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HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – In order to achieve capital reduction, Swiss alternative investment company ALTIN AG has launched a share buyback program as part of a broader range of measures to reduce share price discount.
The hedge fund company has already succeeded in bringing the difference between the NAV and the share price from 33% at the end of 2008 to 21.7%. This, among other things, should enable ALTIN’s stock market price to come closer to the NAV.
The Annual General Meeting of shareholders approved a share buyback programme of up to 10% of the share capital. A second trading line for the registered shares of ALTIN will be opened on the SIX Swiss Exchange on 22 July 2009. ALTIN intends to buy back up to 5% of its shares until the end of March 2010.
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The Independent – Bramdean Alternatives Ltd, the investment fund started by Nicola Horlick, said it shouldn’t be wound up, as proposed by one of its largest investors.
Elsina Ltd, a British Virgin Island-registered investment company controlled by UK property investor Vincent Tchenguiz’s Consensus Business Group, on May 1 said it wants to remove five Bramdean directors and appoint three of its own choices. Elsina, which controls almost 29 percent of Bramdean’s dollar-listed shares, said the fund should consider closing.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Swiss alternative investment company ALTIN AG has said it intends to maintain its share price by buying back between 5% and 10% of its own shares, its Board of Directors has also approved a capital reduction program. ALTIN’s hedge fund’s management performance was predictably negative (-29.20%) in 2008, yet considerably higher than key stock market indices.
2008 proved a particularly harsh year for the financial markets, compounded by additional difficulties specific to the hedge fund industry. The severe credit crisis often forced hedge funds to fire-sell positions.
In addition, the increased correlation between hedge funds and equity markets did not protect them against falling stock markets. In performance terms, the year 2008 has thus been negative for hedge funds and ALTIN proved no exception with a -29.20% fall in its net asset value. However, in light of the losses incurred by world stock markets over the same period, this result is acceptable and hedge funds remain the best performing asset class over the medium term.
Invested in approximately 40 hedge funds, the company has chosen to avoid illiquid strategies that have caused the closing of a number of hedge funds, ALTIN’s manager has been favouring liquidity since 2007.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: alex@hedgeco.net
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Blueridgenow.com – Hedge funds have been in the news recently, usually with a watered down description of the characteristics of these investment vehicles. Most folks know that Chelsea Clinton works for a hedge fund (Avenue Capitol), and that John Edwards pulled down a hefty $500,000 consulting fee from another hedge fund, Fortress Investment Group. The odious George Soros, a contributor to hard left political groups, manages a hedge fund called Quantum Fund.
Edwards said he wanted to learn more about poverty. And where better to learn about poverty than working for an investment company that requires its clients to have at least a million dollars net worth (Since then, Fortress has navigated enough legal hurdles to offer its services to the general public through a listing on the New York Exchange, but that’s unusual.)
Reuters – Securities regulators are locking horns with some of the U.S.’s most powerful mutual funds and Wall Street players over plans to scrap requirements that money market funds hold investment-grade securities.
For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission allowed fund firms to buy only highly rated municipal bonds for money market funds but now the SEC is considering changing that rule in an effort to curb investors’ reliance on credit ratings.
Ironically, players like The Vanguard Group, one of the biggest in the $12.3 trillion (7 trillion pounds) mutual fund industry, want less freedom instead of more, arguing the SEC-mandated ratings offer would-be investors a sense of comfort.
