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MSN MoneyCentral – Mace Security International Inc. said Tuesday it has only received $1 million of a little more than $3.2 million owed it by a hedge fund managed by missing Florida money manager Arthur Nadel.
The Horsham, Pa., maker of personal defense and electronic security products said the Victory Fund Ltd. didn’t pay Mace the roughly $2.2 million it was due Jan. 15.
“We have already filed a report with the authorities, and we intend to take all possible legal action against the Victory Fund,” Dennis Raefield, Mace’s CEO and president, said in a statement. “Mace continues to have a solid balance sheet, cash in the bank and strong business fundamentals.”
Falcone, 46, has been dubbed the "Midas of misery" for taking lucrative short positions in the shares of struggling banks including HBOS and Wachovia. He lives in a 27-room townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side bought for $49m. The youngest of nine children, he grew up in Minnesota and was a young ice hockey star dubbed "the phantom" for his ability to elude defenders.
Kenneth Griffin
The Boy Wonder As a Harvard University student Griffin installed a satellite dish on his dorm to help him trade options. His Citadel Investment Group, founded in 1990, has 1,200 staff and was tipped as the next Goldman Sachs, but its two main funds have lost 35% of their value in the market turmoil. Griffin, 40, was a high-profile donor to the presidential campaign of fellow Chicago resident Barack Obama.
James Simons
The Mathematician Born in 1938, Simons was a maths prodigy. He worked as a codebreaker for the US defence department in the 1970s and set up his Renaissance Technologies fund, which has some $20bn under management, in 1988. Known as a "black box" fund, it uses opaque quantitative techniques. Its core Medallion fund rose 49% in the year to September. Simons has a $600m charitable foundation.
John Paulson
The Sub-Prime King Low-profile Paulson made $3.7bn last year betting against sub-prime mortgages. A 52-year-old father of two, he was raised in the New York borough of Queens, gained an MBA from Harvard and has a $41m lakeside retreat in the Hamptons. His firm, Paulson & Co, manages $35bn and its advisers include Alan Greenspan. Reports suggest a bumper year, with the firm’s main funds rising by between 15% and 25%.
Reuters – Some of the world’s biggest hedge funds suffered a dramatic drop in assets in the first half of 2008 as financial markets tumbled and many investors asked for their money back, according to a survey released on Monday.
Renaissance Technologies, which runs one of the world’s most successful hedge funds that also charges some of the world’s highest fees, saw assets under management shrink by 14.71 percent during the first six months of the year. The firm, run by former mathematics professor Jim Simons, managed $29 billion at the end of June, according to a survey conducted by magazine Absolute Return.
While total assets may have shrunk, its $8 billion Medallion fund soared 48 percent at the end of July, net of fees, the New York Post reported, citing people familiar with the returns.
Farallon Capital Management’s assets declined 8.3 percent to $33 billion, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management saw assets fall 7.9 percent to $26.9 billion.
New York Post – Jim Simons, a man known for running one of the world’s most secretive, expensive and successful hedge funds, is on track to wow investors with another year of double-digit returns.
Simons’ $8 billion Medallion fund, the oldest of the three Renaissance Technologies funds, was up 48 percent at the end of July, net of fees, according to people familiar with the funds’ returns.
Medallion, which is funded mostly by Renaissance insiders, charges a whopping 49 percent in fees, including a 5 percent management fee and 44 percent incentive fee.
That’s high even by the standards of an already costly industry – the industry average is a 2 percent management fee and a 20 percent incentive fee – but with such eye-popping returns, no one’s likely to complain.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Baer Capital has announced the launch of their new fund that invests in Indian equities, distressed debt and derivatives, further propelling Dubai’s prominence in the hedge fund industry. The Beacon India Alpha Equity Fund is the latest fund aimed at capitalizing on India’s emerging markets.
‘We are extremely excited about the launch of the Beacon India Alpha Equity Fund which is a long short equity fund focused on listed Indian equities and managed by Baer Capital Partners International Ltd,” said Brij Singh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Baer Capital Partners. “The Beacon India Alpha Equity Fund is an integral part of our mission to create a ‘Best in Class’ alternative asset management platform focused on India.”
This is the second hedge fund for Baer, who also manages a $220 million private equity fund centering on opportunities in India. Norton Rose (Middle East) LLP has advised Baer on both the structure of the private equity fund and the hedge fund. Baer isn’t the only company captivated by the potential of India. Donald Trump Jr. just recently launched a fund focused on acquiring luxury properties in the subcontinent.
In addition, big players in the hedge fund arena like D.E. Shaw, Renaissance Technologies and Och-Ziff Capital Management have already established their presence in the Indian market.
Baer Capital Partners was established in 2006 and focuses on investment management, corporate finance and wealth advisory.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
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New York Post- If the Securities and Exchange Commission expands its clampdown on short-selling, it is widely expected to slam hedge funds like Stephen Cohen’s SAC Capital and James Simon’s Renaissance Technologies, which profit from fast-and-furious trading, experts predicted.
That’s because under the long-accepted rules of the short-selling game, these hedge funds, which often trade through sophisticated computer programs, have been able to skip the process of borrowing the shares needed to cap off their short positions.
But that luxury is now being challenged by the SEC’s mandate requiring investors who short 19 financial stocks, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to borrow the shares they short before they bet against the stock whose price they predict will fall.
