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.
Hedge Funds Review Magazine – Greenwich Associates conducted a study of 146 institutions in North America and Europe to determine how fears of counterparty risk were affecting institutional investment and trading strategies.
The study revealed that 37% of participating institutions have over $50 billion in assets under management. A further 18% have more than $100 billion.
Survey respondents were divided between 32 hedge funds, 114 banks and traditional long-only investors, with the majority domiciled in the US (70%) and 30% in Canada and Europe.
Among US institutions, 85% sees credit default swap (CDS) counterparty risk as a serious threat to global markets. Institutions in Europe are slightly more sanguine; with just over 55% describing CDS counterparty risk as a significant danger.
Over 905 of hedge funds, however, said they see counterparty risk relative to credit default swaps as posing a significant threat to global markets.
Turkish Daily News – Hedge funds, which have reached an estimated asset volume of $2 trillion globally by attracting investor’s interest with their rapidly changing asset allocation and high risk appetite, are about to be accessible to investors in Turkey.
Oyak Securities, Garanti Bank, the Turkish lender co-owned by General Electric Co., and İş Investment are the first institutions that have obtained approval to establish hedge funds since the introduction of the permit in March.
Preparations for the necessary infrastructure are now complete and hedge funds will be available to investors in Turkey this autumn, said Emrah Yücel, fund manager at İş Investment. Fluctuation of global markets for the past year will not have a negative impact on hedge funds, Yücel added, noting that the current economic situation makes such funds even more attractive to investors.
Al-Bawaba – The Global Islamic Funds of Funds has demonstrated excellent performance in terms of returns and stability and has consistently outperformed other funds in the same category.
Global Investment House “Global” announced today that its Global Islamic Fund of Funds was ranked number one in July 2008 by Zawya. The Fund recorded a +5.72% YTD return and was posted on the homepage of the Zawya platform, where only leading funds make it there.
Global launched the fund in July 2007 in order to actively evaluate and invest in the growing number of Shari’a compliant products. With a dynamically evolving Hedge Funds team and an established track record of erudite investments across 80 different hedge fund managers, this fund has greatly benefited from the experience of the Hedge Fund team.
Mr. Omar El-Quqa, Executive Vice President at Global said, ”It is worth mentioning that, in the first 12 months since inception the fund has recorded a creditable performance of 11.00%, of which nearly 6% has been achieved in the first half of 2008”. Mr. El-Quqa further added, ”It must also be noted that on a panoramic landscape, clouded by credit crisis in the global markets, where the shallow waters of uncertainty threatened to return, this fund has done tremendously well. One of the key element to this performance is that the fund adopts aggressive strategies accompanied by low volatility of only 4.5% as compared to the other Islamic funds that portray high volatility”.
ITNews- Recent second quarter figures from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), have confirmed the achievement of a key milestone by the Cayman Islands financial services industry, with more than 10,000 investment funds currently registered in the jurisdiction.
At the end of June 2008 there were 10,037 funds on CIMA’s register, compared with 9,681 at the end of the previous quarter and 8,972 at the mid point of 2007. The current annual growth rate of 12% in net new hedge funds, which takes cancellations into account, is particularly striking in the context of the deterioration in global markets following the sub-prime meltdown and associated credit crunch.
"This is yet another round of impressive statistics from CIMA," said Mark Lewis, senior investment funds partner at Walkers. "The 10,000 barrier has been breached as hedge funds continue to be formed in the Cayman Islands, which remains the clear jurisdiction of choice for investment managers and their advisers around the world.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net)- Russia has held up very well over the month of June according to one of the most experienced Russian hedge fund managers, Pharos Financial Group. For the first half of 2008, the Pharos Russia Fund was up 3.8%, the Pharos Smll Cap Fund was up 6.8% and the Pharos Gas Investment Fund was up 3.3%. This compares very favorably with the MSCI Russia Index which was down 2.9% over the same period.
Trading activity throughout June was primarily driven by developments in global markets as domestic news flow was relatively light. However, Russia was very resilient through this very difficult month. The best performing stocks in June were fertilizers, metals and mining companies, which have also been the best performers over the first half of 2008.
Meanwhile, one of the most important developments in June was the final dissolution of utility holding company RAO UES. UES has been one of the most liquid stocks in Russia since it began trading in 1995, and for much of the following 10 years it was traded as the market proxy for Russia. The de-listing and final break up of UES on June 6 was the culmination of a very thorough restructuring of the entire utility sector which has seen $100B of assets split into a series of independent companies, and is one of the great underreported business stories of this decade.
"We expect financial markets to continue to be challenging throughout the summer as the credit crisis continues to wrack global markets." Pharos said, "Russia’s economy remains a beacon of stability in these turbulent times and the country is in excellent financial shape. However, global nervousness and uncertainty will cause short term volatility that will at times push fundamental valuation metrics aside. Our funds are positioned relatively defensively here, and we are focusing on investments that should outperform in this difficult environment."
Pharos Financial Group is specializing in the securities markets of Russia and the former Soviet Union. With a eleven year history through up and down markets, Pharos has a proven record of superior absolute returns with Russian Hedge Funds and Russia Hedge Fund Investing.
CityWire.co.uk- Skandia has launched an offshore protected fund of funds which aims to offer capital protection alongside investment returns from the global equity markets.
The Royal Skandia Protected Portfolio Investment Global Vista Life fun (PPI Global Vista) will offer exposure to global markets in a protected environment through equally weighted positions in AXA Framlington Emerging Markets Acc fund, Henderson European Opportunities A Acc fund, Invesco Perpetual Global Bond Inc fund, M&G Global Basics A Euro Acc fund and Schroder US Smaller Companies Inc fund.
It will be available to UK investors via Skandia’s offshore portfolio bonds and offers 100% capital protection plus 100% of the quarterly averaged growth at maturity. There is also an enhanced allocation of 104%.
The fund has a fixed five year term and will return the final redemption value to the bond at the end of the term offering the opportunity to reinvest the proceeds into an alternative investment vehicle.
FRANKFURT (Reuters)- UBS has wrapped up a 16 billion franc rights issue, the Swiss bank’s second effort to resuscitate finances that have been ravaged by the global markets crisis.
It is the latest in a line of major banks including Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS and France’s Credit Agricole to go cap in hand to shareholders. In total, European banks are raising more than $40 billion from shell-shocked investors.
UBS said on Friday 99.4 percent of the issue was taken up but one analyst pointed to what he said was UBS’s weak stock performance during the rights trading. "It has been weak ever since they announced the rights issue," said Peter Thorne, an analyst with Helvea.
