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.
Winton Capital Management Ltd., the U.K. hedge fund with $12 billion in assets, will start a new fund in Japan and hire staff in Hong Kong as it expands when rivals such as Citadel Investment Group LLC retreat from Asia.
The London-based firm is going to advise a new fund sold to Japanese retail investors through Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. that will track the performance of its flagship commodity trading adviser fund as it seeks a slice of the nation’s $15 trillion in personal savings.
Bloomberg – Ronnie Wu, chief investment officer of the $400 million hedge fund of funds house Penjing Asset Management Ltd., will start a pool of money dedicated to providing early investments to new hedge funds next month.
It aims to make five to six investments with the flagship Penjing Asia Fund by year-end, he said in an interview yesterday. The new pool will begin with about $25 million from Wu’s family and friends and then raise capital from investors after the initial money has been deployed.
Reuters – Mellon Capital Management, which invests money for pension funds and others, plans to launch a new hedge fund in August, a top executive said on Tuesday.
The new portfolio, which is slated to become the group’s flagship hedge fund offering, will invest in currencies, commodities, stocks, bonds and derivatives.
"This will be the first time that Mellon Capital will offer clients a commodity alpha source," said Eric Goodbar, the firm’s hedge fund strategist.
Bloomberg – Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, Europe’s largest hedge-fund manager, spun off groups of credit and currency traders to manage two new funds, people familiar with the situation said.
Luke Ding, who trades foreign exchange for the flagship Brevan Howard Master Fund, will manage Brevan Howard Macro FX, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the plan hasn’t been made public. The Luxembourg-registered fund will be open to individual and institutional investors.
Nasdaq.com – Jeffrey Gendell of Tontine Partners LP, who is closing two of his hedge funds after steep losses, has raised money for his new Tontine Total Return Fund, according to regulatory filings.
The Tontine Total Return fund, which Gendell said would be launched in February, has received $11 million from investors, according to a May 21 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A separate filing shows the overseas version of the fund has raised $1.6 million. A Tontine spokesman declined to comment.
Gendell last year began to shut down his Tontine Capital Partners LP Fund and flagship Tontine Partners Fund, after heavy losses. That was after his flagship fund had averaged annual returns of about 39% from 1997 to 2007.
Reuters – Warren Lichtenstein’s Steel Partners LLC is forging ahead with a controversial plan to convert its flagship hedge fund, Steel Partners II, into a publicly traded holding company in the face of opposition from shareholders calling for liquidation.
The New York-based firm told limited partners, in a shareholder letter dated Tuesday, that they have until June 5 to either approve its plan to convert the fund into shares in a listed company, Steel Partners Holdings, or elect to receive a share of the fund’s assets. Both options will also distribute some cash.
Reuters – Warren Lichtenstein’s Steel Partners LLC is forging ahead with a controversial plan to convert its flagship hedge fund, Steel Partners II, into a publicly traded holding company in the face of opposition from shareholders calling for liquidation.
The New York-based firm told limited partners, in a shareholder letter dated Tuesday, that they have until June 5 to either approve its plan to convert the fund into shares in a listed company, Steel Partners Holdings, or elect to receive a share of the fund’s assets. Both options will also distribute some cash.
"For myself and many of our investors, the option provided by Steel Partners Holdings is too compelling to ignore," Lichtenstein said in his investor letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
Reuters – Man Group, the world’s largest listed hedge fund firm, is likely to extend the independent valuation of its flagship AHL strategy to calm investors spooked by Madoff, sources familiar with the matter said.
AHL, a $25 billion (16 billion pounds) family of managed futures funds which bet on trends in global futures markets, currently uses a mixture of internal and external administrators to value its constituent funds, which tend to be in liquid and easier-to-value markets.
However, with investors more focused than ever on independent administration in the wake of the fraud by U.S. financier Bernard Madoff, Man is ready to embrace a greater balance of third party input.
Bloomberg – DragonBack Capital Ltd., a Hong Kong-based manager co-founded by a former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. executive, reopened its flagship hedge fund to investors after redemptions cut assets in the fund.
Assets in the Asia-Pacific Equity Multistrategy Fund fell 47 percent from the end of October peak, to $310 million, Chief Executive Officer Robert Lance said in an interview yesterday.
The fund’s 3.75 percent gain in 2008 put it among less than a third of hedge funds that made money in the worst year for the global industry. Investors have reduced holdings in some profitable funds after their weightings in portfolios exceeded limits set for specific hedge fund strategies.
Bloomberg – DragonBack Capital Ltd., a Hong Kong-based manager co-founded by a former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. executive, reopened its flagship hedge fund to investors after redemptions cut assets in the fund.
Assets in the Asia-Pacific Equity Multistrategy Fund fell 47 percent from the end of October peak, to $310 million, Chief Executive Officer Robert Lance said in an interview yesterday.
Reuters – Hedge fund firm Harbinger Capital Partners LLC swung into the black with investors saying the flagship fund gained between 6 and 8 percent in the first quarter.
That is good news for the New York-based firm, run by Philip Falcone, and its clients after Harbinger Capital Partners Fund I lost roughly 28 percent last year.
Bloomberg – Philip Falcone, who runs the $7 billion Harbinger Capital Partners LLC, is starting a hedge fund that draws on his background in distressed securities, even as investors are locked into his biggest fund.
The Credit Distressed Blue Line Fund will buy troubled loans and bonds, and bet against higher-rated debt, the New York-based firm said in a March 16 letter to investors. The firm’s flagship $5 billion Harbinger Capital Partners Fund I limited withdrawals to 65 percent of its assets last year because of private-equity investments, which are harder to sell than publicly traded stocks.
