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.
CNN Money – Hedge funds may be struggling and closing up shop in the current market environment, but Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) was able to make more money tending to the funds’ needs this year than last.
The company, which on Tuesday reported its first quarterly loss since it went public a decade ago, was able to post a 19% gain in revenue in its securities services operations for the three months that ended Nov. 28, compared to the same period last year. The business also turned in record net revenues for all of fiscal 2008 at a time when Goldman’s normally high-octane trading and principal investing line was down by 71% for the year.
Goldman’s security services business is dominated by its prime brokerage operations, whose clientele comes primarily from hedge funds. Competitor Morgan Stanley (MS), which runs a similar prime brokerage business that turned in record net revenues last quarter, reports its earnings on Wednesday.
Though hedge funds have been hard-hit by customer redemptions and market losses, Goldman was able to generate more revenue this year because its securities services business mix became more profitable, Chief Financial Officer David Viniar told analysts during a conference call.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Because of investors’ demand Salus Alpha decided to make the Salus Alpha Directional Market accessible as a fund. This way Salus Alpha continues to launch tracker funds for all hedge fund indices launched by Alternative-Index Ltd.
The Directional Markets Index (DMX) convinced investors this year with outstanding +53% YTD performance and above-average performance in the last years, the DMX contrasts clearly with other Hedge Fund Indices.
Investors are able to achieve profits even in falling markets because of the widening of the product range Salus Alpha. It responds to investors’ needs in the current volatile market environment and offers a lager selection of funds with no correlation to bonds or equities.
The Salus Alpha Directional Markets employs directional trend following strategies in multiple time frames and markets. The funds objective is to achieve low to negative correlation to traditional longonly investments such as bonds or equities. The fund also tracks the Vienna Stock Exchange listed DMX.
Since inception of the calculation the DMX displays a performance of approximately 28.40% p.a. with a volatility of 17.88% p.a.
The subscription period for the Salus Alpha Directional Markets is from 5th November 2008 to 30th November 2008. During subscription period no sales fee will be charged.
Bloomberg – Deephaven Capital Management LLC, the hedge-fund unit of stockbroker Knight Capital Group Inc., froze a $1.6 billion fund after investors asked to get back 30 percent of their money.
Withdrawals from the Deephaven Global Multistrategy Fund were suspended so managers wouldn’t be forced to sell assets in falling stock and debt markets, the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based firm said yesterday in a letter to investors. Lenders and trading partners also imposed stricter financing requirements, according to the letter.
Deephaven Global, which trades a variety of securities including bonds and commodities, follows RAB Capital Plc, Ore Hill Partners LLC and Highland Capital Management LP in limiting withdrawals amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The fund lost 15 percent this year through September, and Deephaven estimated it has fallen an additional 10 percent this month. The fund has returned an average of 16 percent annually since opening in 1994.
“This level of redemptions in the current market environment forces the question of whether such redemptions can be processed in the ordinary course without disadvantaging both continuing and later redeeming investors,” said the letter, signed by Colin Smith, Deephaven’s chief executive officer .
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge fund advisor Edge Capital Partners, LLC has launched a new website (www.edgecappartners.com) highlighting the firm’s offerings in the areas of asset allocation strategies, benchmarked investment options, corporate mergers and acquisitions and finance strategies, wealth management and individual portfolio management.
Designed by Glick Interactive, the Edge Capital Partners new website decribes the firm’s culture and goals. "(our firm) is built on providing unbiased wealth management solutions. Our goal is to elevate the standards of wealth management and use our website as a tool to communicate our firm’s values in this challenging global market environment,” said Partner J. Peek Garlington III.
Edge Capital Partners, LLC is a provider of wealth management and investment advisory services to a select group of high-net-worth and institutional clients globally. Seasoned advisors understand the challenges of creating solutions that match clients’ unique and evolving needs and work in unison with clients, their advisors and accountants to capture, generate, and implement all points of strategy and service.
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!
Bloomberg – Nippon Life Insurance Co., Japan’s biggest life insurer, said it will boost hedge fund investments and may target distressed assets to take advantage of volatility caused by the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market.
Nippon Life, with about 100 billion yen ($920 million) in hedge funds, increased its allocation to this asset class by about 30 billion yen during the past two years in a trend it intends to continue, Hideya Sadanaga, deputy general manager of the firm’s Credit & Alternative Investment Department, said in an interview in Tokyo.
The global credit crisis that’s caused more than $500 billion of losses and writedowns at financial firms has increased volatility in debt markets and led to a 20 percent decline in the value of the 1,737 companies on the MSCI World Index this year.
“There will be investment opportunities in the credit and distressed asset class eventually, given this market environment,” said Hiroshi Aikawa, head of alternative investment at office at Nippon Life’s Nissay Asset Management Corp., in the same interview on Sept. 5. “Investments that profit from trading volatility also look attractive.”
Reuters HK – Asian hedge fund managers are waiting with dread to see if tough new short selling restrictions sweep across the region after Australia and Taiwan joined U.S. and UK regulators in cracking down on the practice.
Major Asian markets, such as Japan and Hong Kong, have so far held their fire. But industry executives, many angry with the recent restrictions, said the combination of market volatility and politics makes the outcome impossible to predict.
"My fundamental view is that it is utterly idiotic. In the current market environment, the priority I would have thought would be to encourage liquidity," said Peter Douglas, founder of Singapore-based hedge fund consultancy GFIA.
"Most regulators that I’ve met have been fundamentally quite sensible people, so you have to make the assumption this is driven a mixture of politics and public opinion. And that makes it very difficult to predict the course."
