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.
Reuters – HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank, is to unveil plans to enter into the European exchange traded fund (ETF) market with its first launch, the Financial Times said on Monday.
”We believe our future is linked to indexation and ETFs and not just active management,” Farley Thomas, global head of wholesale distribution at HSBC Global Asset Management, told the newspaper.
Bloomberg – A hedge fund, whose name isn’t disclosed, has placed a large bet that natural gas prices will triple by the Northern Hemisphere winter just as the price of the commodity slides to a seven-year low, the Financial Times reported, which cited New York Mercantile Exchange traders.
Last week, the fund spent millions for the right to buy U.S. natural gas at $10 per million British thermal units in January and February, up from yesterday’s spot level of just above $3 per mBtu, according to the report.
Center for Research on Globalization – The second wave of the world economic depression is coming soon. Larry Summers, the economics czar of the Wall Street puppet regime currently in power in Washington, recently confessed to the Financial Times in an unguarded moment: "I don’t think the worst is over .."
A few weeks earlier, Jacques Attali, who served in the 1980s as the main economics adviser to French President Mitterrand, told an audience at the International Economic and Financial Forum (FIEF) in Paris that the world might well soon face a planetary Weimar "in the form of a hyperinflationary depression similar to the German events of 1922 – 1923.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – The Alternative Investment Management Association, (AIMA) has launched a Directive Centre on their website as part of an on-going campaign to have the European Commission’s draft directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers revised.
It is intended as a resource for journalists and members of the public and contains everything relevant for our campaign, including press releases, guidance notes, FAQs and other resource materials issued by AIMA; speeches and articles on the directive and links to relevant documents, including the European Commission’s directive and details of its legislative process; and a quotations section featuring a host of different figures expressing their concern about the directive.
Those quoted expressing concern or reported as doing so include pension funds and pension fund industry groups, European institutional investors, global banks, international law firms, commercial real estate groups, private equity, Swedish and UK ministers, Irish officials, the chair of the European Parliament’s ECON committee, the US Treasury, the UK Conservative party, the Mayor of London, the German Funds association, the Financial Times and the Economist, and even Robert Peston, Jacques de Larosiere and Charles McCreevy.
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 UK – Lansdowne Partners, one of the country’s largest hedge fund managers, has stopped accepting investments in its flagship fund with several other big funds set to follow suit, according to the Financial Times.
It said the 4.9 million pound Lansdowne UK equities fund, which is up around 18 percent so far this year, was no longer accepting new money after more than $1.2 billion (728 million pounds) was withdrawn in record redemptions.
Reuters – The following corporate finance-related stories were reported by media on Friday:
* Fortress Investment Group, among the largest private equity and hedge fund firms, is looking to go on an acquisition drive, the Financial Times said, citing a memo passed to Fortress staff. [ID:nBNG147186]
* Spain’s Cosmen family and private equity group CVC have made a joint takeover approach for British bus and rail group National Express Group Plc, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people close to the situation. [ID:nLN409582]
New York Times Blogs – A move by the European Commission to adopt proposed regulation for hedge funds could end up igniting a transatlantic regulatory war, one of Britain’s hedge fund veterans warned in an interview with The Financial Times.
Stanley Fink, the former chief executive of Man Group dubbed the “godfather” of the British hedge fund industry, told the newspaper that tightened regulation being proposed by the commission would be “very restrictive” for non-EU funds, and could provoke retaliation by large swaths of the industry located outside the EU.
Reuters – Bank of America Corp’s primary investment management unit is drawing lower than expected bids after its likeliest suitor, BlackRock Inc, inked a blockbuster deal to buy Barclays Global Investor, the Financial Times reported, citing people close to the matter.
Bank of America has been trying to sell its Boston-based Columbia Management unit since earlier this year, but the bank has so far not announced a deal for the unit.
The company is hoping to get at least $3 billion from a sale of Columbia Management, but bids so far have come in closer to $2 billion, the paper said, citing the people.
Journalism.co.uk – The Financial Times has appointed Sam Jones as hedge fund correspondent. In his new role, Jones will be in charge of covering the global hedge fund industry.
"Hedge funds are in a state of crisis: they are hugely secretive and facing extremely tough times as governments move in with new regulation and banks pull back their lending operations," he told Journalism.co.uk.
NineMSN – Ospraie Management is launching two funds focusing on commodities and other liquid securities just eight months after it was forced to close its flagship fund amid huge losses on commodities trades.
The US hedge fund’s move, announced in a letter to investors, is a sign of growing confidence within the hedge fund industry.
"After much reflection and with a number of lessons learned, we see a set of opportunities today that we believe could create significant value for investors in coming years," Dwight Anderson, Ospraie’s founder, wrote in a letter last week obtained by the Financial Times.
OpEdNews – So writes Philip Augar in an April 13 Financial Times (FT) op-ed. He’s a former UK investment banker/broker and author of The Death of Gentlemanly Capitalism, The Greed Merchants, and most recently Chasing Alpha: How Reckless Growth and Unchecked Ambition Ruined the City’s Golden Decade. More on his newest book below.
He quotes Nicolas Sarkozy, a questionable choice, at the G 20 summit saying "The all-powerful market that is always right is finished," then on departure adding "a page has been turned." For Augar, that depends on whether a "free-market" successor is constructed, something "entrenched interests in America and Britain would be well-advised to encourage if they wish to remain centre stage."
Reuters – Highbridge Capital Management, the hedge fund majority-owned by JPMorgan Chase & Co, received $1 billion in net inflows this year, the Financial Times reported citing people familiar with the fund.
The inflows suggest that investors are tentatively returning to hedge funds after a dismal 2008 that saw record losses and withdrawals, the paper said in a report posted on it website.
