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.
CityWire – During the first three quarters of 2009 the total net inflow into investment funds amounted to SEK 70 billion (€6.8 billion) (over $10 billion). September became the tenth month in a row for net fund inflows.
Equity funds have received the bulk of the inflows in September, with net inflows of SEK 9.4 billion (€911 million) and bond funds had a net inflow of SEK 2.8 billion (€271.4 million). Also balanced funds and hedge funds had net inflows of SEK 1.9 (€184 million) and SEK 900 million (€87 million) respectively. Money market funds on the other hand recorded an outflow of SEK 3.9 billion (€377.4 million) last month.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – In an update from MENA hedge fund investor SilkInvest, CEO Baldwin Berges writes, “While the major economies are still fuelled on policy support level, there are several economies in our region of focus that benefit from authentic internal growth drivers that are not always in need of extra stimulus.”
“During the month of August, in anticipation of a possible correction of the summer rally in the majors, we have been taking some profits across our holdings, thereby increasing our cash levels in both our Arab and African equity funds to levels of around 15% and 13% respectively.” Berges says, “In hindsight, this decision seems to be paying off. Both funds arguably continue to be amongst the most diversified across markets and sectors within the fund peer groups. We retain the flexibility to invest in the right opportunities as they present themselves.”
Regarding the MENA markets, he said, “a development, although not very influential to stock prices, caught our attention: Yahoo, the popular Internet search engine, agreed to buy Arabic-language Internet venture Maktoob.com as it seeks to enter the Middle East market. Yahoo did not disclose the terms of the agreement. The transaction is set to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. This is interesting because Yahoo sees tremendous growth opportunities for Arabic content in the region and sees in excess of 30% annual growth in internet users in the region over the years to come.”
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!
Forbes – Banks should not be allowed to own hedge funds or equity funds and their trading activity should be limited, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore on Thursday.
‘A bank that generates the major part of its income from trading should not be allowed to have a banking license,’ Volcker, an economic adviser to the Obama administration, said.
Bloomberg – Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest casualty insurer, plans to trim hedge-fund investments and shift more of its portfolio in the industry to strategies such as macro and long-short equity funds.
Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., a unit of Tokio Marine Holdings with 8.4 trillion yen ($90 billion) in assets, will trim its holdings in hedge funds “slightly” this year from about 100 billion yen at the end of March, said Eisuke Shigemura, who runs the firm’s hedge-fund investment group. He declined to quantify the planned reduction.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Hedge fund investor consultant and adviser, Hennessee Group LLC, today announced some highlights from the first half of 2009 and the month of June, excerpts follow:
“Most hedge fund managers are not buying into the ‘Green Shoots’,” commented Charles Gradante, Co-Founder of Hennessee Group. “While markets rallied sharply in April and May, most managers remained conservative. I think we have reached an inflection point as momentum seems to have faded. We should see a return to stock picking based on fundamentals, which are rather negative. In addition, the technicals are also bad, leading us to believe in a summer correction.”
“Hedge funds have outperformed equity benchmarks by a 10% margin in the first half of 2009,” said Lee Hennessee, Managing Principal of Hennessee Group. “The outperformance is largely due to the ability of hedge funds to profit from their short portfolios, as we saw in January and February. While hedge funds are routinely publicized as high risk vehicles, the reality of the situation is that the average hedge fund has demonstrated significantly less volatility than traditional asset classes for the 22 years we have been advising investors.”
Despite a flat June, the second quarter gain was the strongest quarterly gain since 1998. In June, energy and materials sectors declined as worries mounted that the global economy could experience a drawn out recovery after the World Bank cut the global growth forecast.
Managers remain concerned that the recent rally in the financial markets and resurgence in confidence is built on hope supported by government stimulus rather than a real improvement in fundamentals (i.e., employment and housing).
Long/short equity funds will continue to rely on individual security selection while maintaining low levels of directional exposure as the official second quarter earnings season gets under way with the Alcoa earnings announcement on July 8th. Many managers are overweight technology in long portfolios, the top performing sector for the month and the year, while maintaining short positions in consumer and financial sectors.
Managers have found opportunities in strategic acquisition activity as well as distressed merger and acquisition activity.
After three months of strong gains, emerging markets cooled, declining slightly in June, but are substantially positive year to date. China was one of the few bright spots in June as the equity markets continued to advance. The Hennessee Macro Index declined -1.08% in June (+7.10% YTD).
While May was a record breaking month for commodities, June brought a sharp pull back. Positions in gold, silver, and agricultural commodities all detracted from performance as prices fell. Managers also suffered losses as the U.S. dollar rallied versus most currencies on speculation that the current market rally has ended and reports that the Fed will not expand its purchases of Treasuries. Oil was a positive, up +5.4% in June; although, many believe that prices are being driven by speculation and expect profit taking as oil is up +56.4% thus far this year.
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MSN India – Fund managers are aggressively selling the India theme to overseas investors. After Singapore-based Helios Capital’s fund manager Samir Arora’s India-focused Slumdog Millionaire Equity Fund, domestic brokerage firm India Infoline, run by Nirmal Jain, and Atlantis Investment Advisor headed by Vinay Gairola have launched India-focused off-shore funds.
While Gairola is trying to sell his India Alfa Fund to investors in West Asia, Singapore-based fund managers of India Infoline—Deepesh Pandey, the erstwhile deputy CIO of Mirae Asset, and Manish Srivastava, ex-fund manager of Halbis (HSBC Global Asset Management) — have conducted roadshows for the ‘Mumbai’ Fund in Hong Kong and US markets. Both are long-short equity funds and are likely to raise nearly $100 million.
Reuters – Hedge fund firm Polar Capital reported a fall in assets but has seen net inflows in recent months and said on Wednesday it was looking "more aggressively" at buying firms in distress.
Polar said assets under management fell to $1.54 billion at end-May from $3.1 billion at end-March 2008, although there has been a small rise since the end of March this year.
Chief executive Mark Kary told Reuters the firm had seen "small net inflows" since end-March, particularly into its global macro strategy and European long/short equity funds.
Bloomberg – Hedge funds returned an average 5.2 percent in May, the best performance in more than nine years, as they attracted more money and global markets rallied, Eurekahedge Pte said.
The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index, tracking more than 2,000 funds, has advanced 9.2 percent this year, according to a preliminary report by the research firm based on the 27 percent of funds that reported May performance. The industry recorded net inflows for the first time in 10 months in May, gaining $1.5 billion, while total assets rose by $5 billion, the report said.
“Numbers of this magnitude clearly won’t last, but I do think the industry will have a very good year,” said Peter Douglas, principal of GFIA Pte, a Singapore-based hedge-fund consulting firm. “What we like at the moment is equity long- shorts, and Asia is an equity story.” Long-short equity funds bet on rising and falling stock prices.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge fund manager, Majid Al Futtaim Asset Management, is launching its first Middle East and North Africa (MENA) equity fund, the Luxembourg domiciled ‘Elite MENA Equity Fund’.
Investors can invest alongside the family office of Majid Al Futtaim and gain access to the services of the portfolio management team responsible for the MENA equity investments. The Majid Al Futtaim family office has seeded the fund with Dh550 million ($150 million), making it one of the largest MENA equity funds available to investors.
"Investors deserve to have the best home for their money in both turbulent and stable investment environments." Iyad Malas, Chief Executive, Majid Al Futtaim Asset Management, said, "By opening the doors to the services of the portfolio management team responsible for Majid Al Futtaim’s family office, we offer investors a tried and tested place to invest. The Elite MENA Equity Fund offers investors an opportunity to invest with a team whose performance speaks for itself."
The new ‘long-only’ open-ended fund aims to achieve long-term asset growth and capital preservation through a ‘Risk-Managed Growth’ approach to MENA investments.
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GrowthBusiness.co.uk – Its proposals would, if enacted, put an additional burden on both funds and the companies in which they invest. They have been greeted with dismay in the City, but what would they mean for the industry?
The central notion is that fund managers should be subject to ‘harmonised’ governance standards across the EU, with robust systems put in place to manage risk, liquidity and conflicts of interest. The rules would apply to private equity funds with more than €100 million (£90 million) invested, though this threshold would be increased to €500 million for funds which do not use leverage and lock in their investors for a minimum of five years.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – The Saudi Capital Market Authority has approved Rasmala Investments request to launch two Saudi Equity funds. One of the funds ‘Rasmala Saudi Equity Fund’ will be managed according to the Shari’a guidelines approved by the fund’s Shari’a Committee Jadwa and the other will be a conventional fund.
"The funds will invest in companies and industries that are poised to benefit from continuing opportunities in the Saudi economy. We believe the steep correction the market has witnessed since late last year has created many valuable opportunities, particularly for investors who view the prospects and strength of the Saudi economy favorably," Muhammad Shabbir, Head of Asset Management and CIO, said.
"Both funds will be suitable for investors who seek capital appreciation over the medium to long-term and will focus on adding value through a robust stock selection process relying primarily on the fundamental analysis skills of Rasmala’s asset management team." Hamad Al Huthaili, Managing Director of Rasmala said, "Rasmala pioneered the fund-of-funds model in the MENA markets and the Company strives to provide high quality investment products to major segments of Saudi investors."
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Markets Media News – The New Year is likely to see several important shifts in alternative investing, according to Don Steinbrugge, managing partner of Agecroft Partners, a global consulting and third-party marketing firm for hedge funds.
Steinbrugge said during the fourth quarter of 2008, investor demand started to shift toward market neutral strategies, as well as toward strategies that used little leverage and provided investors with transparency and liquidity. That shift will likely continue throughout 2009, he said.
Short-biased funds, which have always been a small percentage of the marketplace, surged ahead in 2008, delivering double-digit returns and capturing a larger market share of alternative investments. Steinbrugge said investors are likely to continue to invest in short-biased funds, but their growth will be at a slower pace than last year.
Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) are likely to see a lot of demand as well, as they also delivered double-digit returns last year and proved they are not correlated with other hedge fund strategies. Steinbrugge said, however, that does not mean traditional long-short equity funds are on their way out.
"Long-short equity funds have actually done pretty well in comparison to the S&P 500," Steinbrugge said. "I don’t think you’ll see a huge shift out of long-short equity."
