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.
Assan Din, a former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. credit trader, is setting up a hedge fund to trade corporate bonds and derivatives in Asia.
SaKa Capital’s fund, which will have a capacity of more than $500 million, will start in September with $25 million to $50 million sourced mainly from founding members and friends, Din, 38, said. The Singapore-based firm will subsequently raise capital from institutional investors, including U.S. pension funds and endowments, once it builds a track record, he added.
Times Online – Hedge funds are on course to deliver their best first-half performance in a decade, as investors renew their faith in the sector in the wake of last year’s calamitous losses.
Hedge funds worldwide returned 5.63 per cent to their investors in the year to last Thursday, according to Hedge Fund Research (HFR), the Chicago-based research firm that compiles daily statistics on performance.
Strategies that predict big directional market moves made profits of 12.52 per cent over the period as equity markets in Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific posted strong gains and liquidity gradually returned to the credit markets.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Bull Path Capital Management recently announced the conversion of one of its long-short hedge funds into a long-short equity mutual fund the ‘Bull Path Long Short Fund’ (BPFCX).
The newly launched mutual fund ranks #1 of 811 funds on total annualized returns in the Lipper Mid-Cap Universe for the 5 years ending March 31, 2009, may be a “perfect consideration as a core investment for many investors.” He believes the long-short category will increasingly capture investors’ attention because of its typically lower risk levels than long-only funds. BPFCX has also received a top Lipper Leader rating of 5 for capital preservation against all equity mutual funds (9,360 funds).
“Investors have been traumatized by the events of the past 18 months, including the sobering performance of many long-only, ‘buy and hold’ strategies, and wondering how and when they can reenter the market,” said Rob Kaimowitz, portfolio manager of the Fund and founder of Bull Path Capital Management. “We believe investors will be attracted to the performance characteristics of long-short funds which aim to capture the market’s upside while mitigating risk in a market sell-off.”
“Until recently, there have been few mutual funds focused on long-short, and we are one of the few tested strategies in the market today,” noted Kaimowitz. “We believe this strategy makes sense for both individual and institutional investors with a medium- to long-term view of the market.”
In addition, Kaimowitz says investors who may have previously considered long-short hedge funds should consider investing in this strategy through a mutual fund structure owing to such benefits as lower minimum investments, lower fees, full transparency and the assets being held in a trust bank.
“There has been increasing pressure on hedge funds to provide lower fees, greater liquidity and increased portfolio transparency,” noted Kaimowitz. “A mutual fund structure addresses these issues quite well.”
The Bull Path Long Short Fund adopts a strategy developed and run by Bull Path Capital Management since 2002. “One of the hallmarks of our strategy is our ability to reinvest our knowledge through our rigorous, concentrated fundamental analysis in establishing both long and short positions,” said Kaimowitz. “This ability serves us well as we seek to provide investors with consistent returns and high levels of alpha.”
The Bull Path Long Short Fund is available in A and C Class shares with a $1,000 minimum investment or a $500 minimum with participation in the automatic investment plan. The I share requires a minimum of $100,000 or a $50,000 minimum with participation in the automatic investment plan.
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Financial Standard – US-based hedge fund BlueMountain Capital Management hopes its forecast 20 per cent plus returns, lower fees and new liquidity rules will appeal to local super funds allocating new money into alternative strategies.
Hedge funds are a hard sell these days following the sector’s nightmare run in the past two years. But if there is a silver lining to the market carnage, it is that the hedge funds that did survive adopted their business model to a new norm.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Quantum Global Financial Corp. has launched the multi strategy New Renaissance Fund with over 37% return for its first 11 months ended May 29, 2009.
The fund uses a systematic approach that employs a new technology. These are dynamically self adapting forecasting models. The algorithms have been in development for 18 years, tested for 7 years in simulation, and finally put into practice 11 months ago resulting in a substantial positive performance gap.
QGF achieved their 37% return with average leverage ratio of 1.25. For the same period, the CSFB Managed Futures Index was down 2.37%, Barclay Multi Strategy Hedge Fund index was down 13.89% and the S&P 500 was down 37.67%.
The fund focuses on delivering absolute performance throughout the economic cycle, transparency, liquidity and partnerships with firms that demonstrate extraordinary ethical compliance and global sustainability.
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MONACO (Reuters) – Former Insight Investment fund managers Patrick Armstrong and Ana Cukic-Armstrong have launched a new fund management business that will invest in a broad range of assets and seek to beat inflation.
The firm, Armstrong Investment Managers, will try to combine hedge fund-style flexibility with the liquidity and lower fees of traditional asset management. It will launch funds for retail, high net worth and pension fund investors at the end of the summer, Patrick Armstrong told Reuters on Tuesday.
The pair were co-heads of the multi-asset group at Insight Investment, now owned by Lloyds Banking Group. They ran around 1.2 billion pounds in assets including the Diversified Target Return fund, which over the past three years fell 2 percent, beating an average 11 percent fall among peer funds.
"We think there is a middle ground between traditional funds and hedge funds," Armstrong said. "Hedge funds have been opaque, illiquid and had very high charges."
Financial Standard – Pension funds around the world are expected to pump up their $547 billion hedge fund allocation by more than $60 billion before December as they look to balance assets and liabilities, new research shows.
Hedge fund managers are expected to heap an extra $63 billion into their coffers from pension funds and family offices.
But insurance companies, private banks, endowments and foundations are all likely to decrease their allocations to the sector, according to Barclays Capital.
The report, which surveyed 300 investors and 100 hedge fund managers representing $873 million of hedge fund assets, noted investors were ready to aggressively allocate their cash balances but will demand liquidity in the process.
Reuters – Castle Alternative Invest, a Swiss-listed fund of hedge funds, plans to list in London to improve the liquidity of its shares, its investment manager LGT Capital Partners said on Tuesday.
The fund, which has assets of more than $500 million (315 million pounds) and which is on a discount to net asset value of 27 percent, will list its shares in London from June 5. The shares will be traded in U.S. dollars.
Financial Standard – Australian fund of hedge fund managers can manage liquidity levels in real time after Northern Trust enhanced the firm’s Hedge Fund Monitor product.
The feature, which is available via Northern Trust’s relationship with youDevise, allows the fund of hedge fund manager to integrate all hedge fund gating terms into the fund’s liquidity calculations so they understand how and when they can access cash.
Gates are setup by hedge fund managers to limit redemptions and prevent a run on the fund.
Seeking Alpha – For the last few months, the media has portrayed the hedge fund industry as in desperate need to hang on to as much capital as possible. Hedge fund limited partners have purportedly been lining up demanding breaks on fees and access to capital in the future — and getting them. The truth is a little different (or at least a little more nuanced) than this perception.
Based on conversations I’ve had with managers in the industry, there are two factors which appear to differentiate between those hedge funds who have agreed to big concessions on fees and liquidity with their investors and ones who haven’t.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Swiss alternative investment company ALTIN AG has said it intends to maintain its share price by buying back between 5% and 10% of its own shares, its Board of Directors has also approved a capital reduction program. ALTIN’s hedge fund’s management performance was predictably negative (-29.20%) in 2008, yet considerably higher than key stock market indices.
2008 proved a particularly harsh year for the financial markets, compounded by additional difficulties specific to the hedge fund industry. The severe credit crisis often forced hedge funds to fire-sell positions.
In addition, the increased correlation between hedge funds and equity markets did not protect them against falling stock markets. In performance terms, the year 2008 has thus been negative for hedge funds and ALTIN proved no exception with a -29.20% fall in its net asset value. However, in light of the losses incurred by world stock markets over the same period, this result is acceptable and hedge funds remain the best performing asset class over the medium term.
Invested in approximately 40 hedge funds, the company has chosen to avoid illiquid strategies that have caused the closing of a number of hedge funds, ALTIN’s manager has been favouring liquidity since 2007.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: alex@hedgeco.net
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Vienna based hedge fund manager Salus Alpha Group Services GmbH has been awarded the alternative investments award of geld-magazins for extraordinary good performance for their Salus Alpha Directional Markets UCITS III Funds.
The Swedish state pension platform, Premium Pension Authority, recently included Salus Alpha funds in its portfolio. Included on the platform are Salus Alpha Real Estate, multi manager funds Salus Alpha Event Driven, Salus Alpha Managed Futures and Salus Alpha Equity Hedged.
The Salus Alpha funds that were chosen are UCITS III compliant, and meet the strict requirements regarding transparency, daily liquidity and adequate administration procedures set up for hedge funds by the Swedish pension authority.
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!
