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 – The global hedge-fund industry lost $64 billion of assets in November, with an index tracking its performance declining for a sixth month as economies in Asia and Europe joined the U.S. in recession, Eurekahedge Pte said.
“It’s very clear that there is going to be significant consolidation in the hedge-fund industry,” said Duncan Smith, a partner in Hong Kong at Ogier, a firm that provides corporate and legal services to financial companies. “Conditions are quite difficult and that really goes without saying. Underlying liquidity is very hard for funds.”
Market declines contributed to $18 billion in net losses, while investor redemptions made up $46 billion, Singapore-based Eurekahedge said, based on preliminary figures taken from 41 percent of the funds it surveys. It said hedge-fund assets shrank by $110 billion to $1.65 trillion in October.
Bloomberg - The global hedge-fund industry lost $64 billion of assets in November, with an index tracking its performance declining for a sixth month as economies in Asia and Europe joined the U.S. in recession, Eurekahedge Pte said.
“It’s very clear that there is going to be significant consolidation in the hedge-fund industry,” said Duncan Smith, a partner in Hong Kong at Ogier, a firm that provides corporate and legal services to financial companies. “Conditions are quite difficult and that really goes without saying. Underlying liquidity is very hard for funds.”
Market declines contributed to $18 billion in net losses, while investor redemptions made up $46 billion, Singapore-based Eurekahedge said, based on preliminary figures taken from 41 percent of the funds it surveys. It said hedge-fund assets shrank by $110 billion to $1.65 trillion in October.
Bloomberg – Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, the New York-based hedge-fund manager that went public last year, eliminated at least 10 jobs in Asia, including partner Raaj Shah, said two people familiar with the matter.
The cuts made last week, out of a global workforce of about 460, included employees in the firm’s credit and distressed- investment units, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t publicly announced.
“We have made some minor reductions in Asia, and we remain committed to the region,” the company said today in an e-mailed statement. Hong Kong-based Shah referred calls to the company.
Citadel Investment Group LLC, the Chicago-based firm run by Kenneth Griffin, and New York-based Ramius LLC have also laid off staff in Asia as hedge funds suffer their biggest annual loss and highest investor withdrawals since at least 1990. The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index declined 23 percent this year through Dec. 5 amid a global credit squeeze and a more than 40 percent decline in the MSCI World Index.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – According to data released by Hedge Fund Research (HFR), the global financial and economic crises accelerated in October, contributing to continued losses in the hedge fund industry, with the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index falling nearly 6% for the month.
“Performance of the hedge fund industry has declined over 17% since October 2007, making the current performance drawdown the largest in history,” said Kenneth J. Heinz, President of Hedge Fund Research. “The industry has now registered five consecutive months of losses, another inauspicious first. Consolidation is likely to continue into 2009 as investors across all asset classes indiscriminately liquidate assets to move portfolios into cash holdings.”
Investors withdrew over $40 billion from hedge funds in the month of October which, in addition to $115 billion in performance-based asset losses, reduced the industry capital base by $155 billion. Assets under management in the global hedge fund industry declined to $1.56 trillion at the end of October, a level last seen at the end of Q4 2006.
As of the end of Q3 2008, HFR estimates the entire hedge fund industry to contain more than 10,000 funds, which includes more than 7,400 single-manager funds. October losses follow a challenging third quarter during which global hedge fund capital fell by $210 billion.
The largest capital reductions during the month came from Funds of Hedge Funds, from which investors withdrew over $22 billion. Funds of Hedge Funds have underperformed the overall industry so far this year, with the HFRI Fund of Funds Index posting an 18.50% decline, compared to a loss of 16% for the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index.
Performance losses were most significant in funds focused on Emerging Markets, Relative Value Arbitrage and Energy/Basic Materials equities.
Short Selling has posted a strong gain of over 22% for the year. Macro Systematic strategies, which employ quantitative trend-following programs, gained over 6.5% in October and nearly 15% year to date.
Fifty-two percent of October capital outflows were from firms with greater than $5 billion under management; these largest funds represent only 5.5% of the number of funds in the industry but control over 58% of all hedge fund capital.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Bloomberg – The global hedge fund industry lost $100 billion of assets in October, according to an estimate from Eurekahedge Pte, as firms including Sparx Group Co. and Man Group Plc were hammered by investor redemptions.
Funds fell an average 3.3 percent, based on preliminary figures from the Singapore-based data provider, as measured by the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index, which tracks the performance of more than 2,000 funds that invest globally. That compares with a 19 percent slide in the MSCI World Index last month.
The biggest market losses since the Great Depression and investor withdrawals hurt the $1.7 trillion hedge funds industry that manages largely unregulated pools of capital. The index of global funds has lost 11 percent this year, set for the worst performance since 2000 when Eurekahedge began tracking the data.
AlterNet – Jack Nash, a key pioneer of the global hedge fund industry, passed away this past summer. Much of the rest of the industry may soon join him six feet under. The industry, one insider told the Financial Times last week, has embarked on "a sort of death march."
Hedge funds now appear to be the next chunk of high finance headed for meltdown. They may actually do their melting before most Americans even know what they are.
A quick primer: Hedge funds have been operating in the financial world’s immensely lucrative shadows ever since Jack Nash co-founded Odyssey Partners, the granddaddy of the modern hedge fund, in 1982, just one year after Ronald Reagan slashed tax rates on America’s highest incomes.
The new tax rates — the lowest the rich had seen since the early 1930s — meant that wealthy Americans suddenly had plenty of new cash sloshing in their pockets. Nash promised these affluents high annual returns if they gave him their money to invest — and then delivered. Over the next 14 years, Odyssey delighted investors with a 24 percent average annual return.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge funds measured by both the Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index ("GGHFI") and the Greenwich Composite Investable Index ("GI2") significantly outperformed equity indices despite posting their greatest losses since August 1998 during September.
"It was a perfect storm for both credit/equity markets and hedge funds in September," said Thomas Whelan, Greenwich CEO, "The already deflated values of financial firms provided the perfect trap for value investors while government intervention limited the ability of hedge funds to effectively mitigate their risk. Simultaneously, the continued freezing of credit markets combined with investor redemptions forced fixed-income funds to liquidate or otherwise mark down assets at depressed prices. The results of the market turmoil and unpredictable regulatory environment are evident in their returns this month."
Long/Short Equity managers fared better than both US and foreign equity markets during the month, but still were subject to unpredictable market movements, losing -6.69%. Both Growth and Value funds struggled to find profitable trades, returning -8.16% and -7.05%, respectively. Short Selling managers by contrast enjoyed their most profitable month this year, advancing +9.27% on average. Year-to-date, Short Selling funds have gained 17% and remain the best performing subsector of hedge fund strategies.
Market Neutral funds were not immune to market forces during September, as they felt the effects of dysfunctional credit markets, declining -4.49%.
Despite the marked weakness in hedge funds in September, not all hedge fund strategy groups moved lower for the month. Directional Trading funds advanced by +0.51% on average, led by Futures managers who capitalized on declining commodity values. Macro managers did not fare as well, losing -3.62% on the month.
Specialty Strategy managers were the weakest performing strategy group for the month of September, with funds losing -7.33% on average. Emerging Markets funds were once again the main reason behind the losses as these managers shed nearly 10% during the month.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Mooring Financial Corp., a private investment firm specializing in the management of alternative assets, has seen its hedge fund, the Mooring Intrepid Opportunity Fund gain 37% year-to-date, while global hedge fund returns have declined almost 10% this year.
The fund gained by capitalizing on corrections in the high-yield corporate bond, commercial mortgage-backed securities and subprime residential mortgage markets. The Fund has gained 132.1% since its inception on March 1, 2007, the Fund’s highest gain on investment to date.
"The centerpiece of our objective for Mooring Intrepid Opportunity Fund is the expectation of a repricing of risk in the credit markets," said president and founder John Jacquemin, "We mapped out a strategy two years ago in anticipation of the credit markets debacle now taking place. The fund’s positions are volatile and aggressive, and appropriate only for investors who understand these risks."
In recent weeks, the fund has begun to take additional bearish positions in financial and commercial real estate stocks as well as exchange traded funds in anticipation of continued deterioration within these markets.
"We believed strongly that the credit markets had reached a point of excess never before experienced in modern history." Jacqumin explained, "and we felt strongly that the risk/reward ratio was very much in our favor. This has proven to be the case."
The firm has acquired and managed more than $2 billion of financial assets since inception in 1982. Mooring Financial Corporation manages four funds across different asset classes, including distressed commercial loans, real estate tax liens, publicly traded equities and credit derivatives.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Money Management – HSBC will soon provide local services to its global hedge fund and private equity clients as they chase “the superannuation dollar”.
HSBC plans to increase its footprint in the Australian market with the introduction of local alternative fund services.
The alternative fund services business will form part of HSBC Securities Services in Australia and will provide local fund accounting, investor servicing and financial reporting to a range of hedge funds, fund of hedge funds, absolute return managers and private equity partners.
HSBC head of fund services, Asia Pacific, Lillian Wong said the group has seen increasing demand from its global hedge fund clients for “onshore servicing in Australia as they target the superannuation dollar”.
Wong said the group aims to provide its clients with a “seamless service” for their Australian domiciled businesses.
The group’s new alternative fund services division will be led by Howard Yip and will be part of the wider HSBC global banking business led by Janie Wanless in Australia.
Bloomberg – Nicola Horlick’s money-management firm, Bramdean Alternatives Ltd., pulled money out of hedge funds run by Nobel prize-winner Myron Scholes and James Dinan to focus on more defensive funds as volatility increases.
“In response to the continuing market turbulence,” Bramdean “is increasing the focus on capital preservation,” the London-based company said in a statement today.
Horlick’s firm pulled money from five of the eight money managers who oversee its so-called transitional portfolio. Bramdean redeemed investments in Dinan’s York Capital Management LLC’s Asian and European funds, and Scholes’s Platinum Grove Contingent Capital Offshore Fund.
The monthly reshuffle is Bramdean’s biggest since the firm raised 131 million pounds ($243 million) in a share sale a year ago. The transitional pool, Bramdean’s largest, fell 1.4 percent in July as hedge funds struggle through their worst patch in almost 20 years, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. HFR’s Global Hedge Fund Index fell 2.8 percent in July, its biggest monthly drop in five years.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – In a press call with HedgeCo, a global forum for the alternative asset community, Joe Christinat of Thomson Reuters clarified the story of HedgeWorld’s abrupt closing.
Christinat said that HedgeWorld will retain the format that it is in currently. They will continue to offer TASS database, and have the service provider/jobs/conference section as well as publish several newsletters including the alternative advantage newsletter.
Although unable to comment on the rumors of staff changes, Christinat said that they are continuing to follow the Thomson Reuters strategy since the purchase of Reuters by Thomson.
Launched in 1999, HedgeWorld became one of hedge fund industry’s premier information provider for individual and institutional accredited investors and their professional advisers, fund managers and service providers in the global hedge fund industry.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Globe and Mail- Hedge funds may post their worst month in at least five years after bets on financial stocks falling and on crude oil rising backfired.
Hedge Fund Research Inc.’s Global Hedge Fund Index of more than 55 funds slid 3.2 per cent through July 24, heading for the biggest monthly drop since the measure started in 2003.
Wagers on a drop in financial stocks and home builders soured after shares of U.S. mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more than doubled during the six trading days to July 23.
Bullish bets on crude oil turned to a loss as oil slid 15 per cent from a record $145.29 (U.S.) a barrel on July 3 after doubling in a year.
