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.
Bloomberg – Helios Capital Management Pte, the hedge-fund manager once backed by Tudor Investment Corp., plans to start a “Slumdog Millionaire” fund that will buy underperforming shares of Indian companies.
“We want to find slumdogs from the Indian equity markets who have the potential of becoming millionaires,” Samir Arora, founder of Singapore-based Helios Capital, said in an interview.
The firm plans to raise about $50 million by the end of July for its long-only Helios India Jai Ho Fund, Arora said. “Jai Ho,” which means “victory” in Hindi, is the Oscar- winning theme song from “Slumdog Millionaire,” a feel-good tale of a Mumbai orphan’s escape from poverty that scooped eight Academy Awards, including best picture, this year in Los Angeles.
Bloomberg – Indea Capital Pte, an India-focused hedge fund that manages about $300 million, plans to buy shares even if India’s election results disappoint investors, said Chief Investment Officer Raj Mishra.
The ruling Congress party-led coalition and the main opposition-led group may have each failed to secure enough votes to form a government, based on exit polls after a five- week election that ended May 13.
“The bias is to buy when there’s a post-election decline rather than to panic,” said Singapore-based Mishra, whose six- year-old Absolute Return Fund has returned an average 14.75 percent annually since it was set up. “Once the election is complete and we have better clarity about the strength of the government, then probably potential long-term investors will feel more comfortable.”
Reuters India – SkyBridge Capital, a firm that provides money for early-stage hedge funds, on Friday said it invested $50 million (33 million pounds) in WyeTree Asset Management Ltd, a London-based fund focused on distressed mortgage securities.
WyeTree seeks out distressed residential mortgage assets that may be oversold for technical reasons, SkyBridge said. WyeTree is currently investing in U.S. subprime mortgages, but in time will also seek assets in other markets.
ReportonBusiness.com – When Tom Liston needs insight on one of India’s largest companies, he doesn’t pick up the phone to call a long-cultivated, top secret source – he logs on to Twitter to check up on a stranger who broadcasts messages semi-anonymously from the other side of the world.
“This guy trolls all the websites and reads things about Satyam [Computer Services Inc.] that would take me five days to go through. He finds summaries and posts them on Twitter,” says Mr. Liston, the Toronto-based director of research at Versant Partners.
Reuters – India Church Pension Fund has invested in Future Group backed Indivision India, Advantage Partners and IDG Accel China.
The $8 billion Church Pension Fund based in New York City has roped in Eric Mason(ex-Carlyle Group), to open a new Hong Kong office, its first in Asia, reports Dow Jones.
Mason is a former JP Morgan banker and most recently headed Carlyle Group’s Asian leveraged finance team(set-up in 2007 but disbanded in November 2008 after the credit crunch hampered its ability to raise funds). He will look after all asset classes including private equity, real estate and hedge fund investments in the continent, the report said.
Reuters India – New Vernon Bought stakes in Indage Vitners and Orbit Corp. Deutsche Sec bought 11% into UB Group.
Private equity and hedge funds seem to be playing their parts in the brief rally that the Indian stock markets are witnessing. Multi-strategy fund New Vernon has picked up minor stakes in two
companies. New Vernon bought little more than 3% stake in Indage Vintners for Rs 2.76 crore. Indage Vintners, formerly known as Champagne Indage, is one of the oldest wine producer in the country.
Business Standard – Hedge funds and foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) are replacing real estate as popular offshore investment destinations for India’s richest.
Hedge funds are investment funds which employ various strategies to produce absolute returns. These strategies could be long- short, event driven, arbitrage or of various other types. A long-short strategy involves buying stocks which are assumed to perform high and selling stocks which are assumed to perform low.
As hedge funds are considered to be a high risk asset class, they are recommended to only a few “ultra high net worth and sophisticated” clients only. "Currently we are recommending 10-15 per cent allocation in strategies such as long -short and arbitrage to well-informed HNIs", said the head of a private bank. The returns range from 12-15 per cent annually in dollar terms.
Forbes – India-focused property firm Hirco Plc said on Monday hedge fund and shareholder Laxey Partners Ltd has sought a shareholder meeting to remove chairman and two other board members, and to appoint its nominees on Hirco board.
Laxey has also urged Hirco’s directors to consider appointing a new chairman independent of the Hiranandani family, the company said in a statement. Comment On This Story
‘The board is taking legal advice as to the validity of the proposed requisition and due process. It considers the proposals are not in the company’s best interests and are misguided,’ Hirco said.
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Reuters India – KSK Emerging India Energy Fund had raised £100 million from AIM last year to invest in Indian energy companies.
Global recession has claimed a victim in India. KSK Emerging India Energy Fund (KEF), a £100 million fund listed in London’s Alternative Investment Market, has been wound up after the shareholders passed a resolution last week demanding the same.
The shareholders – which include large hedge funds – passed a resolution on January 22 asking for the liquidation of the company and the return of funds invested by them. The delisting of the company and liquidation has come into effect from January 23. The EGM was held in Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands.
Forbes – Private equity investors in Asia are increasingly fearful of fraud within their portfolio companies as the global economic downturn puts mounting pressure on firms in the region.
The global financial crisis has already caused significant damage to private equity-backed companies in Asia, with shares plunging and demand drying up for everything from electronics to manufactured goods.
But corporate fraud, a scourge that can be more prevalent and harder to detect in emerging economies such as China and India, can quickly turn a bad private equity investment into a disaster.
Forbes – German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday called on the European Commission to quickly approve Germany’s planned aid for lender Commerzbank as part of its bank rescue package.
Germany is in a dispute with the Commission over whether the aid for Commerzbank complies with the terms of the 500 billion euro ($633.4 billion) rescue fund that the EU has approved.
