedge Fund”. In 2007, Moe Ibrahim, the founder, was selected as one of 20 Rising Stars of Hedge Funds by Institutional Investor. ADF Prime will be co‐managed by Moe Ibrahim and Jeff Tolk.
ADF Prime is also available to institutional investors and ultra high net worth individuals via the Firm’s Managed Accounts platform.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Morningstar reported a sharp decline in credit and equity markets as the U.S. government announced its stimulus package and financial stability plan. February saw a huge sell-off in U.S. and European bank stocks caused by concerns of financial health and nationalization.
U.S. bank stocks hit a 17-year low and spreads on corporate bonds widened, according to the report.
"Hedge fund managers, like other investors, are nervous about the efficacy and unpredictability of government involvement in the economy. They just don’t know what the U.S. government will do next, and this uncertainty is wreaking havoc in the markets," said Nadia Papagiannis, Morningstar hedge fund analyst.
Widening spreads hurt hedge funds that invest in distressed debt, as lower-quality credits became cheaper. The Morningstar Distressed Securities Hedge Fund Index was one of the worst-performing category indexes, falling 4.1%. The Morningstar MSCI Specialist Credit and Relative Value Hedge Fund Indexes fell only 0.5% and 0.1%, respectively, as some areas of the credit market, such as leveraged loans, performed better than others.
Global non trend funds, those that make macro-economic bets, and global trend funds, those that bet on price trends in commodity and financial futures, showed mixed results in February. These funds took advantage of the rise in gold and the depreciation of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar, but volatility in other commodities such as oil caused declines.
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Telegraph.co.uk – Industry sources say private equity and distressed debt specialists have raised about $26bn (£17bn) since the start of October, with some 80pc coming from hedge funds.
Distressed debt funds, which buy debt that is trading at a discount because the borrower is at risk of defaulting, have been around for years but specialists are looking forward to a bonanza year in 2009.
Among the biggest distressed debt fund raisings since October have been Oaktree, which has secured $10.5bn, Towerbrook with $2.75bn, Intermediate Capital with $1.5bn, and Alchemy with $1bn. Hedge funds are also aiming to buy distressed debt directly from banks that are under pressure to offload liabilities to shore up their balance sheets.
Secondary debt, even senior loan notes, often trade below 70p in the pound and yield 25pc over five years if the debt is held – and survives – to maturity. If a company is strugglings with its covenants, debt holders can strike debt-for-equity swaps in return for keeping a company afloat – often a cost effective way of getting a seat at the table or control of a business.
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.
