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 (HedgeCo.Net) – Private-equity firm CVC Asia Pacific, who owns 75 percent of PBL Media, is trying to prevent the company from defaulting on its $4.3 billion in debt, according to the Asian Wall Street Journal.
PBL Media, the owner of massive Australian magazine group ACP and Australia’s Channel Nine, could be placed under the control of its bankers if they default on the debt; something CVC is frantically trying to stop.
According to an article in The Australian, PBL’s debt is distributed among almost 40 creditors, including many hedge funds and global banks. CVC is trying to formulate a rescue package that would include raising $325 million from its banks, $250 million of which would go directly to paying PBL Media’s debt.
The Asian Wall Street Journal also reported that several of the large banks might also be on board to stop the default "which could result in their having to take a charge against earnings for the bad loans.” These banks include UBS, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Calyon, ABN AMRO and several other Australian banks.
However, some of the hedge funds who are invested in PBL aren’t too thrilled about CVC’s rescue plan, which entails creditors granting PBL a “covenant holiday” of 18 months. The Journal stated that “because hedge funds are required to mark their investments to market every day, the funds have little to gain from the CVC plan.”
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – The British Financial Services Authority has imposed a fine on Steven Harrison for about $93,000 after accusing him of market abuse. Harrison will not be allowed to work as a trader for the next 12 months.
According to the allegations made by the FSA, Harrison told a co-worker at the Moore Credit Fund to purchase 2 million 10.5 percent senior notes in chemical company Rhodia SA, after having received insider information from members at Credit Suisse. Harrison was contacted in September 2006 by Credit Suisse to help them establish pricing for Rhodia’s bonds.
Knowing that Rhodia would be seeking board approval for its refinancing, Harrison made the order. The fund proceeded to make about $63,000 off that knowledge, though the FSA is not condemning the actions of Credit Suisse.
The FSA also acknowledged that Harrison did not make a personal profit from those trades. Harrison worked for Moore Europe Capital Management; a subsidiary of New-York based Moore Capital Management.
Moore Capital has a long standing reputation in the states for the global-macro strategies they employ, while investing in stocks, bonds and currencies. Founded by U.S. billionaire Louis Bacon in 1989, Moore Capital manages an estimated $15 billion in assets.
This is the latest in a string of attempts by the FSA to further probe hedge funds, after passing two new rules this summer requiring disclosure about shorting stocks and regarding derivatives.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – TriAlpha recently a launched property hedge fund of hedge funds, the TriAlpha Global Property Strategy Fund in June this year.
The fund seeks absolute returns by focusing on hedge fund managers that specialise in the global property sector. In its first month the fund outperformed the FTSE EPRA Global Index by an estimated 11%. Included in the portfolio are recognised names such as Credit Suisse, Thames River and New Star Property hedge funds. Minimum investment for the TriAlpha Global Property Strategy Fund is $5 million (or equivalent).
“We are already seeing a high level of interest in the TriAlpha Global Property Strategy Fund and by having the fund available through Transact we are broadening the availability of this exciting new offering,” commented Cobus Kruger, director at TriAlpha.
Trialpha’s five sub funds of the ‘TriAlpha Alternative Strategy Unit Trust’ have been also approved as restricted recognised schemes for distribution in Singapore.
"With our roots in Stonehage (our private wealth management parent company,) we have extensive experience in dealing with and providing investment solutions to private clients." Cobus Kruger, Director at TriAlpha, says, "Our hedge fund of funds products have been received well by these clients, fitting in neatly with their investment objectives and risk profiles. With increasing numbers of private banks in Singapore we believe that our hedge fund of funds products will be an appropriate solution for their clients."
The five absolute return funds offer investors a variety of risk profiles and investment strategies, the ‘TriAlpha Relative Value Fund’, which invests in market-neutral, multi-strategy event driven, multi-strategy arbitrage and option arbitrage; aims to achieve stable, absolute returns with volatility similar to the Citigroup World Government Bond Index.
The ‘TriAlpha Multi Strategy Fund’ invests across Asia, European and U.S. hedge strategies, emerging markets, macro, event driven and arbitrage; aims to offer stable, absolute returns with volatility similar to the Citigroup World Government Bond Index.
The ‘TriAlpha Growth Strategy Fund’, which invests in Asia, European and US hedge strategies as well as emerging markets and macro hedge funds with a smaller exposure to arbitrage strategies than the Multi Strategy fund; looks to achieve absolute returns with lower volatility than the MSCI World Equity Index.
The ‘TriAlpha Hedge Equity Fund’ which invests in Asia, European and US hedge strategies; offers investors absolute returns with lower volatility than the MSCI World Equity Index.
And finaly, the ‘TriAlpha Global Property Strategy Fund’ will focus on hedge fund managers that specialise in the global property sector.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Bloomberg – Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, bought New York-based Asset Management Finance Corp. for $384 million to provide financing to investment firms.
Credit Suisse paid stock for more than 80 percent of the firm, founded by former Putnam Investments chief Norton Reamer in 2003, from a unit of National Bank of Canada. Reamer, 72, who also ran Boston-based United Asset Management Corp., will stay on, the bank said today in a statement.
AMF, which provides capital to money managers in exchange for a slice of revenue, will benefit from Credit Suisse’s global reach, said Brian Finn, chairman of the Zurich-based company’s alternative-asset business. The unit, which manages $167 billion, holds a minority stake in hedge-fund firm Ospraie Management LLC and has started joint investing ventures with Abu Dhabi and General Electric Co.
AMF “is a platform with a leadership team and an investment approach in which we see enormous growth opportunities,” Finn said in an interview.
Reamer targets independent money managers looking to expand or buy out a founder who wants to retire. In exchange for up- front cash, it gets a share of future revenue. It doesn’t acquire an ownership stake.
Reuters – The Federal Reserve acted on rumors last month and called Credit Suisse Group to see if it had pulled a credit line from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, The Wall Street Journal said citing people familiar with the matter.
Credit Suisse told Federal Reserve officials that there was no truth to the rumor and it had no intention of pulling the line of credit, the paper cited the people as saying.
A person familiar with the rumor told the Journal that it was circulating in early July.
Fed officials contacted Credit Suisse last month, but it is unclear whether the move occurred before or after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission subpoenaed dozens of hedge funds and financial firms about four Lehman-related rumors, the paper said.
Hedge Funds Review Magazine – Hedge funds generally are more correlated in bull market runs and more de-correlation at market downturns. A comparison of the Credit Suisse/Tremont Broad Benchmark Index (HEDG), an asset-weighted broad benchmark of the hedge fund industry, to the MSCI World Index, a broad equity index, shows that the 12-month rolling correlation between the two has dropped from its peak of 0.97 in June 2006 to 0.61 in June 2008. The findings are given in a research report* by Credit Suisse Index. The report showed that during times of market stress sharp declines from HEDG’s previous peak levels of positive correlation with MSCI World demonstrated the ability to de-correlate from broad equity market indices.
Between July 2007 and June 2008, HEDG increased by 4.09% compared with a fall of 12.5% in the MSCI World Index and a decrease of 13% in the S&P 500.
The ability of hedge funds to maintain exposure to a range of asset classes allows them to preserve capital in down markets and, if successful, offer a more balanced investment option compared to traditional equity indices. In addition, the ability of hedge funds to monetise negative views through short selling is clearly effective during market downturns.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - Hedge funds generally are more correlated in bull market runs and more de-correlation at market downturns.
A comparison of the Credit Suisse/Tremont Broad Benchmark Index (HEDG), an asset-weighted broad benchmark of the hedge fund industry, to the MSCI World Index, a broad equity index, shows that the 12-month rolling correlation between the two has dropped from its peak of 0.97 in June 2006 to 0.61 in June 2008. The findings are given in a research report by Credit Suisse Index.
The report showed that during times of market stress sharp declines from HEDG’s previous peak levels of positive correlation with MSCI World demonstrated the ability to de-correlate from broad equity market indices.
Between July 2007 and June 2008, HEDG increased by 4.09% compared with a fall of 12.5% in the MSCI World Index and a decrease of 13% in the S&P 500.
The ability of hedge funds to maintain exposure to a range of asset classes allows them to preserve capital in down markets and, if successful, offer a more balanced investment option compared to traditional equity indices. In addition, the ability of hedge funds to monetise negative views through short selling is clearly effective during market downturns.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Financial Times- Coal prices have doubled over the past year to record levels and could spike even higher as a power crisis in China combines with supply problems in leading exporting countries to tighten the market further.
The surge in prices coincides with fresh interest from hedge funds and other investors looking to gain exposure to the commodity thanks to greater liquidity in the previously opaque over-the-counter coal market.
"Coal has the strongest fundamentals of any commodity play," says Adam Knight, co-head of commodities at Credit Suisse.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net)- BNP Paribas has appointed Thomas Mahala and Jason Miller to its global hedge fund relationship management team (HFRM). BNP Paribas now has over a dozen relationship management professionals located in New York, London and Hong Kong serving the interests of global hedge fund clients.
"We look forward to Tom and Jason, two senior and highly respected hedge fund relationship management professionals, joining the global effort." Talbot Stark said, "BNP Paribas’s hedge fund business has benefited from its expanding global capabilities, financial strength and most recent acquisition of Banc of America’s prime brokerage unit".
Thomas Mahala joins the team in New York; he joins Chris Lane as co-head of HFRM in the Americas. Thomas joins from Banc of America Securities where he worked most recently as a Managing Director and head of the Capital Introduction group. Prior to this role he worked as a senior relationship manager for institutional accounts including hedge funds. Previously, he spent 7 years at Bear Stearns as a senior relationship manager for hedge funds. Thomas joins BNP Paribas with over 23 years of experience and successes in relationship management, prime brokerage and risk management.
Jason Miller joins the New York team to work as a senior relationship manager. He joins from Banc of America where he most recently worked as a senior relationship manager for hedge fund clients. Prior to that, he spent two years at Credit Suisse as a relationship manager for institutional securities relationships. Jason brings 16 years of experience from Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Citigroup in relationship management. He reports to Chris Lane and Thomas Mahala.
In 2008, BNP Paribas was named ‘Structured Products House of the Year’ by Risk magazine and in 2007, was named ‘Equity Derivatives House of the Year’ also by Risk magazine‘. North American awards include ‘North American Structured Products House of the Year’ by Structured Products Magazine and ‘Best Equity Derivatives house in North America’ by Global Finance magazine.
BNP Paribas Corporate and Investment banking division has almost 16,000 employees, deployed in 53 countries around the world.
Editing by Alex Akesson Editor for HedgeCo LLC Email: alex@hedgeco.net
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net)- Recent news from Reuters shows that there is a booming interest in foreign exchange markets. According to the article, FX traders are seeing an increasing demand from institutional players, pension funds, and corporations. However, searching the internet will reveal few true FX hedge funds.
Tri Global FX, a New York based FX management company, has been managing FX accounts on behalf of customers for several years. The firm’s head trader, Gregory Cotter, was a Chief trader at Societe Generale from 1998 – 2004, and has held similar positions at institutions such as Swiss Volksbank, Banque Indo-Suez, Credit Suisse, First Chicago, and European American Bank.
Recently, Futures Magazine has ranked Mr. Cotter a top trader in 2007. Their managed accounts program, Metro Forex, has been top ranked by Currency Trader magazine and by the Barclay Institutional Report.
Tri Global FX is pleased to announce the launching of a new FOREX hedge fund, Cable Forex Funds. More details about the fund can be obtained by registering at their website, http://cableforexfunds.com/.
There are few true FOREX hedge funds, Cable Forex Funds aims to be a leading fund in the FX market. With an uncertain economy, volatile markets, and a declining dollar, any portfolio should include FX. Even if the US Dollar recovers, it can still have a negative impact on a portfolio as traders have been investing overseas during recent EURO boom. FX is an asset class by itself, in addition to providing additional alpha to any portfolio.
Money Management- Despite tightening credit conditions, hedge funds are continuing to gain favour, with the latest Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index up 2 per cent in May.
The president of Credit Suisse Index Company, Oliver Schupp, said the index had been up in circumstances where hedge funds had continued to generate positive performance across strategies.
“We estimate that each of the 10 hedge fund sectors will end May with gains for the month, with long/short equity being the highest performing sector,” he said.
Wealth Bulletin- Odey Asset Management has created a fund of hedge funds subsidiary to broaden its offering to wealthy investors.
It has hired two people from Credit Suisse to run the business from Guernsey. The business marks a new direction for the hedge fund manager. Last week, Financial News reported the firm will close its $39m (€25m) Japan hedge fund after it fell from more than $1bn in 18 months.
