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.
Reuters – New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, probing illegal marketing and sales of auction rate securities (ARS), is likely to file a lawsuit on Monday against Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.O) for civil fraud, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
As a part of the lawsuit, Cuomo will likely present transcripts of recordings between Schwab brokers and customers that allegedly show how the ARS were misrepresented by brokers as easy-to-sell alternatives to cash, according to the paper.
Bloomberg – Stanley Ku, former head of Fortress Investment Group LLC’s Hong Kong office, plans to start an Asia- focused hedge fund to profit from macroeconomic developments, according to a marketing document given to potential investors.
Minerva Macro Fund, to be managed by Hong Kong-based Ku, will start investing in early August, two people with knowledge of the plan said. It seeks to generate annual returns of 12 percent to 22 percent trading stocks, interest rate, currency and commodity instruments in large and liquid markets, according to the document, obtained by Bloomberg.
Reuters – China Zhongwang Holdings, Asia’s biggest maker of aluminium extrusion products, began marketing on Monday for a Hong Kong IPO to raise as much as $1.58 billion in what would be the world’s largest new listing so far this year.
The company, which generates a large share of its business from the transport sector, including railways, is a beneficiary of Beijing’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) economic stimulus package, a big chunk of which is being spent on infrastructure.
Reuters - U.S. hedge fund Citadel Investment Group LLC plans to roll out several new funds, including one with lower fees that will aim to make money on currencies, interest rates and other trades based on broad economic trends, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Citadel could not be reached for comment.
The firm hopes to raise $2 billion in coming months and could raise $5 billion for its new Citadel Global Macro Fund Ltd, the paper said citing marketing documents.
Boston Business Journal – Just days after winning regulatory approval for the manufacture and marketing of its cancer therapy for bladder cancer, Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc. disclosed that a North Carolina hedge fund has acquired 8.5 percent of its common stock.
Lexington, Mass.-based Indevus made the announcements via regulatory filings late Friday and early Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Friday, the company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved its supplemental new drug application for Valstar, a therapy that aims to treat bladder cancer through an injectable technology.
Valstar was first approved by the FDA in 2002, however design as well as manufacturing issues have prevented Indevus from marketing the drug in the United States since 2002.
Indevus said it intends to market Valstar during the second half of this year.
Reuters – NewSmith Capital Partners, one of the hedge fund firms to appear before last month’s Treasury Select Committee into the banking crisis, told Reuters on Thursday partner Jeremy Silewicz had left the firm.
Silewicz, who joined NewSmith in March 2007 as a portfolio manager on its European fund before moving to a role in marketing, left at the end of last year, a spokesman said.
He added that Andrew Irving, a member of NewSmith’s operations team, had also left the firm, but declined to comment on the reasons for their departures.
Bloomberg – Britain’s Prince Charles, among other royalty and wealthy Europeans, were targeted through Bernard Madoff’s use of high-profile recruiters, said whistleblower Harry Markopolos in documents given U.S. lawmakers.
Prince Michael of Yugoslavia was an executive of a so- called Madoff feeder fund, Access International Advisors Ltd., when he met Prince Charles and his sons at a polo field during a marketing tour in 2002, Markopolos said. Prince Charles put no money with Madoff, said a person familiar with the matter. Liliane Bettencourt, the world’s wealthiest woman, did lose money after she entrusted part of her $22.9 billion fortune to Access, two people familiar with the matter said.
