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.
Reuters – Hedge fund Avenue Capital is in the final stages of talks to buy a Chinese medical equipment company backed by a unit of Citigroup Inc in a deal worth over $100 million, sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
The exclusive talks for Shenzhen-based Landwind between Avenue Capital, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, and Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI) came after Bain Capital and other private equity funds dropped their bids, said the sources.
A deal for Landwind would mark a rare occasion whereby a hedge fund outbids a private equity firm for control of a company. Hedge funds such as Avenue, run by billionaire Marc Lasry, have built up their presence in Asia in the last few years, participating in more and more private equity-style deals.
Forbes – Private equity firm Blackstone Group is planning to list up to eight of its portfolio companies, according to a source who received a letter the firm sent to investors on Friday.
The letter details that Blackstone is positioning one company — hospital staffing firm Team Health — for an IPO and evaluating the potential for seven others, the source said.
It also says that Blackstone is in the process of five realizations this year — meaning sales of companies it owns. Of these, four have already been announced and one is imminent, the source said.
Report On Business – Onex Corp. is offering retail investors a chance to put their cash beside its executives’ money in a distressed-debt fund that has recently delivered eye-popping returns.
The country’s largest private equity firm said yesterday that it plans an initial public offering of the OCP Credit Strategy Fund, which will offer individuals access to strategies that have returned 41 per cent so far this year.
The new fund is run by a team known as Onex Credit Partners, an 11-person group based in New Jersey that has managed an internal portfolio for Onex since 2001 that now holds $65-million. Backers of this fund include Onex founder and chief executive officer Gerry Schwartz and other senior Onex executives.
Politico – Schumer, No. 3 in the Senate Democratic leadership and the former chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, has offered scads of proposals that the industry doesn’t like on issues from corporate governance to derivatives to the creation of a new consumer watchdog for the financial world.
But his top donors include insurance company New York Life Insurance, private equity firm Lightyear Capital, futures clearinghouse MBF Clearing Corp. and real estate companies Rudin Management and Related Companies.
Quite a few financial insiders express frustration with Schumer, feeling he’s thrown the industry under the bus now that it’s politically popular to do so — after having collected mountains of cash from the industry to help the Democrats build their 60-vote majority in the Senate.
The hedge funds and private equity firms included in that giving also see him as something of a champion for them. Private equity, hedge funds, and venture capital firms gave him more than $707,100 during the 2010 cycle, nearly double what the industry has donated to any other member. Their support can be traced back to a 2007 battle over the “carried interest” bill that would have more than doubled the taxes paid by investment managers.
The legislation passed the House, but momentum petered out in the Senate — a victory some financial services lobbyists attribute to Schumer.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Global hedge fund group, Nexar Capital Group SCA, announced the launch of an investment from funds managed by Aquiline Capital Partners LLC, a New York-based private equity firm.
The hedge fund firm was founded by industry veterans who built a market-leading hedge fund business at Société Générale Asset Management Alternative Investments, led by Arié Assayag, Chief Executive Officer; Eric Attias, Chief Investment Officer; and Bernard Kalfon, Head of Volatility Strategies.
“As an independent company, Nexar has a long-term approach that aligns our interests with those of our clients and allows us to provide them with superior investment management,” said Mr. Assayag. “Aquiline’s depth of investment management experience immediately gives us the strength and stability of an institutional platform, thus making Aquiline an ideal partner as we build our business.”
“Nexar’s team built its strong reputation in the industry through its success in growing and managing a leading hedge fund business,” said Jeff Greenberg, Chief Executive of Aquiline. “Recent market turmoil has underscored the importance of transparency, liquidity and true alpha generation, which are core elements of Nexar’s approach.”
Nexar has more than 30 investment professionals in New York and Paris and will provide clients the ability to invest in a “variety of hedge fund products,” including funds of hedge funds and volatility arbitrage funds.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net 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!
CNBC – Private equity firm Citadel Investment Group LLC said Monday that one of its affiliates has canceled a plan to sell a portion of its stake in retail brokerage firm E-Trade Financial Corp.
Under a previously announced plan, Chicago-based Citadel was to have sold up to 120 million shares of E-Trade as early as Monday. Citadel owns about 1.1 billion shares in the brokerage firm.
HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Hedge fund founder J. Winder Hughes, III, has joined wastewater treatment and power generation technology company, ThermoEnergy Corporation, on the Company’s Board of Directors.
Hughes is the Managing Director of the private equity firm of Hughes Capital Investors, LLC. In 2000, Hughes formed the Focus Fund, LP, a Florida-based, highly concentrated equity partnership that focuses on publicly-traded emerging growth companies. Over the past two years, the Focus Fund has become one of the largest investors in ThermoEnergy Corporation.
"We are extremely pleased that Mr. Hughes accepted our invitation to join the board of ThermoEnergy Corporation," said Dennis C. Cossey, ThermoEnergy’s Chairman and CEO. "With his extensive background in corporate finance and investment banking, Mr. Hughes represents a tremendous resource on which the ThermoEnergy management team can rely on."
"Given that the Company is on the cusp of commercial prosperity with its wastewater treatment business and at the forefront of achieving value-creating milestones with its Babcock-Thermo Carbon Capture joint venture," said Mr. Hughes, "I look forward to working with the management team to strengthen the company’s financial stability and improve business performance for the benefit of all its stakeholders."
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!
Reuters – Private equity firm Cerberus is to place investors seeking withdrawals from one of its hedge funds into a special purpose vehicle which would make cash distributions over time, a source familiar with the contents of a recent investor letter said on Thursday.
For investors remaining in the fund, fees will be reduced, the source said.
VC Circle – CX Partners, a new private equity firm promoted by former Citigroup Venture Capital International (CVCI) head Ajay Relan, has achieved the first close of $220 million for its maiden fund. The first close was made by the fund in March this year, Relan told VCCircle. The fund plans a final close of $500-600 million by September this year.
"The fundraising environment was tough six months ago, but now it is getting better," Relan told VCCircle. Indian stock markets have also been on a rally with Sensex rising from 8,160 points on March 9 to 14,284 points yesterday.
Reuters UK – Hedge fund millionaire Bertrand des Pallieres’s SPQR Capital has launched a bid to trump BlueGem Water’s proposed stake building in stockbroker Panmure Gordon & Co.
SPQR said that, via vehicle P.G. Holdings, it proposed to take part in a placing of at least 43 percent of Panmure’s capital at a price of at least 28 pence per share, a minimum total spend of 17.4 million pounds.
Last month, private equity firm BlueGem Capital Partners said it would take a stake of 40 percent in Panmure at 24 pence per share.
Reuters – TMD Friction, a bankrupt German maker of brake pads for the auto industry, has been bought by private equity firm Pamplona Capital Management, TMD said on Friday.
Both sides declined to comment on the sale price. The acquisition will safeguard 3,800 jobs worldwide, TMD said.
"I’m delighted to be partnering with Pamplona who are highly supportive of TMD Friction and the long-term outlook for the group," TMD Friction Chief Executive Derek Whitworth said.
Bloombergb – Hedge funds and private-equity firms, after opposing increased federal oversight for years, said they can’t escape the Obama administration’s plan to include them in an overhaul of U.S. financial regulation.
“We’re not going to be able to stand in the way of that speeding train,” David Rubenstein, co-founder of private-equity firm Carlyle Group, said at a conference in New York yesterday.
