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.
New York Times – Jean-Pierre Aguilar, a pioneer in hedge fund investing in Europe and chief executive and co-founder of Capital Fund Management, died in a gliding accident over the weekend, the company said in a letter to investors Sunday. He was 49.
The accident, which occurred late Saturday morning near the airport of Barcelonnette, a town in the French Alps about 12 miles, or 20 kilometers, from the Italian border, also killed Mr. Aguilar’s co-pilot, Michel Fache, 56, president of the local gliding club, according to the local newspaper La Provence.
Forbes – Following are some of the companies exposed to the alleged $50 billion securities fraud by Wall Street pioneer Bernard Madoff:
* AUSTIN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT – The company managed money for the Massachusetts state pension fund, which lost $12 million with Madoff, the pension fund said.
* BALOISE-Holding AG – The Swiss insurer will have to writedown $13 million after investing in hedge fund Kingate Global, which in turn invested in Madoff’s investment vehicle.
The Australian – ARPAD Busson is angry. He has just looked at the returns of a hedge fund he used to invest in and they’re down more than 60 per cent in the past nine months.
"That a-hole!" Busson says of the New York-based manager, as he walks out of the conference room at the Mayfair offices of EIM, the $US11.5 billion ($16.2 billion) fund-of-hedge-funds firm of which he is founder and chairman. Although EIM yanked its money out of the fund in April 2008, when it was down only 25 per cent, there are too many like it out there, Busson says.
"If these managers are not focused on preservation of capital, they should not have the right to manage other people’s money," he says.
Busson’s opinion matters. Since he launched EIM in 1992 he has been instrumental in luring billions of dollars of public and corporate pension money into his and other funds of funds. The industry, which Busson helped pioneer, allows investors to spread their risk among hedge funds with different strategies.
