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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Global hedge fund industry group, The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), has welcomed the principles for hedge fund regulation published by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) today.
“We are very happy to welcome the publication of this report today because AIMA has already announced its support for several of the high level principles mentioned in it." Andrew Baker, AIMA CEO, said, “In our new policy platform of 24th February, we said that we supported global registration for managers and we are glad that IOSCO has also come out in favour of this.
“We also expressed our support for the reporting of systemically relevant information by managers of large hedge funds to their national regulators, and this is another one of IOSCO’s key principles.
“We are also delighted that IOSCO refers to the ‘development, implementation and convergence of industry good practices’ because AIMA has been extremely active in this area and is continuing a great deal of work on it with the other groups involved. We are following up on a G20 action point in this respect," he continued.
In a note of caution, however, Baker said, "We would stress that it is hedge fund managers, rather than the funds themselves, that should registered. It is also mentioned that hedge funds use derivatives for speculative purposes without stating that exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives are principally used by the relevant market participants for risk management purposes."
“Finally, we are concerned that these recommendations may lead regulators to seek quantity rather than quality of data. It is important that regulators have the expertise and resources to deal with the data they receive.”
AIMA has more than 1,100 corporate members worldwide, based in 40 countries, including hedge fund managers, fund of hedge funds managers, prime brokers, legal and accounting firms and fund administrators.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Global hedge fund association AIMA (The Alternative Investment Management Association), has published the world’s first global Guide to Sound Practices for Funds of Hedge Funds Managers.
The guide was developed by some of the world’s leading funds of hedge funds practitioners. It focuses on areas including risk management, due diligence, disclosure to investors, valuation, management of conflicts of interest and other operational issues. The group consisted of Unigestion, Financial Risk Management; Man Investments; Fauchier Partners; Pacific Alternative Asset Management; Ivy Asset Management; HDF Finance; Penjing Asset Management and Simmons & Simmons.
“AIMA has produced a huge body of work on sound practices and this was the ‘missing book in the library’." Andrew Baker, CEO of AIMA, and a member of the steering group, commented, "It is particularly important given recent events that there should be dedicated guidelines for funds of hedge funds managers. Funds of funds are a critical sector in the industry, are of particular interest to institutional investors, and it is right that AIMA has taken the lead in documenting sound practices. We hope that these guidelines that have been drawn up by such a distinguished and experienced group will be widely observed within the industry.”
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Reuters – A team of hedge funds managers at Societe Generale is leaving to set up their own hedge fund with capital from the French bank, La Tribune reported on Tuesday.
The paper said the move was led by Arié Assayag, head of Sgam Alternative Investments at SocGen, who would take with him some 15 members of staff to create a new outfit called Premium Asset Management (PAM).
ReviewJournal.com – The majority owner of the Greek Isles blamed "greedy hedge-fund guys" interested in wiping out the current owners’ equity stake for pushing the property into Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday.
Harold Rothstein said the Greek Isles’ creditors have already taken $14 million in fees and interest out of the property since the financial markets collapsed.
"The ownership of the property was negotiating in good faith to reorganize and reposition the property," Rothstein said. "Even though the plan that was presented (to the creditors) was a plausible plan, the New York hedge fund is still acting like it was two years ago. They’re trying to play the big, bad wolf."
“We welcome the communiqué from the G20 Finance Ministers. AIMA, as the trade body for the global hedge fund industry, has already announced its support both for the authorisation and regulation of hedge fund managers worldwide with their national regulators, and for the disclosure of systemically significant information.
This is an endorsement of the industry leadership displayed by AIMA when we put out the new policy platform on 24th February that featured a series of major proposals to increase transparency. We are pleased that these proposals are reflected in this communiqué.
We are also glad that the G20 made reference in their Progress Report on the Washington Action Plan to the global initiative on the convergence of hedge fund industry standards by AIMA, the Managed Funds Association (MFA) and the members of the Asset Managers Committee established by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.
Our three groups, which represent the great majority of hedge fund managers globally, are working towards a common set of principles to take this process forward, which is a major step forward by the industry worldwide.”
Andrew Baker, Chief Executive of AIMA London, 16th March 2009
For media enquiries, please contact Christen Thomson, AIMA Director of Communications, on +44 (0)2078228380; email – cthomson@aima.org
About AIMA
As the only truly representative global hedge fund association, AIMA, the Alternative Investment Management Association, has more than 1,200 corporate members worldwide, based in 43 countries.
Members include leading hedge fund managers, fund of hedge funds managers, prime brokers, legal and accounting firms and fund administrators. They all benefit from AIMA’s active influence in policy development, its leadership in industry initiatives, including education and sound practice manuals and its excellent reputation with regulators worldwide.
AIMA is a dynamic organisation that reflects its members’ interests and provides them with a vibrant global network. AIMA is committed to developing industry skills and education standards and is a co-founder of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation (CAIA) – the industry’s first and only specialised educational standard for alternative investment specialists. For further information, please visit AIMA’s website, www.aima.org.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – There were fewer redemptions in February 2009,($11 billion) compared to January,($30 billion), according to preliminary reports from Eurekahedge, pointing towards the easing of redemption pressures for hedge funds in the future.
The Hedge Fund Index was down 0.5% in February suggesting another month of loss mitigation and strong relative outperformance – The S&P500 was down 11%.
Interestingly, Eurekahedge says, fund of funds managers (-0.2%), on average, have now outperformed hedge fund managers for the first two months of 2009 after 12 months of consecutive underperformance for 2008.
Latin American funds were the only ones to finish the month with decent gains (0.7%), as managers in the region were afforded opportunities with the weakening of most regional currencies against the US dollar, among other things during the month.
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Am Law Litigation Daily – Remember how Linklaters’ representation of Barclays in a suit against Bear Stearns cost the firm its client relationship with JPMorgan Chase? It now looks like Linklaters sacrificed its JPMorgan work for nothing. Bloomberg is reporting that Barclays has dropped its Bear Stearns suit with prejudice.
In an amended complaint filed in June, Barclays blamed Bear Stearns and two since-indicted Bear hedge funds managers for causing Barclays to lose hundreds of millions of dollars it had invested in a Bear hedge fund with assets linked to subprime mortgages. (The fund imploded in 2007.) Barclay’s dismissal notice did not offer any explanation for why it was ending the suit. Linklaters partner Lawrence Byrne, whose name appears on the dismissal notice, did not immediately return our phone call.
Bloomberg – Credit markets have fallen so far that they are providing a "once in a lifetime opportunity," and investors are still selling.
Prices of loans rated below investment grade declined to a record low 66.1 cents on the dollar, virtually guaranteeing investors get their money back, based on historical recovery rates, according to data compiled by Standard & Poor’s. Yields on corporate bonds show investors expect 5.6 percent of the market will go bust, the highest default rate since the Great Depression, according to Christopher Garman, chief executive officer of debt research firm Garman Research LLC in Orinda, California.
While central banks injected $3 trillion into the global economy, credit markets are tumbling because banks are clamping down on lending, forcing investors to unload assets they bought with borrowed money. The Federal Reserve said Aug. 11 that its quarterly survey shows most "domestic institutions reported having tightened their lending standards and terms."
International Herald Tribune- Hedge fund managers are looking to global macro funds to try to steer clear of the mess created by the credit crisis while cautiously dipping into a small pool of more risky assets, a Reuters poll found.
Stormy markets have torn through the hedge fund market this year, forcing many to shut up shop and others to tumble, but most have still managed to keep well ahead of the severe double-digit losses suffered by global stock markets in the first half of the year.
The quarterly survey of 13 managers who invest in a basket of hedge funds and manage a total of about $150 billion in assets showed global macro funds leading the way through 2008 as they tend to benefit from periods of high volatility.
Typically global macro funds bet on the direction of markets, currencies or debt, and commodities.
Guardian.co.uk- Funds of hedge fund managers are looking to global macro funds to try and steer clear of the mess thrown up by the credit crisis while cautiously dipping their toes in a small pool of more risky assets, a Reuters poll found.
Stormy markets have torn through the hedge fund market this year, forcing many to shut up shop and others to tumble, but most have still managed to keep well ahead of the severe double digit losses suffered by global stock markets in the first half of the year.
The quarterly survey of 13 managers which invest in a basket of hedge funds and manage a total of around $150 billion in assets showed global macro funds leading the way through 2008 as they tend to benefit from periods of high volatility.
