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) – Broker dealer BTIG LLC, has expanded its Capital Introduction team with the addition of Jennifer Bloom and Catherine Wagner as Vice Presidents to help drive the firm’s services to its Prime Brokerage and Outsource Trading clients.
The Capital Introduction team, which is led by Peter Tarrant, Managing Director and Head of Business Development at BTIG, works with a wide range of managers and has a particular expertise in new and emerging hedge fund managers. Through the firm’s network and existing client base of over 1,200 institutional clients, the Capital Introduction team looks to provide clients with effective and targeted introductions.
“Our ability to offer our Prime Brokerage and Outsource Trading clients an enhanced capital introduction team is an important move in BTIG’s strategic growth plan,” said Justin Press, Managing Director and Co-Head of Prime Brokerage at BTIG. “We are a client-led business and strive to provide added value at every stage of the client’s relationship with us.”
Ms. Bloom joins BTIG from Credit Suisse’s Private Fund Group where she was an Analyst. Prior to Credit Suisse, she was with Merrill Lynch’s Real Estate Investment Banking team. Ms. Bloom is responsible for capital introduction on the East Coast and across Europe. She is a graduate of Yale University.
Ms. Wagner joins BTIG from UBS where she was an Associate Director in the Prime Brokerage Sales team. Prior to UBS, she was an Investment Analyst for FirstWorthing. At BTIG, Ms. Wagner is responsible for delivering capital introduction coverage for the Western United States region. She is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin.
“Our strong network of senior level executives across the hedge fund industry and with institutional investors means that we can provide our clients with the most appropriate, high quality introductions to help further their growth,” added Tarrant.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Global hedge fund group, Nexar Capital Group SCA, announced the launch of an investment from funds managed by Aquiline Capital Partners LLC, a New York-based private equity firm.
The hedge fund firm was founded by industry veterans who built a market-leading hedge fund business at Société Générale Asset Management Alternative Investments, led by Arié Assayag, Chief Executive Officer; Eric Attias, Chief Investment Officer; and Bernard Kalfon, Head of Volatility Strategies.
“As an independent company, Nexar has a long-term approach that aligns our interests with those of our clients and allows us to provide them with superior investment management,” said Mr. Assayag. “Aquiline’s depth of investment management experience immediately gives us the strength and stability of an institutional platform, thus making Aquiline an ideal partner as we build our business.”
“Nexar’s team built its strong reputation in the industry through its success in growing and managing a leading hedge fund business,” said Jeff Greenberg, Chief Executive of Aquiline. “Recent market turmoil has underscored the importance of transparency, liquidity and true alpha generation, which are core elements of Nexar’s approach.”
Nexar has more than 30 investment professionals in New York and Paris and will provide clients the ability to invest in a “variety of hedge fund products,” including funds of hedge funds and volatility arbitrage funds.
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!
New York (HedgeCo.net) – Global Hedge Fund Group said that their flagship fund, the US Equity Market Neutral Fund showed annual returns of between 22-45%, accompanied with a volatility of 8-12% per annum.
The fund commenced trading on 20 August 2001 with initial assets of $14 million from institutional investors. The strategy employs a proprietary factor model which measures trends in observed stock prices and expects to profit from market inefficiencies over time.
Global Hedge Fund Group works in close association with research firms, hedge fund managers, and brokerage houses.
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!
Pittsburgh Tribune Review – Tollgrade Communications Inc. is challenging the independence of two nominees for seats on its board of directors because a dissident hedge fund group is paying them to run as part of its bid for control.
Tollgrade, based in Harmar, said the fact that Ramius Group is paying $40,000 for two people to serve as nominees to the board could represent a conflict of interest.
The telecommunications services company is girding for a showdown when shareholders gather to vote at their annual meeting on Aug. 5.
Post Chronicle – U.S. securities regulators charged a prominent hedge fund industry executive on Wednesday with failing to properly review collapsed hedge fund Bayou Group before recommending that their clients invest.
Hennessee Group and its principal Charles Gradante, who runs the New York-based group with his wife, failed to research the hedge fund group as vigorously as promised, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged.
The news is a big blow to Gradante and the Hennessee Group, which established their reputation in the $1.3 trillion hedge fund industry by tracking funds’ returns, industry flows and creating portfolios for clients.
Boston Globe – Investors of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff have filed 18 lawsuits against Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in an effort to recoup $3.3 billion that its hedge fund group lost in the scandal. But the Springfield insurer is trying to distance itself from the ordeal and says it has no liability in the matter.
MassMutual maintains that the losses racked up by investors in its hedge fund group, Tremont Group Holdings Inc., are their own – and not the responsibility of the insurance company. Tremont had the second-largest loss among Madoff clients after Fairfield Greenwich Advisors, a New York hedge fund that lost $7.5 billion.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Investment management company Legg Mason Inc. has launched a global multi-asset tactical allocation mutual fund named Legg Mason Permal Tactical Allocation Fund. The fund, which targets institutional and retail taxable and tax-exempt investors, will be managed by Legg Mason’s fund-of-hedge-funds affiliate, Permal Asset Management.
Legg Mason said that the fund is an opportunistic and diversified product, which seeks to benefit from any market condition and to outperform a traditional 60/30/10 (equity/fixed income/cash) portfolio over a medium-term time frame.
"Permal has an expertise in asset allocation and a deep global perspective and we believe they can find opportunities in these markets to deliver value to our clients." Matt Schiffman, Head of Americas Retail at Legg Mason said, "This is an innovative way to bring their fund of hedge fund expertise to traditional asset classes in a mutual fund offering."
The asset allocation strategy is designed to exploit perceived inefficiencies or imbalances in equity, fixed-income or other asset classes in any region or country, said the Baltimore, Maryland-based mutual fund group.
The fund will invest primarily in both passive and actively managed investment funds, to include specifically, affiliated and unaffiliated open-end mutual funds, unaffiliated closed-end mutual funds and exchange traded funds and notes, as well as cash equivalents and alternative investments.
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!
Greenwich Time – The Greenwich-based Viking hedge fund group run by Andreas Halvorsen started a new fund to focus on buying stocks after selling them short became more risky.
Viking Long Fund LP began trading last month after initially raising about $80 million, the firm said in a Jan. 15 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Halvorsen, a former protege of hedge-fund manager Julian Robertson at Tiger Management LLC — making him a so-called "Tiger cub" — oversees about $9.5 billion at Viking Global Investors LP in Greenwich.
The new fund avoids selling stocks short, which is a departure from Viking’s long-short strategy of trying to make money regardless of the market’s direction. In an October letter to investors, Halvorsen said the scope for expansion is much greater for buying stocks than for selling them with the expectation of further drops.
Wealth Bulletin – Geneva-based Union Bancaire Privée emerged as the largest fund of hedge funds provider, replacing UBS Global Asset Management at the top, with $56.8bn, according to the InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club.
Funds of hedge funds showed the first signs of an asset slowdown in the first half of this year, but still managed a net inflow of nearly $50bn despite turbulent markets and lacklustre returns, according to a FINalternatives report.
As per the latest survey of the InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club, funds of funds recorded an average negative return of 1.25% for the first six months of the year, and grew their overall assets by only about 4.5%, compared to 17% during the corresponding period last year.
