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Blomberg – Hedge-fund assets increased by $21.4 billion in August as managers completed their best year- to-date return in almost 10 years, driven by rising stock markets amid signs of economic recovery, Eurekahedge Pte said.
Assets grew for a fourth straight month, adding about $100 billion, the largest sustained growth period since the end of 2007, the Singapore-based research firm said in a report posted on its Web site. Net inflows into the industry totaled $12.6 billion in August, while gains through performance were $8.8 billion, bringing total assets under management to $1.38 trillion, the firm said.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – In a statement outlining the Cayman Islands financial position, the Hon. McKeeva Bush, Leader of Government Business/Premier Designate issued a statement regarding recent media coverage suggesting that the Cayman Islands is bankrupt, “We can confirm that these accusations are incorrect,” she said.
Although Cayman’s two main industries, tourism and financial services, are significantly affected, “We are confident that the strength and resilience which has contributed to Cayman’s significant growth over the past 40 years will continue to serve the country well.”
The Government’s efforts include the cutting of Government expenditure, customs duties, licence fees, and a number of other indirect taxes.
The government has also implemented an aggressive inward investment programme through private sector partnerships which will result in a number of new infrastructure projects and other developments. These will result in the region of $3 billion of inward investment in the short to medium term.
“In three weeks time we will be presenting our Budget which will continue to maintain Cayman’s sound financial stability. The Cayman Islands is well placed to take advantage of the global economic recovery and we are committed to continuing the success of our indirect tax system which has served the country so well over its history.” McKeeva Bush concluded.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net alex@hedgeco.net 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!
Reuters – Buying of gold exchange-traded funds picked up, with holdings of the largest, New York’s SPDR Gold Trust, posting its biggest one-day percentage rise since March.
That buying underscored a fresh burst of investor interest from those seeking a refuge from faltering confidence on a broader global economic recovery. Traders said the core of that concern sprang from share prices after Shanghai stocks hit three-month lows this week.
Bloomberg – Threadneedle Asset Management Ltd. is seeking to increase its commodity fund to as much as $1 billion in the next two years as the global economic recovery drives a rally in oil, sugar and metals.
The London-based hedge fund, founded in 1994 and overseeing assets of $79.6 billion, is targeting a return of up to 15 percent this year from its Threadneedle Commodities Crescendo Fund, manager David Donora said in an interview. The $22 million fund returned 5 percent to July 27, he said. Commodity trading advisers, or managers who trade futures globally, returned 0.3 percent this year, data from Eurekahedge Pte Ltd. show.
“We are in the process of expanding our commodity fund,” said Donora, who has 25 years experience in raw materials and derivatives trading. “We are targeting between half a billion and a billion dollars for the fund in the next two years. We’re seeing an increased amount of interest.”
Reuters – The value of Japanese retail-targeted mutual funds rose to a 10-month high of 58.8 trillion yen ($613 billion) in July, lifted by inflows into international equities funds and strength in share prices, an industry body said on Thursday.
It was the sixth straight month of increases in the value of publicly placed investment trust funds, or "toshins", as signs of a global economic recovery boost investor confidence. The value was also helped by rises in share prices, with the benchmark Nikkei share average .N225 gaining 4 percent in July.
The overall value of publicly placed investment trust funds rose by 1.7 trillion yen or 3 percent from the previous month to 58.8 trillion yen in July, the highest since September, Japan’s Investment Trusts Association said.
Wall Street Journal – Jeffrey Gendell’s new hedge fund returned more than 25% during its first quarter, as bets on energy and a steady economic recovery paid off, according to a letter the manager sent recently to investors.
Gendell, who suffered big losses last year and is still winding down some old hedge funds, also criticized some of President Barack Obama’s policies and argued that political ”gridlock” could help equity markets in 2010.
The manager opened the new Tontine Total Return Fund in April after some of Tontine’s other funds lost more than 60% last year. The new fund, which focuses on more liquid, or easily tradable, securities, returned 25.3% in its first quarter after management fees, Gendell said in a July 20 letter to investors.
New York (HedgeCo.net) – Hennessee Group LLC, an adviser to hedge fund investors, voiced concern in early 2009 that the global financial crisis could enter a new and more dangerous phase, one that could push several international countries to the brink of failure and further hinder the global economic recovery.
Of particular concern to the Hennessee Group was the dramatic growth in external debt exposures of G7 and emerging countries and the increasing risk of another outright failure similar to that of Iceland when they had a debt to GDP ratio exceeding 900%. However, Hennessee Group research now indicates that this risk has begun to subside as the majority of countries have experienced a decline in their overall external debt exposure in recent months after reaching all time highs in 2008. That said, the Hennessee Group now believes this development could come at the cost of economic growth as the majority of the decline in external debt has been due to a dramatic drop off in bank lending to foreign institutions.
Charles Gradante, Co-Founder of the Hennessee Group, noted “While the decline in external debt, particularly for countries like the U.K., is a positive development and is likely to reduce the risk of another Iceland, we fear the primary driver behind the external debt reduction, specifically the drop off in external bank lending, could ultimately slow the pace of the global economic recovery.” The Hennessee Group believes it is essential to global growth that banks resume prudent external lending to businesses and individuals to further alleviate the financial crisis and promote economic growth.
In its February 2009 research paper, the Hennessee Group highlighted numerous countries, particularly in the euro zone, that appeared to be building uncomfortably high external debt levels in recent years relative to their economic output. The bright spot, at that time, was the low level of U.S. external debt to GDP output (84%).
The Netherlands reached an external debt to GDP ratio of approximately 328%, while Ireland had a similar exposure ratio to that of Iceland, a staggering 900%. The UK’s debt to GDP ratio reached 456% while Switzerland’s rose to 433%.
Gradante stated, “We believe the build up in external debt was both alarming and unsustainable, particularly for many European countries, and that if the trend continued we could be at risk of a major systemic event.” Gradante continued, “Since our initial analysis, the majority of countries have started to reduce external lending.
The U.K. has decreased its external debt by nearly $3.5 trillion from its high of $12.1 trillion in the first quarter of 2008. While we believe this is a positive development from the perspective that it alleviates our initial concern regarding another Iceland; a closer look at the underlying numbers has revealed a new concern. The vast majority of the reduction is due to a decline in external bank lending, which we believe will present additional challenges going forward. Of the $3.5 trillion decline in the U.K. external debt, $2 trillion can be attributed to a drop off in external bank lending. This could present additional challenges to an economic recovery.”
The Hennessee Group believes this new trend is not just a problem isolated to the U.K. but rather a worldwide issue. In a recent press release by the Bank for International Settlements, they stated, “After a relatively small change in total outstanding stocks in the third quarter, banks’ external claims shrank by 5.4% in the fourth quarter of 2008 ($1.8 trillion at constant exchange rates), to $31 trillion.” They added, “This was the largest reduction ever recorded.” The global economy may very well struggle to recover if the banks remain unwilling to increase external debt lending and may result in a resurrection of protectionism.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Uzbekistan hedge fund manager, Ansher Fund Management, has reported that their flagship hedge fund, Ansher Regional Property Fund, (ARPF) has maintained its performance moderately stable at –0.37% during April-June 2009 despite the still lagging property markets around the globe.
"Property markets in the region, especially Kazakhstan residential segment, continued slowing in the quarter owing to still limited or expensive mortgage facilities for buyers," Khurshid Kholov, fund manager and CIO said. "However, the decline rate in the region has been slower during the 2nd quarter as compared with previous quarters, showing signs of market recovery. Thanks to active portfolio management ARPF is still up by 0.80% since inception, thus comfortably outperforming all three benchmarks."
Despite the fact that the economy of Kazakhstan has been under pressure amid the global financial turmoil, a slight signs of economic recovery has been observed in the country, the fund manager said. It’s expected that the GDP of this oil rich country will not post negative growth for the year 2009, owing to currently recovering oil and commodity prices in the world markets.
This is the result of the antirecessionary measures the Government undertook in which $25 billion of funds were injected into the economy. About $4 billion out of this amount was directed particularly into the real estate sector of the country.
ARPF has seen new investment opportunities in the hotel sector after the residential real estate market dropped out. "The hotel sector is immature and currently existing 4 five star hotels in Almaty operate with 90% occupancy rate," ARPF said.
A sharp deficit is expected to emerge with the Asian Winter Games which will take place in Almaty in 2011. Real estate sector of this energy house country still offers promising investment opportunities for property investors in the long term.
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Reuters – World stocks pushed up to 9-month highs on Friday, cutting demand for government bonds as euro zone manufacturing and services reports beat expectations, fuelling optimism about economic recovery.
The euro hit a session high against the dollar and European shares reversed earlier losses to climb for a 10th session running after a better-than-expected German sentiment survey and improved data on the euro zone services and manufacturing sectors.
Reuters – Wall Street was set to open flat on Thursday, with investors eyeing retail sales and weekly jobless data for fresh insight into the state of the recession-hit economy.
* Investors will watch a 30-year treasury note auction for direction on interest rates, one day after a weak 10-year auction sent yields on the benchmark note to a eight-month high. The latest results are due at 1 p.m. EDT.
* Stock investors have been concerned that rates may dampen an economic recovery by increasing borrowing costs for consumers and businesses and are drawing money away from the stock market.
Bloomberg – Daniel Och had about 35 percent of his $20 billion of hedge-fund assets in cash during the first quarter because he suspects global stock markets will start falling again.
“The world will not just bounce back to where it was,” Och, the 48-year-old chief executive officer of New York-based Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, wrote last month in a letter to investors, referring to the gain of almost 35 percent in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since March 9. “We continue to believe that economic recovery will be a long process.”
OZ Master, Och-Ziff’s biggest hedge fund, rose 6.3 percent this year through April after losing 15.5 percent last year. The S&P 500 fell 3.4 percent in the first four months of 2009 after dropping 38 percent in 2008.
Alibaba News Channel – Investors generally put aside recent worries about the world economy and banking industry woes on Thursday, sending global stocks higher and reversing safety flows into the Japanese yen.
Mixed earnings plagued European markets, however, with Credit Suisse posting better-than-expected profits and engineering group ABB missing forecasts and giving a cautious outlook.
Euro zone purchasing managers provided the latest "green shoots" data to suggest some economic recovery. They signalled stabilisation in their sectors but also record job losses.
