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 – New Castle Funds LLC’s efforts to survive the arrest of its co-founder in the Raj Rajaratnam insider-trading case were set back as a Swiss bank ended a partnership and Rajaratnam decided to liquidate his funds.
Union Bancaire Privée liquidated a fund that it hired New Castle to manage, the Geneva-based bank said yesterday in an e- mailed statement. The Luxembourg-registered Market Neutral U.S. Equity fund had assets of $36.1 million at Aug. 4, according to Bloomberg data.
Reuters – Warren Lichtenstein’s Steel Partners LLC is forging ahead with a controversial plan to convert its flagship hedge fund, Steel Partners II, into a publicly traded holding company in the face of opposition from shareholders calling for liquidation.
The New York-based firm told limited partners, in a shareholder letter dated Tuesday, that they have until June 5 to either approve its plan to convert the fund into shares in a listed company, Steel Partners Holdings, or elect to receive a share of the fund’s assets. Both options will also distribute some cash.
Reuters – Warren Lichtenstein’s Steel Partners LLC is forging ahead with a controversial plan to convert its flagship hedge fund, Steel Partners II, into a publicly traded holding company in the face of opposition from shareholders calling for liquidation.
The New York-based firm told limited partners, in a shareholder letter dated Tuesday, that they have until June 5 to either approve its plan to convert the fund into shares in a listed company, Steel Partners Holdings, or elect to receive a share of the fund’s assets. Both options will also distribute some cash.
"For myself and many of our investors, the option provided by Steel Partners Holdings is too compelling to ignore," Lichtenstein said in his investor letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
NineMSN – The trustee overseeing the liquidation of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff’s assets sued another investment fund on Tuesday, claiming it owes Madoff’s victims more than $US1 billion ($A1.32 billion) it withdrew from his firm.
The complaint in Manhattan bankruptcy court alleges Harley International Ltd knew or should have known that the fortune came out of the pockets of victims of Madoff’s giant Ponzi scheme.
Of the $US1 billion ($A1.32 billion) total, the private, overseas hedge fund withdrew $US425 million ($A560.61 million) during the three months before his arrest last year.
Herald Tribune – The Treasury Department has increased its offer to repay Chrysler’s senior lenders as part of continuing talks on how to reduce the company’s debt, a person who had been briefed on the talks said on Wednesday.
The government’s new plan, however, still shows a broad chasm between the two sides as Chrysler races to complete a reorganization plan by April 30 or face a near-certain liquidation through bankruptcy.
Reuters India – KSK Emerging India Energy Fund had raised £100 million from AIM last year to invest in Indian energy companies.
Global recession has claimed a victim in India. KSK Emerging India Energy Fund (KEF), a £100 million fund listed in London’s Alternative Investment Market, has been wound up after the shareholders passed a resolution last week demanding the same.
The shareholders – which include large hedge funds – passed a resolution on January 22 asking for the liquidation of the company and the return of funds invested by them. The delisting of the company and liquidation has come into effect from January 23. The EGM was held in Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands.
Cayman Net News – In a landmark decision the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal has settled various questions on the suspension of redemption. The ruling (December 12, 2008) in the Strategic Turnaround Master Partnership (based in New York) versus Culross Global case specifically defined the meaning of redemption in an investment fund context and at what point a member is actually redeemed from an investment fund.
After examining the articles of association, the Court of Appeal found redemption did not take place on the redemption date but was a process which was not completed until the member’s name was removed from the register of members and the member’s shares were available for re-issue.
Given the investment climate and the rash of redemption requests, the court’s decision is important to directors, administrators, auditors, legal advisers and other third parties involved in the determination of the rights and liabilities of investment funds and investors.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - Canada’s hedge fund industry gathered in November to raise $150,000 in support of Hedge Funds Care Canada (HFCC), which is dedicated exclusively to the treatment and prevention of child abuse and neglect.
"The Canadian hedge fund industry is particularly devoted to philanthropic causes, and this cause resonates, even more so in these difficult economic times," said Corey Goldman, President and Director of Hedge Funds Care Canada. "Hard times bring stress, and stress causes pain but there is no reason that any child should be exposed to physical or psychological trauma, maltreatment or neglect."
HFCC is part of a larger alliance of hedge fund industry professionals that comprise New York-based Hedge Funds Care, including prime brokers, attorneys, accountants, information providers, investors and managers. They have raised approximately $31 million through annual benefits in Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Denver, London and the Cayman Islands.
Bloomberg – Van Biema Value Partners LLC, led by a former Columbia Business School professor, started a new fund to invest in Asian hedge funds while plunging markets and client withdrawals force rivals to scale back investments.
The Cayman Islands-domiciled van Biema Asia Value Fund Ltd. started on Aug. 1 with about $215 million from one of the company’s institutional clients, van Biema said in a statement issued through PR Newswire yesterday.
“Our niche, the value discipline, has demonstrated, over the long term, significant outperformance over market benchmarks,” the statement said.
Michael van Biema, who taught finance subjects including value investing at Columbia Business School from 1992 before founding his partnership in 2004, started the Asia fund as market declines and the worst hedge fund performance in 19 years force other funds of hedge funds to reduce investments and switch to cash to cope with investor redemptions.
Caymen Net News – Insolvency lawyers in Scotland should take an interest in a bankruptcy case in the Cayman Islands involving two Bear Stearns hedge funds and an American judge with the wonderful name of Burton Lifland.
The issue is this: where did a business that has gone bust have its main commercial interests?
The two funds were involved in what is now a familiar story amid the carnage on the world financial markets. They bet heavily on sub-prime mortgages and, as defaults increased, creditors demanded their money back leaving the funds with no cash.
Reuters UK – Switzerland’s fledgling hedge fund industry is set for strong growth in the coming years as the credit crisis forces the industry to focus on lower-cost centres and the country aims to lure managers back from London.
Lower living costs, as well as better personal tax rates than London in some cantons, improving tax terms for fund firms and a high quality of life are carrots Switzerland is dangling in front of continental European managers based in London.
And as the credit crisis and huge market volatility decimate returns in the hedge fund industry, Switzerland looks set to benefit as managers facing fee pressure and outflows look for cheaper places to relocate to in order to survive.
"London is still dominant, but we’re seeing some activity (new funds) in Geneva," said Mark Lewis, senior investment funds partner at Cayman Islands-based law firm Walkers Global.
Bizjournals.com – A Minneapolis hedge fund has sued Petters Group Worldwide, alleging it was defrauded out of $60 million in a deal involving “imaginary televisions.”
Interlachen Harriet Investments, a Cayman Islands-based unit of Minneapolis-based Interlachen Capital Group, filed the suit Wednesday, saying that it gave $60 million to Petters Co. Inc. to purchase electronic merchandise such as televisions. PCI, a unit of Petters Group Worldwide, was to resell the televisions at a profit. Interlachen alleges that PCI never purchased any merchandise, and used the investment to fund former CEO Tom Petters’ other business ventures, pay down debt and for personal use.
The suit is similar to federal allegations made last week that Petters and several associates bought and sold nonexistent goods with investors’ money for more than a decade by creating the image of a successful retail business.
