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 – A new EU directive aimed at tightening up the regulation of hedge funds could be counter-productive and cause a mass exodus of business from the International Financial Services Centre, a Dail committee was told yesterday.
The directive, being prepared under the supervision of EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevey, has run into opposition from almost every EU country and is unlikely to be finalised before the end of the current Swedish presidency, the Dail Committee on European Scrutiny was told yesterday.
The draft Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive has been the subject of submissions from every EU member state, Colm Breslin of the Department of Finance told the committee.
Reuters – Warren Lichtenstein’s Steel Partners LLC is forging ahead with a controversial plan to convert its flagship hedge fund, Steel Partners II, into a publicly traded holding company in the face of opposition from shareholders calling for liquidation.
The New York-based firm told limited partners, in a shareholder letter dated Tuesday, that they have until June 5 to either approve its plan to convert the fund into shares in a listed company, Steel Partners Holdings, or elect to receive a share of the fund’s assets. Both options will also distribute some cash.
Reuters – Warren Lichtenstein’s Steel Partners LLC is forging ahead with a controversial plan to convert its flagship hedge fund, Steel Partners II, into a publicly traded holding company in the face of opposition from shareholders calling for liquidation.
The New York-based firm told limited partners, in a shareholder letter dated Tuesday, that they have until June 5 to either approve its plan to convert the fund into shares in a listed company, Steel Partners Holdings, or elect to receive a share of the fund’s assets. Both options will also distribute some cash.
"For myself and many of our investors, the option provided by Steel Partners Holdings is too compelling to ignore," Lichtenstein said in his investor letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
Bloomberg – Indea Capital Pte, an India-focused hedge fund that manages about $300 million, plans to buy shares even if India’s election results disappoint investors, said Chief Investment Officer Raj Mishra.
The ruling Congress party-led coalition and the main opposition-led group may have each failed to secure enough votes to form a government, based on exit polls after a five- week election that ended May 13.
“The bias is to buy when there’s a post-election decline rather than to panic,” said Singapore-based Mishra, whose six- year-old Absolute Return Fund has returned an average 14.75 percent annually since it was set up. “Once the election is complete and we have better clarity about the strength of the government, then probably potential long-term investors will feel more comfortable.”
The Columbus Dispatch – The hedge-fund industry, battered and humbled by the market downturn, no longer is planning to fight an increased role for government in regulating and inspecting the secretive investment pools.
Opposition has melted away as the market decline and prominent frauds have shattered the confidence of the pension funds, university endowments, charities and wealthy individuals who invest in the exclusive investment pools.
Reuters – Hedge funds and private equity funds should be monitored closely but there are no plans to propose regulation, a top European Commission official said on Monday, sparking anger from left wing lawmakers.
It has been the heavily regulated sector of the financial services industry, including banks, that has been allowed to "run amok with little-understood securitization vehicles," EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy told the European Parliament.
"I don’t believe it is necessary at this stage to tar hedge funds and private equity with the same brush as we use for the regulated sector," said McCreevy, who has sole powers to propose EU-wide financial regulation.
