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Reuters UK – NewSmith Capital Partners, one of the hedge fund firms to appear before a parliamentary committee investigating the UK banking crisis in January, has lost six staff as it cuts costs in a tough period for the industry.
According to a regulatory filing obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, Edward Johnson, an analyst on the firm’s resources and energy fund, and Ben Squire, an analyst on the credit fund, are no longer members of the firm.
The firm, which employs around 70 people, has also parted company with Sadiq Currimbhoy, a strategist on the firm’s Global Opportunities fund. A spokesman said investors had taken up an option to withdraw their assets from the liquid part of the fund and keep the remaining part of the portfolio as a private equity vehicle.
Reuters – NewSmith Capital Partners, one of the hedge fund firms to appear before last month’s Treasury Select Committee into the banking crisis, told Reuters on Thursday partner Jeremy Silewicz had left the firm.
Silewicz, who joined NewSmith in March 2007 as a portfolio manager on its European fund before moving to a role in marketing, left at the end of last year, a spokesman said.
He added that Andrew Irving, a member of NewSmith’s operations team, had also left the firm, but declined to comment on the reasons for their departures.
Times Online – Hedge funds were accused by MPs yesterday of gambling against the taxpayer when they bet that the share prices of British banks would fall.
Appearing before the Treasury Select Committee, four leading hedge fund managers were told by John McFall, the committee’s chairman: “You’re snubbing the public; not only that, but you’re making shedloads of money.”
The hedge fund heavyweights — Paul Marshall, of Marshall Wace, Douglas Shaw, of BlackRock, Chris Hohn, of TCI, and Stephen Zimmerman, of NewSmith Capital Partners — came under particular attack over the practice of short-selling, only a day after it emerged that Paulson & Co, a renowned American hedge fund, had made an estimated £270 million in profits from betting against Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) , which is majority-owned by the State.
Times Online – They are the financial world’s most secretive and unaccountable men — but also among its wealthiest and most influential. Today, four of the sharpest speculators in the hedge fund industry will be thrust into the spotlight when they appear before a Commons committee to defend themselves.
Christopher Hohn, the multi-millionaire founder of The Children’s Investment (TCI) fund, and Paul Marshall, the City financier who chairs Marshall Wace, will be appearing before the Treasury Select Committee hearing into the banking crisis.
They will be joined by Douglas Shaw, the head of alternatives at BlackRock, the biggest listed asset manager in America, and Stephen Zimmerman, the former Merrill Lynch executive who co-founded NewSmith Capital Partners. John McFall, the MP who chairs the committee, will be in charge of the hearing. Mr McFall, an ally of Gordon Brown, is likely to push his witnesses hard on short-selling.
