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 – Artradis Fund Management Pte, RAB Capital Plc’s Northwest unit and Cannizaro (Hong Kong) Ltd. are cutting fees and locking up investors’ money for longer in new hedge funds that will buy bonds after prices fell in Asia.
Merrill Lynch & Co.’s prime brokerage unit has been approached by at least eight money managers about starting such funds in Asia to buy beaten-up fixed-income securities such as convertible bonds, said Eddie Guillemette, the firm’s regional co-head of global markets financing and services. Some of the hedge fund managers are offering to reduce management and performance-based fees by as much as 50 percent, he said.
CNNMoney.com – When Keith McCullough left his hedge fund job last October to start an independent research company, it may have seemed like a curious move. Fourteen months, a highly prescient call on the market crash, and several key hires from top hedge funds later, McCullough’s company, Research Edge LLC, is forming a partnership with the institutional brokerage division of LaBranche & Co. (LAB) that will see LaBranche process actual trades for its clients based on Research Edge’s research.
The partnership will allow customers of LaBranche Financial Services LLC, including hedge funds, to get access to Research Edge research and immediately trade on that research through LaBranche. Existing customers that are clients of both LaBranche and Research Edge would automatically be able to use LaBranche for the trades, and LaBranche will have a team dedicated to pitching Research Edge to its other clients. LaBranche customers who pay for Research Edge research will be the only LaBranche clients who can act on that research. Neither company would comment on financial terms of the deal.
Bloomberg – There’s not a lot of light in Paulson & Co.’s 28th-floor headquarters on a drizzly November afternoon. The Alexander Calder sculpture and multicolored prints have been shipped to the firm’s new offices six blocks south. Darkness envelops the New York skyline.
The Dow Industrials have lost a total of 929 points over two days, and the jobless rate is poised to hit 6.5 percent. And John Paulson, who oversees $36 billion in hedge fund assets, isn’t exactly Mr. Sunshine either.
“You have deterioration in almost every asset class,” Paulson says. “You’re looking at declines in housing prices, the health of manufacturers and the earnings of various companies. There are rising delinquencies in auto loans and commercial real estate.”
Politico – On the same day Lawrence Summers was announced as President-elect Barack Obama’s top White House economics adviser, the veteran economist said he would resign as the part-time managing director of one of the nation’s largest and most successful hedge funds, D.E. Shaw & Co.
But even as Summers takes the lead of economic policy thinking for the Obama White House, which has promised to be one of the most open and transparent in history, neither the Obama transition team nor D.E. Shaw would say exactly what Summers had done in his two years of work for the $36 billion hedge fund, or how much he has been paid.
In a press release issued Monday, D.E. Shaw said only that Summers had been working on “various strategic initiatives, high-level research and advising the executive committee on the overall business.”
Time – Here’s one upside to a down market: a number of historically prominent mutual funds that long ago shut their doors to new investors are reopening.
It’s been years since anyone without an existing account could put money into some of the best-known names in the business, like Sequoia Fund, Dodge & Cox Stock, Longleaf Partners, Fidelity Magellan, Artisan Mid Cap Value, Oakmark Equityand Income, Vanguard International Explorer and Third Avenue Small-Cap Value.
Money Morning – Hedge funds looking to slash their use of borrowed money may have to unload another $200 billion in assets to reach their objectives, a new study found, though a Money Morning expert believes the exit door could get pretty narrow should the holiday shopping season get off to a rocky start later this week.
Investors yanked $40 billion from the $1.5 trillion hedge fund industry in October, a month in which market losses slashed industry assets by an additional $115 billion, Hedge Fund Research Inc., reported. A new survey of hedge fund managers conducted by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC found that 63% said the sale of assets to cut leverage was at least half completed. Another 23% said the process was three-quarters complete.
USA Today – Technically, a bear market is when stocks fall 20% or more from their highs. But there’s a saying that a bear’s true signature is making a fool out of everyone. Based on that, we’re all laughingstocks, because there has been virtually no way to avoid this bear market’s claws.
Following a 445-point slide to 7552 Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average is down more than 6,600 points from its high. The broad stock market is at it lowest level in 11½ years, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index off 52% from its high in October 2007 and on pace for its worst year ever, S&P says. Only 13 of its 500 stocks are not down for the year, and more than 100 trade for less than $10 a share.
Reuters – Anxiety is sweeping the hedge fund industry before a crucial deadline on Saturday, when investors angered by recent heavy losses are expected to demand the return of billions of dollars.
"Managers have a pretty good feeling for what is coming, and there are significant redemption requests out there," said Stewart Massey, founding partner of Massey, Quick & Co., an investment consultant that puts money into hedge funds.
Saturday is the last day for thousands of investors to notify hundreds of hedge funds if they want their money back by year’s end.
Hedge funds that require three months notice from investors who wanted to exit by year’s end had a similar deadline on September 30 — also known in the industry as "D-Day."
Globe and Mail – People often think that the price of crude oil is the only factor affecting the retail price of finished petroleum products, but this is not true, said Cathy Hay, an analyst at Calgary gasoline consultancy MJ Ervin & Associates.
Other fundamentals also affect prices, and these can differ between gasoline and diesel, she said.
Currently, relatively high diesel prices are a result of an imbalance between supply and demand. Worldwide diesel supplies are extremely tight at the moment, particularly in Europe, where there has been a major shift away from gasoline-powered cars.
MSN UK News – Business leaders around the world back greater regulation in response to the global financial crisis, a survey showed on Wednesday, with support strongest for curbs on credit rating firms, hedge funds and structured finance.
Responses from more than 700 chief executives, chairmen, partners and directors across Asia, Europe and the United States were received between November 4th and 6th.
The survey, conducted by international law firm Allen & Overy, was timed ahead of this weekend’s Washington DC summit on the deepening crisis between the leaders of the Group of 20 leading world economies.
More than three-quarters of those polled agreed that more regulation of credit rating agencies was necessary, while two thirds supported greater regulation of hedge funds.
MSN MoneyCentral – Stock futures fell on Thursday, pointing to a weaker open on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 share indexes down 1.4-2.8 percent.
Highlights:
* Walt Disney reports results and could comment on whether theme park bookings for the popular holiday period are down and whether it is scaling back costs in the face of skittish media advertisers. Revenue is expected to rise about 5 percent and net profit about 11 percent.
* Initial jobless claims for last week, due at 1330 GMT, are expected to come in just a thousand above the previous week at 480,000, setting the stage for a grim October non-farm payroll report on Friday.
Times Online UK – Litigation departments at the City’s leading law firms have grown significantly busier in recent weeks as investors turn to legal action to recover losses suffered as a result of the financial crisis.
Although lawyers have been predicting an upturn in litigation since the credit crunch began last summer, that has yet to emerge as investors were reluctant to admit to holding negative positions.
But Jonathan Kelly, a partner at Simmons & Simmons, the international law firm, said that financial institutions, hedge funds, municipalities and other investors had begun considering legal action as the market showed signs of settling.
Mr Kelly said that there had been a significant increase in instructions and conflict referrals in recent weeks — an observation confirmed by lawyers at other City firms.
