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 – Citadel Investment Group LLC, the hedge fund manager founded by Kenneth Griffin, will close down its Tokyo office and Asian principal investments operations, cutting more than half of jobs in the region.
Citadel will run its remaining Asian operations from Hong Kong in the future after shutting the regional principal team that invests in companies undergoing or about to go through mergers and acquisitions, spinoffs, asset sales or legal challenges. Katie Spring, a spokeswoman in Citadel’s Chicago head office, confirmed the decision today.
Hedge funds globally are cutting jobs, limiting withdrawals and liquidating funds as a credit crunch and a 46 percent drop in the MSCI World Index in 2008 put them on course for the worst year on record. Hedge funds have lost 18 percent this year, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc.
International Herald Tribune – The mergers and acquisitions business is about to take a deep dive.
For most of the financial crisis, it has remained surprisingly buoyant. This was partly because there was a lot of business to be done selling troubled banks like Merrill Lynch, HBOS and Fortis.
There was also the overhang of deals from the bubble era. But in the past week, two such megadeals – the miner BHP Billiton’s hostile bid for a rival, Rio Tinto, and the planned leveraged buyout of Bell Canada – have come apart at the seams.
As the financing squeeze tightens, other deals could follow suit.
Financing Verizon Wireless’s acquisition of Alltel is proving to be a strain. Verizon Wireless has issued bonds and is looking to raise some bank debt. But the company may have to pay a high price.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Alternative investment management firm and Hedge Fund Launch of the Year Award Winner, AdultVest, Inc., announced it officially closed its offering in the Priapus Investment Fund, LLC.
"In spite of the US and Global economic condition, the Priapus Investment Fund, LLC is on track for a great year," Francis Koenig, the Manager of the Priapus Fund said, saying also that he has plans to re-open a new offering soon.
This year the Priapus Investment Fund acquired iPorn. com, HandJob. com, and several adult content libraries. The fund has invested in the development and acquisition of several internet technologies, software platforms, and mobile technologies, and also acquired a stake in a public company operating gentlemen’s clubs.
"We have identified a few more opportunities that will close out the year and expect the fund to be fully invested by early 2009," Koenig said, 2We are already hard at work on the development of Priapus Investment Fund II and have very high expectations for the new fund."
The Beverly Hills, California-based investment company deals exclusively in the estimated 100 billion dollar Adult Entertainment Industry. It is active in mergers, acquisitions, and operates the only on-line investment community with over 4,500 registered investors and over 1,000 adult entertainment companies seeking investments, mergers, and acquisitions.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge fund advisor Edge Capital Partners, LLC has launched a new website (www.edgecappartners.com) highlighting the firm’s offerings in the areas of asset allocation strategies, benchmarked investment options, corporate mergers and acquisitions and finance strategies, wealth management and individual portfolio management.
Designed by Glick Interactive, the Edge Capital Partners new website decribes the firm’s culture and goals. "(our firm) is built on providing unbiased wealth management solutions. Our goal is to elevate the standards of wealth management and use our website as a tool to communicate our firm’s values in this challenging global market environment,” said Partner J. Peek Garlington III.
Edge Capital Partners, LLC is a provider of wealth management and investment advisory services to a select group of high-net-worth and institutional clients globally. Seasoned advisors understand the challenges of creating solutions that match clients’ unique and evolving needs and work in unison with clients, their advisors and accountants to capture, generate, and implement all points of strategy and service.
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Reuters – Hedge funds made history in September but not the kind most managers want to remember.
Among the biggest losers, as last month’s returns are slowly revealed to investors, are some of the $1.9 trillion hedge fund industry’s most prominent and most successful names.
Dan Loeb, an activist investor known for his sharply worded letters to poorly performing companies, saw his Third Point Offshore fund tumble 11 percent in September, people familiar with the numbers said on Thursday.
In the first nine months the fund lost 17.86 percent.
Lee Ainslie, who once worked for industry legend Julian Robertson, saw his Maverick Fund lose 19.47 percent in September, leaving the fund down 21.24 percent for the year.
Hedge Week.com – DLA Piper has appointed Australian corporate and financial services lawyer Luke Gannon as a partner in its corporate group and head of the firm’s funds practice throughout Asia. Gannon, who will be based in DLA Piper’s Hong Kong office, will work closely with partners from the firm’s financial services and regulatory groups and will act for a range of clients on mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets matters.
Gannon has almost 20 years experience in a range of funds, regulatory and capital-raising matters in Asia, acting for clients including real estate investment trusts, hedge funds, funds of funds, private equity, infrastructure funds, wealth managers, underwriters and corporate issuers.
He was previously a partner and head of funds for eight years at Australian law firm Freehills in Melbourne, where his clients included a international investment banks, fund managers and sponsors. In 2006, he joined a major client as head of corporate and M&A, gaining extensive commercial and acquisitions experience in Asia’s financial services sector. Read Complete Article
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Alternative investment manager, the Blackstone Group, has launched a new business group focused on investments in the cleantech energy sector and will provide advice on renewable energy strategies across Blackstone’s asset base.
The team is being led by James D. Kiggen, who has joined the firm’s Corporate Private Equity group as a Senior Managing Director. Also joining as Principals from AllianceBernstein are Walter C. Vester and Richard L. Troyer.
“Jamie and his team’s understanding of rapidly evolving technology applications in solar and wind power generation, carbon sequestration, next generation ethanol, and other renewables will be a key input in Blackstone’s investment decisions." Garrett Moran, Senior Managing Director of The Blackstone Group, said, "We look forward to working with the new team across both conventional energy investments and new developments, including those at our portfolio company Sithe Global Power, as well as several other sizeable investments that we are currently evaluating.”
Blackstone’s alternative asset management businesses include the management of corporate private equity funds, real estate funds, hedge funds, funds of funds, debt funds, collateralized loan obligation vehicles (CLOs) and closed-end mutual funds. The Blackstone Group also provides various financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement service.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net)- Hedge fund manager Pali Capital has hired M&A veteran Randal V. Stephenson as a Senior Managing Director and Head of its new Corporate Advisory Group.
"Pali is in the midst of a major, global expansion,” said Brad Reifler, to whom Stephenson will report, "Since we are committed to providing world-class investment banking products and services, we see Randal as a vital part of our plan to build out a competitive mergers and acquisitions practice on a global scale. Randal has the right mix of skills and experience, and we look forward to working with him."
Stephenson will be based in New York and will lead the build-out of a mergers, acquisitions and corporate advisory practice to compliment a broader investment banking platform.
"Pali’s core clients, hedge fund, are among the most active in the global deal market," said Mr. Stephenson, "and are eagerly searching for new opportunities to apply capital and achieve enhanced investor returns. I look forward to helping Pali build a world-class mergers and acquisitions practice that should have no equal in the middle market."
Mr. Stephenson is assembling a team of seasoned bankers with experience in distressed and special situation transactions, as well as cross-border M&A deal experience, particularly in Asia. The team’s services for Pali’s core client base of hedge funds and institutional investors include originating distressed and special-situation opportunities for equity or debt investment, helping funds seek strategic alternatives for underperforming portfolio investments, and assisting and advising in shareholder activism.
Prior to Pali, Stephenson was the Head of Middle Market Mergers & Acquisitions and the Head of Distressed & Special Situations M&A at CIT Group, Inc. Stephenson is a member of the Turnaround Management Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and the bars of Massachusetts and New York.
Pali is an independent, global, full-service institutional securities firm and investment bank that has served leading hedge funds and money managers since 1995. The hedge fund manager is headquartered in New York, with offices in London, Singapore, Boston and Minneapolis.
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