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.
Reuters UK – Pension fund manager Hermes has called for a shake-up of the hedge fund industry, demanding greater transparency and fee structures closer aligned to performance.
The asset manager, which runs BT’s giant pension fund, said it wanted to set up an action committee to help drive through reforms on disclosure.
"I believe that hedge funds want to do the right thing," Matteo Dante Perruccio, head of Hermes’ hedge fund arm, told The Sunday Times.
Reuters – The UK’s largest pension scheme, the BT Pension Scheme (BTPS) could invest up to 20 percent of its assets in alternative asset classes including hedge funds, a senior executive in charge of its investments said.
Frank Naylor, head of investments at Hermes Pensions Management, told Reuters the pension fund had also reallocated $1.2 billion to two new fund of hedge funds (FOHFs) launched by its hedge fund boutique Hermes BPK.
Reuters – Fund of hedge funds boutique Hermes BPK Partners said on Monday it has appointed Glyn Jones, former chief executive officer of Thames River Capital and Gartmore, as its new chairman.
Hermes BPK Partners is a partnership between its managers and UK fund firm Hermes, which is owned by the 39 billion pound ($58.19 billion) BT (BT.L) pension scheme.
Forbes – Hermes, the fund manager owned by the BT Pension Scheme, has put on hold plans to restructure its activist Focus funds following the significant underperformance of its main European fund, the firm said in a letter to clients.
In the note seen by Reuters the fund firm said that as a result of the underperformance of the Hermes European Focus Fund (HEFF) chief executive Stephan Howaldt and managing director Wouter Rosingh would be leaving and will be replaced by John Havranek, head of the pan-European active engagement fund at Henderson.
AllAboutAlpha.com – Critics of hedge funds often argue that industry growth has had two negative side-effects: firstly, that less-skilled managers have been attracted to the sector and second, that the number of alpha-generating opportunities has not kept pace with asset inflows.
Assuming these are true, then it could be argued that recent industry shrinkage may lead to new opportunities. In our monthly guest contribution from a member of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association, Tommaso Sanzin of Hermes BPK Partners suggests that recent headwinds have ushered in a new phase in the “hedge fund industry life cycle”.
