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Bloomberg – Citadel Investment Group LLC will formally open its credit business next month as the $13.5 billion hedge fund founded by Ken Griffin expands into the market for leveraged loans and high-yield, high-risk bonds.
The new group, part of its Citadel Securities division, will be based in New York, according to Peter Santoro, head of institutional markets for the unit.
The Chicago-based firm is setting up the sales and trading platform as part of a larger push into investment banking. The move follows the loss of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.,Merrill Lynch & Co. and Wachovia Corp. during the financial crisis, which eliminated trading partners and debt underwriters.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge fund managers posted positive returns across all major strategies in May except for Managed Futures. Returns were driven by favorable investment conditions across equity, credit and commodities markets. India led the positive trend in Emerging Markets, with the Sensex index surging 17.3% within less than a minute of the announcement on May 18 that the Congress Party garnered a comfortable majority coalition in the general elections.
Industrial production numbers were up in many parts of Asia, with factories in Japan raising output by the largest monthly margin in nearly 60 years, and the Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) in China expanding for a third month to a seasonally adjusted 53.1 (a reading above 50 indicates an expansion). Some managers remained cautious, however, with the view that a switch from a government-led recovery to a consumer-led recovery may face hurdles such as the continuing rise of unemployment in many parts of the world, rising savings rates (particularly in the US), overhangs in vacant housing, as well as assorted weak macro data in Europe.
With spreads tightening and returns strong across the credit spectrum, relative value players such as Convertible Arbitrage and Fixed Income Arbitrage were among the best performers. With fixed income markets apparently unfazed by the General Motors bankruptcy, investment grade financials had the strongest performance, but investment grade industrials, utilities and high yield also had a solid month, as did leveraged loans.
Global Macro has continued to have the longest positive streak of all the strategies in the index for the 7th consecutive month, starting in November 2008. Managers found opportunities in currency trades, fixed income, commodities, as well as tactically trading equities. Managed Futures performance improved over April, but posted a fifth consecutive month of negative returns. Long/Short Equity Managers continued to have wide dispersions of returns, with some managers adding to their long exposures and tactically harvesting returns from the rallies, while others maintained their defensive positioning, citing an absence of fundamental drivers for a strong v-shaped recovery.
Editing by Alex Akesson
May performance will be published June 15th on Bloomberg
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – In a preliminary hedge fund performance report for April 2009 and asset flows through March, Morningstar reported the largest one month-return since January 2006—bringing hedge fund returns into positive territory for 2009.
"Over the last two months, the bulls have dominated the markets, and stories of green shoots in the economy colored the financial media. The rally was led by higher-risk asset classes, including small-cap, financial sector, and emerging market stocks, as well as high-yield bonds and leveraged loans. Many hedge fund managers weren’t confident in the sustainability of the rally, and invested with a more conservative market exposure," said Nadia Papagiannis, Morningstar hedge fund analyst.
U.S. convertible bonds benefited from the trend toward higher-risk, low-credit-quality investments. According to the Merrill Lynch All U.S. Convertibles Index, these securities enjoyed their best month since 1987, with speculative-grade convertibles returning more than double the gains of investment-grade securities. The Morningstar Convertible Arbitrage Hedge Fund Index, the best-performing Morningstar hedge fund index this year, rose 5.1% in April and 12.5% year to date.
Also in the lower-quality field, the Morningstar Distressed Securities Hedge Fund Index increased 2.1% in April, the largest since the beginning of the credit crunch in mid 2007.
In emerging market equities, Eastern European countries produced the best returns in April, although this region is still recovering from its early 2009 nosedive. The only losers in April were the Morningstar Global Trend and Global Non-Trend Hedge Fund Indexes, which dropped 1.7% and 0.5% respectively.
According to Morningstar’s database, hedge funds overall continued to show a decline in outflows. In January, investors withdrew more than $29 billion from hedge funds, but February outflows totaled less than $6 billion, while March’s preliminary figure showed an even lower amount, at $3.6 billion. Despite the overall March trend of outflows, developed Asia equity hedge funds actually had net inflows of $4.1 billion in March, and investors were rewarded.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Morningstar reported a sharp decline in credit and equity markets as the U.S. government announced its stimulus package and financial stability plan. February saw a huge sell-off in U.S. and European bank stocks caused by concerns of financial health and nationalization.
U.S. bank stocks hit a 17-year low and spreads on corporate bonds widened, according to the report.
"Hedge fund managers, like other investors, are nervous about the efficacy and unpredictability of government involvement in the economy. They just don’t know what the U.S. government will do next, and this uncertainty is wreaking havoc in the markets," said Nadia Papagiannis, Morningstar hedge fund analyst.
Widening spreads hurt hedge funds that invest in distressed debt, as lower-quality credits became cheaper. The Morningstar Distressed Securities Hedge Fund Index was one of the worst-performing category indexes, falling 4.1%. The Morningstar MSCI Specialist Credit and Relative Value Hedge Fund Indexes fell only 0.5% and 0.1%, respectively, as some areas of the credit market, such as leveraged loans, performed better than others.
Global non trend funds, those that make macro-economic bets, and global trend funds, those that bet on price trends in commodity and financial futures, showed mixed results in February. These funds took advantage of the rise in gold and the depreciation of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar, but volatility in other commodities such as oil caused declines.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - The Opalesque South Africa Roundtable was held November 10th 2008 in their Cape Town Office. There, the participants also discussed the particularities of investing in Africa (ex-South Africa).
South Africa’s equity and fixed income markets displayed exemplary robustness during 2008. Many global allocators may not be aware that the South African financial market infrastructure matches or exceeds its "first world" counterparts in many respects.
The equity and fixed income markets demonstrated exemplary robustness throughout the turbulences of 2008: no short-selling ban, no trading halt and no failed trades. Offshore investors can benefit from efficient and proven ways to get pure South African alpha without taking currency risk.
During the Roundtable, portfolio managers explained new ways to construct hedges, and informed on new and upcoming products. How global investors can benefit from the "Africa story", which is probably the largest opportunity set in the new investment paradigm called "frontier investing"? How do you deal with restricted liquidity, and is Africa really uncorrelated?
The following experts participated in the Opalesque South Africa Roundtable: James Gubb, Founding Partner of Clear Horizon Capital St. John Bungey, Partner, Praesidium Capital Management James Addo, Portfolio Manager, Finch Asset Management Simone Lowe, Portfolio Manager, Thames River Capital Andy Pfaff, Founding Partner of Trendline Funds Ian Hamilton, Founder, IDS Group Ryan Proudfoot, Co-Head RMB Prime Broking Warren Chapman, Head of Peregrine Prime Broking Kevin Ewer, Portfolio Manager, Blue Ink Investments.
South African hedge fund managers and hedge fund investors share surprising insights. For example, – South African single strategy hedge funds offer transparency "far superior to anything anywhere else", according to investors – South African hedge funds suffered their first – and only until that point – net redemptions in October 2008, but only 2.5% of total assets – South Africa is the first country in the world that actually distinguishes between normal fund managers and hedge fund managers, with higher criteria required for hedge fund managers.
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