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 – John Costas, who helped make UBS AG into one of the world’s biggest investment banks, wants to build a lasting Wall Street player — and put the 2007 demise of hedge fund Dillon Read Capital Management behind him.
Costas and long-time partner Michael Hutchins have launched The PrinceRidge Group, a boutique broker-dealer that is, for now, focused on trading mortgage and corporate debt.
Over time, though, he intends to expand into a mid-size investment bank, seizing "unprecedented" opportunities created by the shake-up on Wall Street.
FOXNews – MR. LENO: Tell people what happened. I know people have been over it, just –
MR. OBAMA: Well, look, here’s what happened. You’ve got a company, AIG, which used to be just a regular, old insurance company. Then they insured a whole bunch of stuff and they were very profitable and it was a good, solid company.
Then they decided — some smart person decided, let’s put a hedge fund on top of the insurance company and let’s sell these derivative products to banks all around the world — which are basically guarantees or insurance policies on all these sub-prime mortgages.
And this smart person said, you know, none of these things are going to go bust; this sub-prime thing, it’s a great deal, you can make a lot of profit. So they sold a whole bunch of them — billions and billions of dollars. And what happened is, is that when people started going bust on sub-prime mortgages you had $30 worth of debt on every dollar worth of mortgage — and the whole house of cards just started falling down.
Forbes – Bank of East Asia, Hong Kong’s fifth-largest lender, posted a bigger-than-expected second-half loss and slashed its dividend, after selling a debt portfolio at a steep loss.
The bank (BEA), which reported its first half-year loss since the 1960s, warned of a tough market environment this year but said on Tuesday it had no strong need to raise capital in the near term.
‘BEA may not need to raise capital immediately but the market will remain bearish on the stock as loan growth drops and mortgage demand slows down,’ said Castor Pang, a strategist with Sun Hung Kai Financial.
Journalism.co.uk – Laura Stavro-Beauchamp has been appointed as a reporter for Financial Times service, dealReporter.
Previously employed as deputy news editor on weekly title Mortgage Strategy, Canadian-born Stavro-Beauchamp will put her global and financial background to good use by providing intelligence to hedge funds through market analysis.
Her advice to anyone hoping to follow in her footsteps is to embrace the early positions in your career.
