TimesOnline – Hedge funds and private equity groups are deeply anxious that a wave of proposed European legislation on disclosure could push them out of business, with little resistance from the Tories.

Hedge funds and private equity firms are desperate for Lord Myners, the City Minister, and Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, to help them to fend off new rules that would force them to reveal more about their investment portfolios and to seek approval for increased borrowing requirements.

On the advice of the Business Secretary, the funds and private equity groups have beefed up their lobbying teams and have earmarked an estimated €10 million (£9 million) for a campaign against a regulatory regime that they say would be highly punitive. The funds are banking on the Treasury and Lord Mandelson to fight off the regulations, which are expected to be agreed in March.

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Tags: disclosure, equity groups, european legislation, hedge funds, investment-portfolios

Reuters – Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, is in New York on Friday to meet with hedge funds, private equity funds and pension groups to promote the government’s plan to cleanse banks’ balance sheets of toxic assets, a source familiar with the meeting said on Friday.

Bair has said she would like all types of investors to participate in the Public-Private Investment Partnership PPIP.L, including private equity groups and individual investors.

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Tags: assets, balance sheets, banks, equity groups, federal deposit insurance, federal-deposit-insurance-corp, individual investors, insurance, private investment partnership, private-equity-funds, reuters, sheila bair

Hedge Funds Review – US hedge fund managers could be subject to higher personal taxes if changes to the taxation rules included in President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget proposal are adopted.

The budget proposal includes measures to treat carried interest as ordinary income as opposed to capital gains for tax purposes. That would raise taxes on income earned from performance and incentive fees from the current rate of 15% applicable to capital gains to over 39%.

Carried interest has been a sensitive topic in Washington for many years. Some politicians have argued that hedge funds and private equity groups have used the carried interest exemption to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

The proposed change in tax rules could have a deep impact on the earnings of hedge fund managers. The compensation structure at many hedge fund companies puts the onus on performance and incentive fees as the principal source of income for the manager.

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Tags: barack obama, budget proposal, capital-gains, compensation structure, current-rate, deep impact, earnings, equity groups, fair share, fund-managers, incentive fees, measures, onus, politicians, principal source, sensitive topic, tax purposes, taxation