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.
CNBC – Another of the once giant hedge funds is all but closing its doors. Atticus Capital founder Timothy Barakett, 44 years of age, is shuttering his flagship fund and returning $3 billion in capital to his investors. The roughly $1 billion left, Barakett’s personal fortune, will be managed by him in a so-called “family office”. Atticus will keep its European fund (not managed by Barakett), with roughly $1.5 billion under management, open.
Barakett says the decision was a personal one, driven by his desire to spend more time with his family. I don’t doubt it. But, I can’t help wondering whether Barakett’s exit is also due to the fact that most of the $3 billion he’s returning to investors is below its high water mark.
Boston Globe – The leaders of Germany, Britain, France, and Italy yesterday said that the resources of the International Monetary Fund should be doubled, to $500 billion, to help head off new problems in countries already hit hard by the global economic and financial crisis.
The officials also said, in a statement clearly aimed at hedge funds and other big private pools of capital, that "all financing markets and participants" need to fall under regulation in the future. And they vowed to make a tough push against tax havens.
With one eye on a crisis that is rapidly spreading to Eastern Europe and even countries that use the euro, the leaders highlighted the crisis-prevention role of the IMF, an institution whose relevance to the current global economy seemed in doubt only a few years ago.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – GlobeOp announced the strengthening its European-domiciled hedge fund administration services following the licensing of its Dublin office by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, expanding the company’s existing fund administration network based in the Cayman Islands and the USA.
The office is led by Jim Casey, GlobeOp’s global head of investor relations,"Ireland is a strategically important administrative center for European domiciled funds," Casey said, "Despite market turbulence this past year, the European funds sector continues to develop its long-term potential. I look forward to building a Dublin team whose best practices further strengthen our fund administration services globally.”
"The GlobeOp Ireland license allows us to directly service Irish domiciled funds and support European hedge fund clients and their investors with full fund administration services," Vernon Barback, GlobeOp president and chief operating officer said, "This includes independent and transparent fund performance reporting.”
The GlobeOp Ireland license allows GlobeOp to directly service Irish domiciled funds and support European hedge fund clients and their investors with full fund administration services.
With $108 billion in assets under administration, GlobeOp has more than 14,000 investors globally. Earlier this year the company opened a new hurricane-proof office in Caymana Bay, Cayman Islands and appointed Gary Linford, former head of the Investment & Securities Division of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), to its Cayman Islands subsidiary board.
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Reuters UK – British listed hedge fund manager Man Group Plc said on Monday first-half sales rose by about 25 percent to $10 billion, but its shares fell as market turbulence hit its funds under management.
Funds under management fell by $5.0 billion to about $70.3 billion — 12 percent down on the $79.5 billion at end-June — reflecting negative investment movement, Man said. Net inflows for the period rose 14 percent at $4.1 billion.
Shares in the group, which have lost 32 of their value over the last month, were down a further 5.4 percent at 353.5 pence, valuing the group at about 6.35 billion pounds, at 0737 GMT.
Reuters – Hedge funds are keeping borrowings and risk low and seeking sanctuary in safe-haven assets during the current market turbulence, but some are beginning to see opportunities to make attractive investments.
The events of the past few days — the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the $50 billion sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America and the $85 billion rescue of AIG — have hit funds’ returns and caused many to cut back their bets.
"Managers have been reining in leverage given the extreme volatility in the market. Sentiment is so bad, people are loath to make big bets," said Jack McDonald, chief executive of hedge fund service provider Conifer Securities.
Eclectica Asset Management, co-founded by high-profile hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry, told Reuters its hedge fund had 140 percent of net asset value invested in mid- and long-dated German bunds.
Reuters – Hedge funds are keeping borrowings and risk low and seeking sanctuary in safe-haven assets during the current market turbulence, but some are beginning to see opportunities to make attractive investments.
The events of the past few days — the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the $50 billion (28 billion pounds) sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America and the $85 billion rescue of AIG — have hit funds’ returns and caused many to cut back their bets.
"Managers have been reining in leverage given the extreme volatility in the market. Sentiment is so bad, people are loath to make big bets," said Jack McDonald, chief executive of hedge fund service provider Conifer Securities.
Eclectica Asset Management, co-founded by high-profile hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry, told Reuters its hedge fund had 140 percent of net asset value invested in mid- and long-dated German bunds.
The remainder of its exposure is to bond yield swaps and soft commodities.
Bloomberg – Nicola Horlick’s money-management firm, Bramdean Alternatives Ltd., pulled money out of hedge funds run by Nobel prize-winner Myron Scholes and James Dinan to focus on more defensive funds as volatility increases.
“In response to the continuing market turbulence,” Bramdean “is increasing the focus on capital preservation,” the London-based company said in a statement today.
Horlick’s firm pulled money from five of the eight money managers who oversee its so-called transitional portfolio. Bramdean redeemed investments in Dinan’s York Capital Management LLC’s Asian and European funds, and Scholes’s Platinum Grove Contingent Capital Offshore Fund.
The monthly reshuffle is Bramdean’s biggest since the firm raised 131 million pounds ($243 million) in a share sale a year ago. The transitional pool, Bramdean’s largest, fell 1.4 percent in July as hedge funds struggle through their worst patch in almost 20 years, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. HFR’s Global Hedge Fund Index fell 2.8 percent in July, its biggest monthly drop in five years.
