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.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Swedish hedge fund manager, Brummer and Partners, is expanding its offering of hedge funds by launching Karakoram, a new long-short Asia fund today.
The new hedge fund will take both long and short positions in liquid equities on Asian markets such as Hong Kong, China, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The Fund will base its positions on fundamental equity research, complemented with transaction-focused macroeconomic-analysis.
The fund’s aim is to consistently deliver a positive return for its unitholders, regardless of stock market performance in general, with a better risk-adjusted return than that of traditional equity portfolios.
Domiciled in Singapore, Ee Toh Chia is the Managing Director and a Partner of the hedge fund management company and is responsible for the management team. Ee Toh has 15 years of experience from Asian capital markets and has been involved in the management of the Zenit Fund’s Asian holdings since January 2008.
Karakoram has approximately SEK 300 million ($39 milllion) in assets under management. As Karakoram is a Bermuda-based fund a minimum investment of one million kronor ($131,000) is required. Brummer Multi-Strategy will initially invest a small proportion of its fund capital in the Karakoram Fund.
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!
The funds of hedge funds industry shrank by nearly 30% in 2008. Volatile markets, zero liquidity, and year-end average returns of -16.63% led to the asset outflows for the global funds of funds industry, according to the latest survey of the InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club.
The largest funds of funds – those with more than $1 billion in assets under management – now control a combined amount of $744 billion in assets, according to the 2008 asset flow survey carried out by InvestHedge, the leading publication about investors in hedge funds.
“The industry has taken a serious beating but it is not an industry that is on the brink of extinction. The multi-manager approach and professional selection of hedge funds is still very much essential for the creation of a healthy hedge fund portfolio,” says Niki Natarajan, editor of InvestHedge. “What has happened is that the barriers to entry have finally gone up and only those that are serious representatives of the funds of funds industry will win the institutional money.”
“This clear-out was necessary as there were too many sloppy practices in the industry. Everyone, large or small, good or bad, will be going back to the drawing board to make sure that their business can stand the highest level of scrutiny.”
There are now 137 funds of hedge fund management companies in the InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club and if the assets of the smaller 420 or so funds of funds management companies are also included, this universe still manages roughly half the assets of the hedge fund industry (which currently measures about $1.8 trillion in all according to the latest HedgeFund Intelligence data). Some 27 groups fell out of the rankings after shutting their businesses or the assets falling below the $1 billion level.
UBS Global Asset Management A&Q with total assets of $34 billion regained the top slot in the rankings having lost in the mid-year survey to Union Bancaire Privée, which now has $33 billion in total assets. If the assets of UBS Wealth Management USA are added in, UBS has a total of $36.8 billion, making the largest hedge fund of fund management group in the world.
Man Group, which includes RMF Investment Management, Glenwood Capital Investments and Man Global Strategies, now has a total of $26.6 billion, taking its global position as a group to 4th in the rankings after HSBC, which has $31.9 billion.
Top 10 largest Funds of Funds
31 December 2008
Assets $bn
UBS Global Asset Management A&Q 34.00
Union Bancaire Privée 33.00
HSBC Alternative Investments 31.88
Permal Investment Management 24.40
Blackstone Alternative Asset Management 23.65
Goldman Sachs Asset Management 23.50
Credit Suisse 21.90
Grosvenor Capital Management 20.50
RMF 19.30
GAM Multi-Manager 18.40
Total
250.53
Source: InvestHedge
About HedgeFund Intelligence and InvestHedge
HedgeFund Intelligence is the biggest provider of hedge fund news and data in the world, with the largest and most knowledgeable editorial and research teams of any hedge fund information provider. We supply data on more than 11,000 funds and comprehensive news and insight from across the globe. Through four regional brands – Absolute Return, EuroHedge, AsiaHedge, AfricaHedge – and InvestHedge, which focuses on investors in hedge funds – we provide news and data to the global hedge fund industry.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Renaissance Institutional Futures, a $3 billion futures fund run by hedge fund management company, Renaissance Technologies, has waived all it’s management fees for 2009, even if the fund delivers good results in 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Renaissance told investors in a end-of-year letter that the futures fund was waiving it’s 1% fixed management fee following poor performance in 2008. The discount is estimated by the Journal to save investors $30 million.
Renaissance Technologies was started in 1982 by James Simons, Renaissance currently has approximately $20 billion in assets under management. The company operates in East Setauket, Long Island, New York, near Stony Brook University. Administrative functions are handled out of offices in Manhattan.
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!
The Independent – Since the credit crunch began, hedge fund managers have become one of the most maligned sections of society, held responsible for the economic pain which all of us now feel. Never mind a row of shrubs, they should probably start managing a line of sandbags and an air-raid shelter.
So it is not surprising that Christian Smith, editor of a journal dedicated to this indescribably wealthy and secretive group, informs its readers that Hedge magazine is intended to be their "safe haven". In a letter from the editor, he writes: "If there’s one thing everybody needs right now, it’s good news and plenty of it, and we’re here to serve it up in spades."
Alongside articles about art collecting, fine wines and cricket, are full-page advertisements for Pershing yachts, luxury watches and Australian pink diamonds. The cover star is the usually reclusive, Mike Platt, the CEO of Europe’s thirdlargest hedge fund management company, BlueCrest, who the magazine has persuaded to give an interview about his interest in cutting-edge art. That’s quite a scoop.
Bloomberg – Tantallon Capital, founded by Merrill Lynch & Co. former head of sales Nicholas Harbinson, closed one of its hedge funds after bad bets on Asian stocks, three people familiar with the matter said.
The Singapore-based firm shut its Tantallon Smaller Companies Fund, managed by Steve Sun, after it lost 25.6 percent this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, more than twice a benchmark that tracks similar funds. Assets shrank to $18 million as of end July, from as much as $29 million in February, the people said, asking not to be identified because details are private.
The market turmoil has wiped $19 trillion off global stock markets in the first nine months of this year. That has hurt even the most experienced managers, said Jennifer Carver, who runs the Asian business of 3A SA, the alternative investment unit of Geneva-based Banque Syz & Co.
“There are a lot of funds out there that are effectively net long that are getting killed this year,” said Hong Kong- based Carver, adding that 3A doesn’t invest in Tantallon’s funds. “The bigger funds have lost a lot of assets too, their performance has been bad; smaller funds have to close quicker because they don’t have the depth of the larger funds to keep going.”
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net)- Leading UK investment manager, Hermes Fund Managers Limited (Hermes), announced the appointment of US hedge fund manager Northern Trust, to provide middle office outsourcing fund administration and custody.
With an anticipated £23 billion ($45 billion) in assets under management, the middle office plans to include the UK’s largest Pension Scheme ("BTPS"), which will be in excess of £45 billion ($88 bilion).
As part of the arrangement Northern Trust will also support the launch of Hermes’ new range of Dublin-based funds providing trustee, custody, fund accounting and transfer agency services.
"Northern Trust was appointed following a rigorous selection and due diligence process from a short-list of two providers." Rupert Clarke, Chief Executive of Hermes said, "Outsourcing these functions is consistent with our strategy of focusing on growing a specialist investment management business."
Northern Trust, a multibank holding company based in Chicago, has international offices in 15 locations in North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. Northern Trust had assets under custody of $4.0 trillion, and assets under investment management of $778.6 billion.
Hermes currently has £36.2 billion ($70.4 billion) under management, investing assets on behalf of 206 clients, including pension funds, insurance companies, government entities and financial institutions, as well as charities and endowments.
