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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – In a preliminary hedge fund performance report for April 2009 and asset flows through March, Morningstar reported the largest one month-return since January 2006—bringing hedge fund returns into positive territory for 2009.
"Over the last two months, the bulls have dominated the markets, and stories of green shoots in the economy colored the financial media. The rally was led by higher-risk asset classes, including small-cap, financial sector, and emerging market stocks, as well as high-yield bonds and leveraged loans. Many hedge fund managers weren’t confident in the sustainability of the rally, and invested with a more conservative market exposure," said Nadia Papagiannis, Morningstar hedge fund analyst.
U.S. convertible bonds benefited from the trend toward higher-risk, low-credit-quality investments. According to the Merrill Lynch All U.S. Convertibles Index, these securities enjoyed their best month since 1987, with speculative-grade convertibles returning more than double the gains of investment-grade securities. The Morningstar Convertible Arbitrage Hedge Fund Index, the best-performing Morningstar hedge fund index this year, rose 5.1% in April and 12.5% year to date.
Also in the lower-quality field, the Morningstar Distressed Securities Hedge Fund Index increased 2.1% in April, the largest since the beginning of the credit crunch in mid 2007.
In emerging market equities, Eastern European countries produced the best returns in April, although this region is still recovering from its early 2009 nosedive. The only losers in April were the Morningstar Global Trend and Global Non-Trend Hedge Fund Indexes, which dropped 1.7% and 0.5% respectively.
According to Morningstar’s database, hedge funds overall continued to show a decline in outflows. In January, investors withdrew more than $29 billion from hedge funds, but February outflows totaled less than $6 billion, while March’s preliminary figure showed an even lower amount, at $3.6 billion. Despite the overall March trend of outflows, developed Asia equity hedge funds actually had net inflows of $4.1 billion in March, and investors were rewarded.
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Forbes – Financial assets have become so cheap because of the credit crisis that now is a good time to scoop up bargains, the head of one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, Avenue Capital, said on Wednesday.
‘Now is a phenomenal time to buy, assuming you think we’re not in a depression,’ Marc Lasry, chairman and CEO of the company, said at the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Hong Kong.
‘We’re looking at valuations we think are extremely low. Unless the unthinkable happens, you’ll be fine,’ he said, referring to the investment environment.
Bloomberg – PXP Vietnam Asset Management, which oversees $225 million, plans to start a hedge fund by early next year as it seeks bargains in Asia’s second-worst-performing stock market, said co-founder Kevin Snowball.
The PXP Vietnam Value Fund will raise as much as $200 million to invest in undervalued stocks, Snowball said today.
PXP, the initials of Phan Xi Pang, Vietnam’s highest mountain, is betting that the stock market will recover as inflation eases and the nation’s trade deficit widens at a slower pace. The benchmark VN Index may double to 750 by the end of 2009, Snowball said.
“In the long term, the story’s intact,” Snowball, 47, said in an interview in Ho Chi Minh City. “As long as the government handles the development of the economy and the market correctly – - so far they’re doing a very good job — then I think we’re fine.”
USA Today – Given the stock market’s wretched performance this year, your current retirement plan may involve a modest part-time job, such as woodworking or forgery.
Before you take up a life of crime, however, remember that really rotten markets sometimes uncover opportunities. In fact, the worse the market, the more bargains you can find. And right now, you can buy stocks and bonds of the nation’s best-run and most profitable businesses at astoundingly low prices. What’s more, you can collect dividends and interest while you wait for the economy to recover and for other investors to regain their senses.
First, and let’s not whitewash things here, the current market has all the appeal of a weekend in the local viper pit. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 679 points on Thursday alone; it has shed 5,585 points, or 39%, in the past 12 months.
Bloomberg – Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. will shift more of its 11 trillion yen ($100 billion) in assets to hedge funds and scour the globe for bargains as the credit squeeze forces down prices.
Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., a unit of Japan’s biggest casualty insurer, may boost its investments in hedge funds by as much as 30 billion yen annually, said Fumihiro Nakajima, who runs the firm’s hedge fund investment group. The insurer has almost 200 billion yen in this asset class, he said.
“Our goal is to gradually increase hedge funds investments,” said Nakajima, 44, in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “In the wake of subprime loan problems, there will be an opportunity to invest in hedge funds that invest in the credit market,” including high-yield bonds and credit-default swaps.
Financial Times- John Paulson, the US hedge fund manager who made a fortune for his investors by anticipating the debacle in subprime mortgages, said on Wednesday it was too early to look for bargains in the financial sector and predicted the worst was yet to come for the UK housing market.
Mr Paulson, who founded Paulson & Co 14 years ago and has $33bn in funds under management, said he was “preparing to switch” to long positions on distressed mortgages and banks, but added that such a change could be months – or even a couple of years – away.
He said financial companies could wind up losing as much as $1,300bn in the credit crisis.
