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New York (HedgeCo.net) – Winner of the “Fund of Hedge Funds Leader of the Year” 2009, Liongate Capital Management, has opened a Dubai office after being awarded a license by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to operate from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
The $2.3 billion FoHF’s manager will focus on advising institutional clients in the MENA region on allocations to hedge fund investment strategies out of the new Dubai office.
“With investors increasingly seeking to diversify their portfolios to include alternative investments, the long-term potential for the growth of the hedge funds market in the Middle East, North Africa and India is strong.” His Excellency Dr Omar Bin Sulaiman, Governor of the DIFC, commented. “DIFC offers the infrastructure and regulations for providers of hedge fund investments to take advantage of opportunities in the region. The establishment of Liongate Capital Management’s office is testimony to DIFC’s ability to offer a secure and productive platform for the growth of hedge funds. It also demonstrates the continued confidence of the global financial industry in the potential of the regional market.”
Liongate Capital Management has also appointed hedge fund allocator, Fahad Al-Bader, as Senior Executive Officer of the Dubai office. Fahad Al-Bader has over six years experience of investing in hedge funds. Previously, he was Head of Hedge Funds at the Kuwait Fund, Head of Alternative Investments at Ryada Capital and an Investment Analyst at KIA (Kuwait Investment Authority). Fahad al-Bader is a graduate of Purdue University, and joined Liongate Capital Management in May 2008.
Reuters – Fund managers need to stress-test worst-case scenarios more rigorously before investing in hedge funds, industry participants at a hedge fund conference said on Thursday.
Many existing stress tests, used to gauge how funds will perform in extreme market conditions, failed to identify potential problems during the financial crisis, leaving investors exposed to steep losses.
"Many allocators used models that failed to take into consideration certain risk factors, simply because they had never been seen as risks before," Mark Schindler, portfolio manager of alternative assets at Clariden Leu, told Reuters on the sidelines of the GAIM annual industry conference.
Zawya.com – Although nearly half of all sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are based in the Middle East and North Africa region, only 32 per cent of them invest in Mena-focussed hedge funds, new data has revealed.
Almost all of the SWFs known to be investing in hedge funds pursue a global investment strategy.
North America, as a mature and large hedge-fund market, is also a popular destination for investments in this asset class, with most of the larger SWFs, including the large Mena funds, targeting hedge funds there, a report by Preqin said.
Hartford Business – State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier said she plans to approve rule changes by January allowing her to allocate up to 8 percent of the state’s $20 billion pension fund in nontraditional investments such as hedge funds.
The move marks a departure from a more conservative investment strategy and comes shortly after the Connecticut funds lost nearly $5 billion in pension assets in the depressed market.
The shift in approach also comes when the hedge fund industry is under stress. The sector’s total assets declined by more than 20 percent between June and October, and the unraveling of Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme this month has spotlighted what many see as a general lack of transparency in the industry.
Still, Nappier said investing in hedge funds and other alternative instruments will allow the pension plan to reduce volatility, produce slightly higher returns and create better diversification.
