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.
New York (HedgeCo.net) – In a move that shows that product innovation is still alive and well, Silk Invest, an asset management firm regulated by the FSA, has just announced the launch of its new UCITS Luxembourg domiciled fund.
Focused on frontier markets, the new fund will be named The Silk Road Income Fund. Silk Invest also has previously launched equities hedge funds African Lions and Arab Falcons.
“The Silk Road markets are under-represented in investor’s portfolios. The timing of our launch is perfect for investors as it enables them to take advantage of the re-pricing of risk in these markets.”Daniel Broby, Chief Investment Officer of Silk Invest, said, “Recent history shows that the collective Silk Route countries have consistently grown GDP faster than developed economies.”
As part of the fund development, Silk Invest conducted a survey of fixed income securities across the target regions, covering over 4,100 bonds and $480bn in total debt volumes. From this list the firm was able to filter out the most lucrative and liquid target asset universe, using a combination of credit and market-oriented stress tests.
“We aim to manage 60-80 holdings across 25 countries in the fund and are currently showing portfolio yields of over 16.5% with duration of 3.4 years.” John Bates, Head of Fixed Income at Silk Invest, said.
Baldwin Berges, Director of Business Development at Silk Invest, noted “Despite tough market conditions, we are seeing strong investor appetite for fixed income in these frontier regions as investors seek reliable returns from a diversified pool of assets. With Daniel Broby’s longstanding investment management track record, John Bates’ experience as a credit analyst and Patrick Landi’s experience in origination, we have put together a formidable team of people, all with hands-on experience in frontier markets.”
Editing by Alex Akesson
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!
Boston Globe – French bank BNP Paribas’s revenues from corporate and investment banking nearly doubled in the second quarter as robust investor demand boosted revenues from the bank’s fixed income business unit.
BNP Paribas’s CIB revenues totaled 3.351 billion euros ($4.82 billion) for the quarter, up 81 percent from the second quarter of 2008, and following record revenues of 3.696 billion euros in the first quarter of 2009.
”Once again, fixed income revenues were exceptional,” said David Thebault, head of quantitative sales trading, at Global Equities, in Paris.
Bloomberg – Kapstream Capital, Australia’s biggest fixed-income hedge fund, will almost double assets under management in the next month as pension funds seek returns in all market conditions.
The Sydney-based firm has secured investments that will take funds it oversees to A$1.2 billion ($965 million), from A$650 million, said founder Kumar Palghat, Pacific Investment Management Co.’s former head of portfolio management in Asia- Pacific. He aims to raise A$1.5 billion by end-2009 as investors switch to managers that made money even as global markets tumbled last year.
“People are recognizing that there are some opportunities in the credit space and they are more willing to start investing in them now,” said Robert Dasilva, managing director of Asia- Pacific fixed income in Sydney at Principal Global Investors, which manages $228 billion in assets globally.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Hedge fund and alternative investment advisory company, Tru/Alpha Capital Advisors (TACA), is being launched to specialize in international alternative markets, advising institutional and corporate clients, as well as high-net worth individuals.
Based in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, TACA is headed by Harvard-graduate and past Morgan Stanley executive Monty Bruell. Mixing its full-scale advisory expertise and network of reputable partners, TACA’s team brings years of experience, credentials and proven performance in the alternative and International investment marketplace.
The company is one of few African-American owned wealth and asset management companies in the southeast.
Tru/Alpha’s niche in the international and alternative markets offers more focused insight and expertise on strategies such as international equities, international fixed-income, structured notes, commodities and hedge funds among others.
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CNN Money – Money managers must offer new portfolios and keep cutting costs to survive in an era where frightened investors prefer safer fixed-income funds to stock and hedge funds, a report released Monday showed.
Badly bruised by last year’s financial crisis when tumbling markets and investor redemptions shrank global assets 18 percent to $48.6 trillion, asset managers face more tough times in 2009 and the years ahead, The Boston Consulting Group wrote in its seventh annual asset management industry survey.
Profits will shrivel again, likely falling to 30 percent or less this year from 34 percent at the end of 2008 and 38 percent at the end of 2007, the consultants forecast.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net) – Hedge fund GLG Partners has completed its private offering of $214 million aggregate of dollar-denominated convertible subordinated notes due 2014.
The notes bear interest at a rate of 5.00% per year and rank junior in right of payment to all of GLG’s existing and future senior indebtedness.
Noam Gottesman, chairman and co-CEO of GLG, Emmanuel Roman, co-CEO, and Pierre Lagrange, senior managing director of GLG Partners L.P. — each a director of GLG — purchased collectively $30 million of the notes from the initial purchasers as part of this offering, through certain of their affiliates.
The notes are convertible, at the option of the holder, into shares of GLG’s common stock at an initial conversion rate of 268.8172 shares per $1,000 principal amount of notes, subject to certain adjustments. The initial conversion rate is equivalent to a conversion price of around $3.72 per share.
GLG used a portion of the net proceeds from the offering of the notes to acquire a portion of the indebtedness outstanding under its credit agreement in a transaction that closed concurrently with the closing of the note offering. Around $285 million of $570 million principal amount of loans outstanding under the credit facility were acquired at 60% of par value.
The company said that any proceeds not used to acquire its outstanding indebtedness will be used by GLG for general corporate purposes to the extent permitted under the credit agreement.
New York-based GLG Partners is a hedge fund manager that manages equity and fixed income portfolios and investment funds. The firm also invests in public equity fixed income, and in alternative markets through options, futures and convertibles.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – The Treasury Department said that they have recieved 100 applications from potential fund managers interested in participating in the Legacy Securities portion of the Public Private Investment Program (PPIP).
A variety of institutions applied, including traditional fixed income, real estate, and alternative asset managers, such as hedge funds.
Successful applicants must demonstrate a capacity to raise private capital and manage funds in a manner consistent with Treasury’s goals, they must have experience investing in eligible assets and headquartered in the United States.
Applicants can expect to be informed of their preliminary qualification around May 15, 2009, when they can begin raising a minimum of $500 million in private capital that will serve as the investment that, pending further approval, will be matched with taxpayer funds.
Since announcing the program details on March 23, the Treasury has encouraged small, veteran, minority and women owned private asset managers to partner with other private asset managers. On April 6, Treasury extended the deadline for fund manager applications to provide more time to facilitate these types of partnerships.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – FSA regulated specialist asset management firm, Silk Invest Ltd, has hired John Bates, former Head of Credit Research Africa at investment bank Renaissance Capital, to spearhead its move into Frontier Fixed Income, an emergent hedge fund asset class.
“We will offer a liquid Frontier Market Fixed Income product, " Zin Bekkali, CEO of Silk Invest, said "Although largely focused on Sovereigns, there will be a corporate element that will represent up to 20% of the portfolio.”
Daniel Broby, Chief Investment Officer says he is “delighted John is coming on board, having seen the quality of his work whilst we were together at Renaissance. He is truly one of the few people who not only know the universe inside out but he is also of the few able to capitalise on that knowledge to obtain equity like returns in the frontier fixed income space.”
Prior to his work at the Renaissance Capital hedge fund, he was senior Emerging Market Credit Analyst at ABN Amro in London and West LB. John has a ‘BA Hons’ from University College London.
“John is yet another high level hire that is in line with our policy of recruiting the best skillset in African and Arab markets,” Dr Heinz Hockmann, the Chairman of Silk Invest, said.
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Reuters – In a period when volatile markets battered most hedge funds, global macro funds are proving their worth, Graham Capital Chairman Kenneth Tropin told Reuters.
During one of the hedge fund industry’s worst years, Graham delivered gains of up to 41 percent in 2008 by making good bets on currencies, stocks, interest rates and commodities. And because the firm invests in highly liquid futures, clients had monthly access to cash even as many funds blocked withdrawals.
The combination of liquidity and returns that are independent of the broader market could revive interest in global macro funds, Tropin said.
"For a long time there was a perception that the biggest returns, the best risk-adjusted returns, were in other strategies. Then we had a market environment last year where most hedge fund styles ended up being correlated to each other and to the equity markets as well," he said.
Graham manages $4.9 billion in assets in human-directed funds and computer-driven quantitative funds. Funds in both categories invest across fixed income, currency, commodity and equity futures.
"Our style of investing offers some benefits, including liquidity and diversification, that may have not been appreciated as much as they should be," he said.
Graham’s quant funds gained from 20 percent to 41 percent last year, while human-directed funds rose by 6 to 27 percent. By comparison, the average hedge fund lost 28 percent.
Barbados Advocate – There is a need for stock exchanges in Barbados and the Caribbean to attract new types of products and market activities.
Marlon Yarde, general manager of the Barbados Stock Exchange (BSE) has made the suggestion while addressing a recent function in Jamaica.
He spoke on the topic, “Strengthening Institu-tional Development in the Regional Capital Markets.
There are stock exchanges in Barbados, The Bahamas, Guyana, Jamaica, Eastern Caribbean, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Expansion must be done in a more co-ordinated way into the fixed income and debt market as internationally the market for these is even larger than for equity securities.
