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Tacoma News Tribune - The list of investors who say they were duped in one of Wall Street’s biggest Ponzi schemes grew larger Monday, snaring some of the world’s biggest banking institutions and hedge funds, the super rich and the famous, pensioners and charities.
The alleged victims who sunk cash into veteran Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff’s investment pool include real estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman, the foundation of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, and a charity of movie director Steven Spielberg, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Among the world’s biggest banking institutions, Britain’s HSBC Holdings PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Man Group PLC, Spain’s Grupo Santander SA, France’s BNP Paribas and Japan’s Nomura Holdings all reported that they had fallen victim to Madoff’s alleged Ponzi, or pyramid, scheme.
TheChronicleHerald.ca - The list of investors who say they were duped in one of Wall Street’s biggest Ponzi schemes is growing, snaring some of the world’s biggest banking institutions and hedge funds, the super rich and the famous, pensioners and charities.
The alleged victims who sunk cash into veteran Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff’s investment pool include real estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman, the foundation of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, and a charity of movie director Steven Spielberg, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Among the world’s biggest banking institutions, Britain’s HSBC Holdings PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Man Group PLC, Spain’s Grupo Santander SA, France’s BNP Paribas and Japan’s Nomura Holdings all reported that they had fallen victim to Madoff’s alleged Ponzi, or pyramid, scheme.
Reuters - British hedge fund manager Man Group Plc said on Tuesday banks were more highly geared than hedge funds and bank deleveraging had been the main driver of asset-price declines.
"Hedge fund deleveraging has put pressure on asset prices as clients have redeemed. But the main point is banks are deleveraging and they are many times more leveraged than hedge funds," said Man Group Chief Executive Peter Clarke.
Speaking at the Hedge Funds World conference in Zurich, Clarke also said leverage across the hedge fund industry is now at around a third of leverage levels in 2007.
Bloomberg - The global hedge fund industry lost $100 billion of assets in October, according to an estimate from Eurekahedge Pte, as firms including Sparx Group Co. and Man Group Plc were hammered by investor redemptions.
Funds fell an average 3.3 percent, based on preliminary figures from the Singapore-based data provider, as measured by the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index, which tracks the performance of more than 2,000 funds that invest globally. That compares with a 19 percent slide in the MSCI World Index last month.
The biggest market losses since the Great Depression and investor withdrawals hurt the $1.7 trillion hedge funds industry that manages largely unregulated pools of capital. The index of global funds has lost 11 percent this year, set for the worst performance since 2000 when Eurekahedge began tracking the data.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - A pioneering collaboration that brings together the best of the academic and finance worlds has been such a success that the venture has outgrown its premises, just a year after its establishment.
Man Group plc, one of the world’s largest alternative investment companies, founded the Man Research Laboratory ("MRL"), in Oxford in September 2007. The role of MRL is to undertake commercial research projects for the various quantitative groups within Man, and in particular, for its wholly owned subsidiary fund manager AHL. Although quantitative techniques are widely used throughout Man, it is within AHL that they have been used extraordinarily successfully for more than twenty years.
The laboratory was established at the same time as the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance ("OMI"), which is part of the University of Oxford. Man provides the principal funding (an initial commitment of GBP 13.75 million - $21.9 million) for the institute, which shares common facilities with the laboratory.
"The partnership between Man and the University of Oxford is unique," said Dr Anthony Ledford, a senior executive at AHL and Research Director of MRL. "While other hedge fund managers have opened their own, private research centres, none has done so in partnership with the University of Oxford itself."
"The aim for both the University and Man is to create a stimulating environment of research and innovation, where ideas flourish," Dr Ledford continues. "Practitioners from a wide spectrum of disciplines can bring their skills into collaboration, and learn from each other."
Staff numbers are expected to double over the coming year. OMI, which brings together academics from a wide spectrum of Oxford University departments, already has fourteen faculty members, another fourteen associate members and four permanent academic staff - three research fellows and the institute’s Director - along with twelve higher-degree students.
"The collaboration has been a great success", Dr Ledford added. "It has exceeded the expectations of both the University and Man. Planned staffing levels in both the laboratory and the institute were met ahead of schedule, and the number of applications for positions has necessitated a search for larger premises."
Although the institute and laboratory are independent of each other and follow different research programmes, there is significant interaction between them. This has benefited both parties, and OMI is attracting significant international attention. In its first year, as well as a series of over one hundred seminars and presentations, it has hosted a symposium and two conferences - one of its guest speakers being a Nobel Prize winner.
MRL has already made significant commercial contributions to Man and AHL, which specialises in systematic automated trading. A new trading model - first conceived at the laboratory - which operates on high frequency data is now actively trading the global markets and providing new sources of enhanced investment opportunities. Another benefit is the magnetic effect the laboratory is having in attracting the next generation of top talent into Man from around the world.
Dr Ledford added: "The interaction between our Research Lab and the Institute has put us at the cutting edge in our field. Looking at what we’ve already achieved, we’re really excited about the prospects for the future."
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Bloomberg - Man Group Plc, the largest publicly traded hedge-fund manager, rose in London trading after its biggest pool reported gains for a fourth consecutive week.
“It increases the probability that they will be earning performance fees on the fund,” said Gurjit Kambo, an analyst at Numis Securities, who rates the stock an “add.”
AHL Diversified Plc gained 1.9 percent in the week to Oct. 20, and is up 12 percent in the past 12 months, Man said in a statement yesterday. AHL, whose computer-trading program dictates about a third of Man’s investments, is now closer to its so-called high-water mark, the level above which the firm begins to collect performance fees.
London-based Man rose as much as 6.1 percent and was up 14.5 pence at 368.5 pence by 10:10 a.m. The stock has gained 16 percent so far this week, valuing Man at about 6.3 billion pounds ($10.3 billion).
Reuters - The Hedge Fund Standards Board, the body set up to develop voluntary standards in the industry, said on Wednesday it now represents about half of hedge fund assets in Europe.
The announcement comes as hedge funds attempt to head off tougher regulation in the wake of turmoil in the global financial system.
The industry has come under intense scrutiny, most notably for the impact of short-selling employed by many managers. In September, regulators in the U.S. and Europe imposed a temporary ban on shorting financial stocks.
Ten new signatories to the HFSB include Blackrock Investment Management UK, New Star Asset Management and Sabre Fund Management. They join 14 existing members including Man Group Plc, the world’s largest hedge fund manager, GLG Partners and Marshall Wace.
Reuters UK - British listed hedge fund manager Man Group Plc said on Monday first-half sales rose by about 25 percent to $10 billion, but its shares fell as market turbulence hit its funds under management.
Funds under management fell by $5.0 billion to about $70.3 billion — 12 percent down on the $79.5 billion at end-June — reflecting negative investment movement, Man said. Net inflows for the period rose 14 percent at $4.1 billion.
Shares in the group, which have lost 32 of their value over the last month, were down a further 5.4 percent at 353.5 pence, valuing the group at about 6.35 billion pounds, at 0737 GMT.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) - New York-based Ore Hill has suspended investor redemptions after hefty withdraws set off an “automatic gate.” The $1.2 billion Ore Hill International Portfolio, which is partially owned by hedge fund giant Man Group Plc, was frozen after investors sought to redeem about $300 million.
The credit strategies fund posted a loss of about 6.5 percent this year, after an unimpressive 2007 in which the fund returned a mere 1.8 percent. A board meeting has been planned to discuss the next course of action. Often, hedge fund will suspend redemptions in an effort to wait out unfavorable market conditions. Other times, it serves as a precursor to the eventual closing of the fund.
This year has proven to be one of the toughest for the hedge fund industry, with hedge funds down as a whole 3.5 percent, according to data from Hedge fund Research. Like many other funds, Ore Hill experienced losses stemming from the credit crisis.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
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Bloomberg - John W. Henry & Co., the investment firm run by the Boston Red Sox baseball team’s owner, is among hedge funds that suffered their worst drops in almost 18 months in July as oil and other commodities retreated from records.
John W. Henry lost 17 percent on its JWH GlobalAnalytics fund, the firm said on its Web site. Altis Partners Ltd.’s $1 billion global futures program fell 18 percent, paring its gain for the year to 10 percent. London-based Man Group Plc’sAHL Diversified Futures Ltd., the computer program that trades about $25 billion of investments, dropped 5.5 percent through July 28, or a loss of about $1.37 billion in the month.
Oil, natural gas, nickel and corn prices all tumbled in July, making it the worst month for the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Commodity Index in 28 years. The drops pushed commodities trading advisers, which manage about $234 billion, to post their biggest declines since March 2007, according to data compiled by BarclayHedge, a Fairfield, Iowa-based fund-tracker. So-called CTA funds rose 8.3 percent in the first half, making them the best performing strategy in an industry that had its worst start to a year in nearly two decades.
Reuters - Man Group Plc, the world’s biggest listed hedge fund company, said demand for its fund products had remained strong in the first quarter and it was confident about its prospects for the full year.
Sales in the three months to June 30 were $5.0 billion (2.5 billion pounds) while funds under management increased to $79.5 billion from the $74.6 billion seen at the end of March.
"Demand for our fund products has remained strong, both from private investors and institutions," Chairman Jon Aisbitt said in a statement prepared for the annual shareholder meeting on Thursday.
"This success in asset raising reflects the group’s broad geographic presence and the continued attraction of conservatively structured alternative investment products," he added.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net)- Man Group has agreed to pay $50 million for a 25% stake in Nephila Capital, an alternative investment manager specializing in insurance-based instruments such as insurance linked securities, catastrophe bonds, insurance swaps and weather derivatives.
The CEO of Man Group plc, Peter Clarke, said, "This transaction further develops Man’s strategy to expand the range of opportunities for our investors. The natural catastrophe and weather derivative markets offer significant opportunities for uncorrelated alternative investment returns. We are excited at the prospects of this strategic partnership and what it means for our and Nephila’s investors."
The investment, which follows Man’s purchase of 50% of credit specialist Ore Hill in March, comes as the increasingly competitive hedge fund industry hunts for sources of extra return not correlated with traditional markets.
Bermuda-based Nephila, which manages around $2.4 billion in assets and employs 25 staff, specialises in insurance-based instruments such as insurance-linked securities, catastrophe bonds, insurance swaps and weather derivatives, Man said in a statement on Friday.
Man is a world-leading alternative investment management business. With a broad range of funds for institutional and private investors globally, it is known for its performance, innovative product design and investor service. Man manages over $78 billion and employs 1,600 people in 13 countries worldwide.