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.
Independent – Former shareholders in nationalised bank Northern Rock failed today in a renewed legal challenge to the Government’s "zero return" compensation scheme.
The Court of Appeal in London dismissed an appeal by individual shareholders – including current and retired employees of the Newcastle-based bank – and two hedge funds which also stand to lose out, who had attacked the scheme as "unlawful, unfair and manifestly disproportionate".
They claimed the compensation scheme was deliberately based on false criteria which would lead to shares being valued at zero so the Government would inevitably make a profit when the bank was eventually sold off.
Telegraph.co.uk – The hedge fund, which has $11bn (£6.7bn) of assets under management, will be the cornerstone investor in the new company called Lothian which will buy oil assets around the world and manage them. The plan is for Lothian to have a market value of as much as $500m.
GLG, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is helping to put together a management team for Lothian that includes Tom Hickey, the former finance director of Tullow Oil, John Kennedy, chairman of Wellstream Holdings – the Newcastle-based manufacturer of pipes for the oil and gas industry – and Andrew Knott, a former analyst at Merrill Lynch who joined GLG last year. It is thought they are looking for one more high-profile director before the flotation.
Motley Fool – What does the turmoil in the hedge fund world mean to most investors? Losses and more losses. Over the past few weeks, the forced deleveraging of the industry, combined with redemptions by frantic clients, has led to hundreds of billions in stock sales (redemptions in the third quarter amounted to $117.3 billion, according to a new report out by HedgeFund.Net), creating horrific declines in many stocks — but interestingly, not in all stocks.
According to an equity strategist for one of the most successful fund-of-funds outfits in the country, stock holdings among equity hedge fund managers are and have been highly concentrated. Described as "crowded longs," these most-favored stocks tanked in September and October as funds scrambled for cash. Overall, equity long-short funds are down 25% year to date, according to Hedge Fund Research, compared with a near-40% slide in the S&P 500. While hedge funds have outperformed, the showing certainly is disappointing for an industry that is supposedly hedged. The shortfall is because so many managers own the same stocks, and all rushed to sell at the same time. (There were more than 8,000 hedge funds operating at the start of 2008.)
Reuters – Three European banks on Sunday announced a total of about $3.8 billion in exposure to an investment fund run by Bernard Madoff, the U.S. investor accused of running a $50 billion "Ponzi" scheme.
The largest banks of both Spain and France, Santander and BNP Paribas, and Swiss private bank Reichmuth & Co became the latest parties to detail possible losses over investments made with Madoff, who was arrested in New York on Thursday in the alleged fraud.
Santander put its client exposure at over 2.33 billion euros ($3.09 billion). BNP Paribas said it could face a potential loss of 350 million euro from exposure to Madoff-linked investments. And Swiss private bank Reichmuth & Co said it had about 385 million Swiss francs at stake, around $325 million.
Law.com – As Marc S. Dreier was being arrested for attempting to defraud hedge funds of more than $100 million, some of the 10 affiliates of Dreier LLP were peeling off and others were trying to hold the firm together even as money for insurance and some operating expenses is frozen.
Declarations filed Monday by the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with a civil case it brought against Dreier also indicated that some firm attorneys were concerned that escrow accounts, which Dreier controlled, had been depleted.
One named partner of an affiliated firm, Vincent Pitta of Pitta & Dreier, stated in a declaration that the firm could not meet its expenses. The reason, Pitta said, was that he and Dreier were the sole signatories to the firm’s operating account, and Pitta had only limited authority to approve spending.
Law.com – The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has become the first circuit in the country to rebuff efforts by a hedge fund to call in a debt based on an alleged technical violation of bond terms in a dispute over an $850 million note issued to United Health Group Inc.
The circuit noted that at least three other federal judges and a New York state court have come down the same way, rejecting the practice used to assert a default claim against United Health in United Health Group Inc. v. Wilmington Trust Co., No. 08-1904 (8th Cir.)
Claims similar to Wilmington Trust’s have cropped up in other cases as an investment strategy derided by attorney Robert Giuffra, as a "shakedown strategy" that takes from shareholders and gives to bondholders. Giuffra of Sullivan & Cromwell in New York represented United Health in the case. "We are pleased with the 8th Circuit’s decision holding that United fully complied with the terms of its indenture, the relevant federal statute and acted in good faith," he said.
Reuters – Even some strong hedge fund managers may not survive the ongoing credit crisis due to a lack of funding or credit, the president of hedge fund John W. Henry & Co. said on Tuesday.
"There are going to be some firms that have good strategies that were strong in terms of discipline and their strategy itself, but may not survive this because they don’t have the assets or the funding to be able to survive," Ken Webster, president of the firm, said at the Reuters Investment Summit in New York.
The hedge fund industry has been hit hard by the worst global financial and economic crisis in decades.
Globe and Mail – Hedge fund manager Eric Sprott heaps praise on his "defensive team" for helping him survive this bear market.
While some of his peers have cratered amid this year’s stock market crash, his short positions have kept him well ahead of his benchmark index.
For the first 11 months of this year, the returns of Sprott Bull/Bear RSP and Sprott Hedge LP I and II range from an 8.5-per-cent gain to a 4.5-per-cent loss compared with the S&P/TSX composite’s sharp 33-per-cent slide.
"The reason we started our first Canadian hedge fund in 2000 was because we foresaw this very, very difficult market," recalls Mr. Sprott, also chief executive officer of Toronto-based Sprott Inc.
Reuters – Hedge funds around the world extended their losses last month when the average portfolio declined 1.41 percent amid fresh stock market turmoil, data released on Friday shows.
The average hedge fund lost 17.70 percent in the first 11 months of 2008, figures from Hedge Fund Research show.
These numbers mark the worst-ever returns in an industry that once wooed investors with promises of strong returns in all market conditions and whose only unprofitable year was 2002, when the HFRI index lost 1.45 percent and the S&P 500 dropped 23 percent.
Reuters – Merrill Lynch & Co Chief ExecutiveJohn Thain has suggested to directors that he get a 2008 bonus of as much as $10 million, but the battered company’s compensation committee is resisting his request, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.
The compensation committee has not reached a decision, but is leaning toward denying Thain and other senior executives bonuses for this year, the people told the paper.
Merrill could not be immediately reached for comment.
Shareholders on Friday approved Bank of America Corp’s takeover of Merrill, a deal fraught with risk but one that would create a banking giant with a leading position in almost every major area of the financial system.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – At a time when most hedge funds are posting their worst year to date, John Paulson somehow manages to stay afloat. The founder of Paulson & Co. has informed investors that his funds are in fact up in November and furthermore, posting double-digit gains.
Paulson’s Advantage Plus Fund, which manages around $10 billion, climbed 3.19 percent in November, with a 33.5 percent gain for the year. His $5 billion Advantage Fund followed suit, posting gains of just over 2 percent in November and 21 percent for the year.
John Paulson bet infamously against the housing market, predicting the subprime fallout that ensued. His insight allowed him to rake in $3.5 billion virtually overnight, giving him the most lucrative Wall Street payday to date. It also landed him on the Forbres Richest List at number 78, with a net worth estimated at $4.5 billion.
Paulson & Co. currently manages approximately $35 billion through several hedge funds.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
Bloomberg – D.E. Shaw & Co. LP, the investment firm run by David Shaw, and Farallon Capital Management LLC limited withdrawals by clients, joining more than 80 hedge-fund managers to impose restrictions in the past two months.
D.E. Shaw, which oversees $36 billion, capped redemptions from its Composite and Oculus funds, said two people familiar with the New York-based company. Farallon, a $30 billion firm based in San Francisco, did the same with its biggest fund after investors asked to get back more than 25 percent of their money.
The firms are two of the biggest to block withdrawals, known as putting up gates, so they aren’t forced to liquidate investments at distressed prices to raise cash. New York-based Fortress Investment Group LLC said yesterday it froze an $8 billion fund after getting redemption requests for 40 percent of its assets. Tudor Investment Corp., the Greenwich, Connecticut, firm run by Paul Tudor Jones, locked the $10 billion BVI Global fund last week ahead of plans to split the fund into two.
