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.
Cayman Compass – The average hedge fund recorded gains of 2.42 per cent in July data released by hedge fund data provider Hedge Fund Research shows. Hedge fund assets have increased on average by more than 12 per cent in the first seven months of this year. In July the increase was driven by higher equity market returns, Hedge Fund Research said.
July was the fifth month of consecutive gains for the industry, which lost a record 19 per cent overall in 2008. While the hedge fund industry currently experiences its best year since 1998, most fund manager have not yet recovered from last year’s losses and record redemptions in the final quarter of 2008.
Cayman Compass – The average hedge fund recorded gains of 2.42 per cent in July data released by hedge fund data provider Hedge Fund Research shows. Hedge fund assets have increased on average by more than 12 per cent in the first seven months of this year. In July the increase was driven by higher equity market returns, Hedge Fund Research said.
July was the fifth month of consecutive gains for the industry, which lost a record 19 per cent overall in 2008. While the hedge fund industry currently experiences its best year since 1998, most fund manager have not yet recovered from last year’s losses and record redemptions in the final quarter of 2008.
Reuters – Eden Rock Structured Finance has seen its value drop further in 2009, leaving some investors saying they are worried they may get back little of their money in the hedge fund, which is due to be wound up after losses last year.
Lack of foreign exchange hedging pummelled the fund’s asset values by up to 8.5 percent in July, according to preliminary company estimates seen by Reuters.
Forbes – Investor Timothy Barakett on Tuesday said Atticus Capital, which suffered some of the hedge fund industry’s steepest losses last year, is closing two of its three funds and will return $3 billion to shareholders.
The Atticus founder and chief executive told investors in a letter that he is closing down his flagship fund, Atticus Global, and the $600 million Atticus Trading fund ‘solely’ for personal reasons.
HeraldTribune.com – An attorney representing newsletter writer Don Rowe, who strongly recommended Arthur G. Nadel’s hedge funds to some investors, is seeking to have a civil fraud suit against his client dismissed.
In an Aug. 3 filing in circuit court in Sarasota County, Tampa attorney Edward O. Savitz claims that Rowe was not the ultimate cause of the investors’ losses: He did not sell or offer any securities and some of the plaintiff’s claims are barred because too much time has passed.
Sarasota attorney Drew Clayton is representing 11 investors in Nadel’s failed hedge funds and seeking damages of $5.4 million. All his clients were subscribers to one of the publications Rowe published from Sarasota: ”Wall Street Digest” or ”Carnegie Asset Management Inc. Reports.”
Wall Street Journal – Jeffrey Gendell’s new hedge fund returned more than 25% during its first quarter, as bets on energy and a steady economic recovery paid off, according to a letter the manager sent recently to investors.
Gendell, who suffered big losses last year and is still winding down some old hedge funds, also criticized some of President Barack Obama’s policies and argued that political ”gridlock” could help equity markets in 2010.
The manager opened the new Tontine Total Return Fund in April after some of Tontine’s other funds lost more than 60% last year. The new fund, which focuses on more liquid, or easily tradable, securities, returned 25.3% in its first quarter after management fees, Gendell said in a July 20 letter to investors.
Times Online – Guardian Media Group, the owner of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers, lost £24m last year on botched currency trading as it tried to protect hedge-fund investments.
The newspaper publisher, which is considering closingThe Observer, the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, was caught out by the dollar’s rapid rise against sterling which led to a £24m loss.
The investments were made out of a £200m investment fund designed to spread GMG’s risk away from volatile advertising markets.
Sources said the fund was never intended to make a profit in its first year and the losses were the result of a ”mark to market” valuation at the end of March. However, the scale of losses from derivatives investments, which contributed to a £90m annual group loss, will alarm its left-leaning readership.
Forbes – PetroAlgae, a Melbourne, Fla., company, is a renewable energy miracle–at least in the stock market. The company, which aims to harvest oil from algae, started trading on the OTC Bulletin Board in December 2008 at under $1 through a reverse merger with a public shell.
In July, PetroAlgae’s stock was trading hands for $40, valuing the company at $4 billion. Pretty strange for a company with no revenue, $27 million in losses and an unproven technology.
Bloomberg – Brazilian hedge funds lured about 8.2 billion reais ($4.52 billion) in July, the biggest monthly inflow this year, as a rebounding economy and record low interest rates increased demand for stocks and other higher- yielding assets.
The investment helped the funds recoup their 2009 losses, according to data through July 30 released by the National Association of Investment Banks. Hedge funds, known as multimercados, received 3.5 billion reais this year through July 30 as the industry began to lure back some of the record 54.6 billion reais of redemptions in 2008, according to the agency.
Reuters – Hedge fund firm Citadel Investment Group will return millions to clients who asked to exit last year, but were locked in when its flagship funds lost more than half their value during the financial crisis.
The Chicago-based firm, which invests $12 billion, informed clients on Tuesday it plans to give back $250 million on October 1 and to make another distribution at the end of the year, according to an investor who asked not to be named.
Citadel last year was one of many hedge funds to block investor exits. Now its decision to return the money suggests the worst may be over for the $1.4 trillion hedge fund industry after it suffered its worst-ever losses and record outflows last year.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Five years after regulators forced the sale of Strong Funds to Wells Fargo and Co. at the height of a national mutual fund scandal, investors in 24 former Strong Funds are moving closer to receiving their share of a $154 million settlement.
A proposal for doling out the money was developed by an independent consultant and has been published on the Securities and Exchange Commission Web site.
The proposal, which awaits SEC approval, would give priority to reimbursing investors in 24 Strong funds whose losses were related to ”frequent trading.” Frequent traders often aim to take advantage of differences between the share price of a fund and the actual value of the securities it holds – a maneuver that can harm the interests of long-term shareholders.
Reuters – World stocks pushed up to 9-month highs on Friday, cutting demand for government bonds as euro zone manufacturing and services reports beat expectations, fuelling optimism about economic recovery.
The euro hit a session high against the dollar and European shares reversed earlier losses to climb for a 10th session running after a better-than-expected German sentiment survey and improved data on the euro zone services and manufacturing sectors.
