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CityWire – Hedge fund giant GLG Partners has launched a fund to exploit the debt problems across European corporations, according to report in the Financial Times.
GLG, one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers, is said to have started trading the distressed strategy earlier this month. The strategy has been employed in the firm’s credit and market neutral funds since last July.
According to the Financial Times, the fund will be managed by Galia Velimukhametova, who joined the firm last summer from $16 billion (£10 billion) hedge fund King Street Capital where she was a managing director and responsible for European strategies.
Bloomberg – Tadashi Mukai, returning to run his own his hedge fund after being the nation’s top performer in 2007, posted a 2.1 percent gain in March for his Wisdom of Japan Fund by betting on rising and falling stock prices.
The Epic Partners Investments Co. fund, which employs a so- called market-neutral strategy, doubled initial assets to 850 million yen ($8.5 million) since starting March 2, according to Mukai. The 44-year-old, who joined Epic in August and has managed market-neutral funds for eight years, aims to raise 10 billion yen from investors for the fund within a year.
Bloomberg – Wolver Hill Japan Multi-Strategy Fund, run by Deutsche Bank AG’s former prime brokerage sales chief in Tokyo, resisted the worst month for the nation’s stocks in almost 15 years to be little changed in September.
The $11 million fund of hedge funds, which invests in 14 hedge funds with a combined $5.8 billion of assets, slipped 1.4 percent in September based on preliminary figures, said Ed Rogers, chief executive officer of Wolver Hill’s local advisory firm, Rogers Investment Advisors Y.K. The Topix index of 1,714 companies tumbled 13 percent.
Foreseeing a decline in equity prices, Wolver Hill made a shift during the past year into hedge funds that use trading- focused strategies, and away from so-called long-short funds that depend on rising and falling stock prices, Rogers said. Trading- focused funds, including so-called event-driven strategies, trade securities of companies going through events such as mergers, acquisitions and management changes.
Bloomberg – Value Partners Group Ltd., Asia’s second-largest hedge fund manager by assets, said worsening returns in the industry may lead to bigger firms taking over smaller rivals.
“I think the industry may go through certain consolidation,” said Chief Executive Officer Franco Ngan in an e-mail. “Our company is financially strong and will keep an open mind to explore if appropriate opportunities arise.”
Asian hedge funds, dominated by equity-focused managers, have struggled with negative returns and redemptions this year, after the end of a five-year stock rally. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index has tumbled 23 percent from an Oct. 30 record and Japan’s Topix index has fallen 19 percent in the past year.
Eurekahedge’s Asian hedge fund index dropped 5.2 percent this year, based on preliminary data for May. That’s the worst start to a year since the Singapore-based company began compiling data in 2000, and the worst performance among six regional indexes Eurekahedge compiles.
Smaller, younger firms that have never weathered a market slump may struggle to attract and retain money as the global fallout from surging home loan delinquencies in the U.S. erodes appetite for risk.
“Institutional investors are becoming more and more demanding in terms of proper infrastructure such as risk control, compliance, operation, information technology, client services and reporting,” Ngan said. “The situation is more challenging for smaller boutiques with a relatively short track record.”
