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.
Bloomberg – Hedge fund assets increased by $10.6 billion in July, rising for a third straight month, as managers trading shares benefited from global stock market gains, according to Eurekahedge Pte.
Net inflows into the industry totaled $2.1 billion, while gains through performance were $8.5 billion, bringing total assets under management to $1.35 trillion, the Singapore-based research firm said in a report posted on its Web site.
Hedge fund managers are making a comeback after suffering their worst year on record in 2008, as stock markets recover amid optimism that stimulus measures will help put an end to the worst of the global economic recession. The MSCI World Index jumped 8.4 percent in July, bringing its year-to-date advance to 14 percent.
This is London – It also led many in the City to believe the Bank favours a weak currency, prompting a series of downbeat forecasts today. “I’m super bearish on the pound,” said Hans-Guenter Redeker, the London-based head of foreign exchange at BNP Paribas.
“The Bank of England has made it clear it can’t afford a stronger currency.” He forecast the pound would fall to $1.50 in 12 months.
John Taylor, chief executive of New York hedge fund FX Concepts, said sterling will “get crushed” and sink as low as $1.45 in the coming months.
“The fundamentals in the UK are certainly not pretty,” he said. “It’s a race for the least ugly of the candidates, and I would argue that the US is going to be the least ugly for a while.” Others were more upbeat and said the measures taken by the Bank and the Government to ease the slowdown will boost sterling. HSBC predicted the pound would rise to $1.75 by the end of next year — midway between the high of $2.12 in November 2007 and the low of $1.38 in March this year.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – In order to achieve capital reduction, Swiss alternative investment company ALTIN AG has launched a share buyback program as part of a broader range of measures to reduce share price discount.
The hedge fund company has already succeeded in bringing the difference between the NAV and the share price from 33% at the end of 2008 to 21.7%. This, among other things, should enable ALTIN’s stock market price to come closer to the NAV.
The Annual General Meeting of shareholders approved a share buyback programme of up to 10% of the share capital. A second trading line for the registered shares of ALTIN will be opened on the SIX Swiss Exchange on 22 July 2009. ALTIN intends to buy back up to 5% of its shares until the end of March 2010.
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Bloomberg – Crude oil was little changed near $60 a barrel in New York amid concerns the global recovery has yet to take root, postponing a rebound in demand for fuel.
Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators reduced their net-long position in New York in the week ended July 7, according to the latest data from regulators. Stocks dropped from Dubai to Taipei and Treasuries rose on speculation that government rescue measures have not taken effect.
“Bearish sentiment in the market is persisting,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London. “It’s weak, so a move to $58.30 is possible, but we should consolidate around there.”
Citywire.co.uk – To analyse all of Europe’s absolute return funds on a variety ofg risk-return measures and see a comprehensive league table of performance visit our new zone here
The CF KB Endeavour Absolute Return fund slipped into negative territory last September as the fallout from the collapse of Lehman Brothers rippled across several major asset classes.
The fund suffered its highest drawdown to date, shedding -16.75%, which effectively wiped out all of the gains it had made since launch in July 2006, and then some.
Forbes – Aggressive government action can hurt the market, but regulators should clamp down on excessive borrowing by banks and investors to prevent another credit crisis, veteran hedge fund manager Paul Singer said at a conference.
Singer said the current ‘anti-capitalist’ fervor, inspired by last year’s market meltdown and the ongoing recession, will likely lead to increased regulation. These measures would only prolong the problem, he told some 1,200 hedge fund executives at the Ira Sohn Investment Research Conference on Wednesday.
Reuters – Aggressive government action can hurt the market, but regulators should clamp down on excessive borrowing by banks and investors to prevent another credit crisis, veteran hedge fund manager Paul Singer said at a conference.
Singer said the current "anti-capitalist" fervor, inspired by last year’s market meltdown and the ongoing recession, will likely lead to increased regulation. These measures would only prolong the problem, he told some 1,200 hedge fund executives at the Ira Sohn Investment Research Conference on Wednesday.
Reuters – European Central Bank Executive Board member Juergen Stark was quoted on Tuesday as criticizing decisions made at the G20 summit to boost the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).
Stark suggested in a newspaper article that the decision was potentially inflationary as it would create "helicopter money" and that it had not been properly thought out.
Last week leaders from the Group of 20 wealthy and emerging economies agreed to support a general allocation of $250 billion worth of International Monetary Fund’s SDRs alongside other measures to boost the Fund’s firepower.
Bloomberg – The Group of 20 leaders will agree on new rules to rein in hedge funds and may more than double the resources of the International Monetary Fund, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said.
“There is a recognition that some hedge funds are systemically important,” Darling told Bloomberg Television in an interview today in London. “There will be an agreement there. Where you’ve got something that’s systemically important like a hedge fund, you need to know what’s going on there.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has struggled to allay the concerns of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy as they press for a crackdown on traders and lenders. Darling’s comments suggest consensus is now emerging among G-20 leaders in the London talks on measures to combat the financial crisis.
Forbes – Qatar launched new measures to support its banking sector on Monday with the government saying it would purchase listed shares within banks’ investment portfolios, according to a statement by the Doha bourse.
The news sent shares in Qatari banks soaring, with Qatar National, Qatar Islamic and Qatar Commercial banks rising the limit of 10 percent.
Hedge Funds Review – US hedge fund managers could be subject to higher personal taxes if changes to the taxation rules included in President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget proposal are adopted.
The budget proposal includes measures to treat carried interest as ordinary income as opposed to capital gains for tax purposes. That would raise taxes on income earned from performance and incentive fees from the current rate of 15% applicable to capital gains to over 39%.
Carried interest has been a sensitive topic in Washington for many years. Some politicians have argued that hedge funds and private equity groups have used the carried interest exemption to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
The proposed change in tax rules could have a deep impact on the earnings of hedge fund managers. The compensation structure at many hedge fund companies puts the onus on performance and incentive fees as the principal source of income for the manager.
Asia Times Online – During the end of the 1970s into the 1980s, British Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher and the City of London financial interests who backed her introduced wholesale measures of privatization, state budget cuts, moves against labor and deregulation of the financial markets.
They did so in parallel with similar moves in the US initiated by advisers around Reagan. The claim was that hard medicine was needed to curb inflation and that the bloated state bureaucracy was a central problem.
