SmartBrief – Britain and Sweden, which takes over the EU’s rotating presidency on 1 July, agreed to work together to explain to other European nations the value of private-equity firms and hedge funds. The UK is concerned that one proposal could force hedge funds away from London.

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Tags: hedge funds, london, presidency, private equity firms, proposal, smartbrief, sweden

Bloomberg – Buyout firms and hedge funds, “Read my lips: You’re going to have regulation.”

So says Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the Socialist Party president who conducted a two-year campaign for the first European Union regulations governing so-called alternative investors. Hedge funds and private-equity firms, which manage 2 trillion euros ($2.8 trillion) in the region, are in line for some of the world’s strictest rules, and potentially billions of dollars of compliance costs, under an EU measure proposed in April.

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Tags: billions of dollars, compliance costs, european-union, investors, lips, party president, private equity firms, socialist party, trillion

Hedge funds and private equity firms are hoping a resurgent right wing in European politics will give them stronger support when they call for changes to proposed legislation they see threatening their industries.

The coalition of European conservative parties won a decisive victory in elections last week, taking over 260 seats in the European parliament compared with around 160 seats for its socialist rivals.

"We are viewing this quite positively," said Javier Echarri, secretary general of the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.

" are expected to be able to deal with financial regulation on a calmer basis with more understanding than the more emotional debate that we have seen in the parliament in past years," Echarri said.

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Tags: conservative parties, decisive victory, elections, emotional debate, european parliament, european politics, hedge funds, parliament, private equity firms, proposed-legislation, right wing, rivals, secretary general, venture capital association

Free Internet Press – With the leveraged-buyout business on life support, major private-equity firms such as the Carlyle Group are taking a closer look at the battered banking sector as a way to make money for their clients.

Last September, Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle invested $75 million in Boston Private Financial Holdings. Last month, it was part of a group that injected $900 million into Florida’s BankUnited. Carlyle was part of a group looking to buy Atlanta, Georgia-based Silverton Bank earlier this month, until regulators decided to liquidate the institution instead.

Private-equity firms have long eyed the financial services industry, but the sector took a back seat over the past two decades as private equity pursued fat returns fueled by leveraged-buyout deals. Until recently, those buyouts helped Carlyle generate an annual net return of 26 percent across the firm..

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Tags: atlanta georgia, back seat, banking-sector, bankunited, boston private financial holdings, buyouts, carlyle-group, decades, financial services industry, free internet press, last-september, leveraged-buyout, private equity firms, regulators, taking a closer look, washington d c, way to make money

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Tags: aim, authorisation, global financial crisis, guardian, hedge funds, hedge-fund-managers, investment-companies, leverage, nbsp, private equity firms, regulators, uk investment, world economies

Forbes  – Plummeting stock prices in Eastern European should have made the region full of rich pickings for Western investors, but hedge funds and private equity firms have been sitting on the side lines for the last few months, fearful that things would continue to deteriorate. Now the tide is finally changing, and the some of the first investors dipping their toes back in are from the private-equity sphere.

Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali has just put 300 million euros ($419.8 million) into a joint private-equity fund to invest in Central and Eastern Europe. It is launching the 615.0 million euro ($874.7 million) fund with PPF Group of the Czech Republic, which has already invested some 400.0 million euros ($568.9 million) into the region, focusing on mid-cap companies, a PPF spokesman said.

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Tags: assicurazioni generali, central and eastern europe, czech republic, first investors, forbes, hedge funds, insurer, mid cap companies, nbsp, private equity firms, private equity fund, rich pickings, sphere, spokesman, stock prices, tide, toes, western investors

BusinessWeek – For years pension funds, university endowments, and other big investors essentially wrote blank checks to hedge funds and private equity firms. They readily paid stiff fees and agreed to onerous restrictions. Investors had no choice if they wanted access to the money managers and outsize gains.

All that is changing. With returns dismal and cash scarce, investors are demanding—and winning—concessions on everything from cost to oversight. "The balance of power has shifted," says a private equity executive.

In recent months some of the biggest institutional investors, including the $175 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System, have gathered at closed-door meetings in New York and Toronto to talk about ways they might flex their newfound muscle. A number of public pensions, such as the $16 billion Utah Retirement System, have pushed firms publicly to ease terms.

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Tags: balance-of-power, blank checks, california public employees, california public employees retirement, california public employees retirement system, concessions, employees retirement system, endowments, institutional-investors, money-managers, oversight, pension-funds, private equity firms, public employees retirement, public pensions, public-employees-retirement-system, toronto, university endowments

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge fund research provider, Guidepoint Global, LLC, has acquired tech and media company, Vista Research, Inc. from Standard & Poor’s.

“In the current economic climate, investors and business decision makers are increasingly seeking on-demand knowledge and insights through expert networks,” said Albert Sebag, CEO of Guidepoint Global. “Guidepoint’s acquisition of Vista, a pioneer in the expert network field, gives our clients access to one of the most comprehensive primary research networks in the world, delivered with the single-minded focus on customized service that they have come to expect.”

Guidepoint has over 130,000 global experts and a compliance framework supported by a proprietary IT platform, as well as one of the most advanced online client interfaces.

With the acquisition of Vista Research, Guidepoint Global said it will expand its team of client service professionals and recruiters to support a client base that includes many of the world’s leading private equity firms, mutual funds, hedge funds, strategy consultancies and multinational companies.

Tags: accredited-investors, business decision makers, client interfaces, client service professionals, compliance framework, customized service, economic climate, expert network, expert networks, funds hedge, global experts, guidepoint, hedge-fund-research, minded focus, private equity firms, research-provider, rsquo, strategy consultancies, vista research inc, west palm beach

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge funds, private equity firms are using “political intelligence” to monitor tax reform, SEC registration, TARP, TALF and PPIPs, according to the OSINT Group, a boutique advisory firm based in Washington specializing in “open source intelligence” (OSINT).

The US Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, the SEC and Congress are all playing a major role in rapidly evolving monetary policy and regulatory change across the international financial marketplace, OINST said. Those institutions, along with the IMF and World Bank, make Washington DC the financial centre for policy decisions and breaking financial news.

“To understand what financial and political leaders are doing today and planning for tomorrow, institutional investors need to do more than monitor news and data services. They need to know more. They need answers to questions from a consistently reliable source of insight into the world of politics and policy,” said Michael Bagley, a principal with the OSINT Group.

“When you need to understand policy and politics accurately and consistently, we take the guesswork out of the analysis. Top corporations and foreign governments set a very high standard for the outside counsel they retain for managing risk and unearthing new opportunities,” Bagley said. “We consult with a group of experts from the ranks of lobbying, academia, industry, journalism and law who are skilled in every major area of policy and politics. Our ‘political intelligence’ unit is built on a single powerful idea: to provide institutional investors with accurate, actionable and timely information created by the currents of political forces and regulatory decisions.”

The group was established to assist government and commercial sector clients in the energy and financial industries with unique “open source” intelligence collection and delivery. In addition to technology used by the US Intelligence Community, the firm uses its network of relationships and personal connections in Washington to gather “political intelligence” for clients who need to better understand how the US Government will influence the international markets with new financial-sector regulation and legislation.

Tags: academia industry, breaking financial news, commercial sector, institutional-investors, intelligence collection, intelligence unit, international financial marketplace, managing-risk, monitor news, open source intelligence, policy-decisions, political intelligence, private equity firms, regulatory decisions, regulatory-change, sec registration, sector clients, treasury-department, us intelligence community, west palm beach

St. George Daily Spectrum – According to the Center for Responsive Politics, hedge funds and private equity firms donated $2,992,456 to the Obama campaign in the 2008 cycle. Obama, vocal critic of the campaign finance practice known as "bundling," accepted more than $200,000 in bundled contributions from billionaire hedge-fund manager James Torrey, more than $100,000 in bundled contributions from billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Tudor Jones and more than $50,000 in bundled contributions from billionaire hedge-fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin, chief executive officer of Citadel Investment Group in Chicago.

In an extraordinarily candid open letter to Obama, hedge-fund manager Cliff Asness defended his industry from the president’s "backwards and libelous" charges. "Managers have a fiduciary obligation to look after their clients’ money as best they can, not to support the president, nor to oppose him, nor otherwise advance their political views," Asness wrote. He has oversight of some $20 billion at AQR Capital Management, LLC, which is not involved in the Chrysler case.

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Tags: aqr capital management llc, billionaire, campaign finance, capital-management-llc, center for responsive politics, chief executive officer, chrysler, citadel-investment-group, cliff-asness, fiduciary obligation, finance practice, griffin, hedge-fund-manager, oversight, paul tudor jones, political-views, private equity firms, st george, vocal critic

Times Online – The role of the City of London as one of the world’s preeminent financial centres came under attack for the second time in two weeks yesterday, this time from proposed EU rules for private equity and hedge funds.

The EU wants private equity firms with more than €500 million under management and hedge funds with more than €100 million of funds to file detailed financial information with the Financial Services Authority. Private equity firms will also need to file figures relating to debt, risk and cash.

If the European Parliament approves the proposed legislation, about 1,000 British companies – owned by private equity firms either headquartered or with an office in the EU and with more than €500 million under management – would be saddled with annual compliance costs estimated at about £30,000.

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Tags: 100-million, city-of-london, compliance costs, debt risk, european parliament, financial centres, financial information, financial-services-authority, parliament, preeminent, private equity firms, proposed-legislation, second-time

BBC – In much of continental Europe, there’s a widespread belief that hedge funds and private equity firms caused the global economic crisis.

Which is presumably one reason why the European Commission wants much tighter regulation of both the hedgies and the buyout boys.

I’ve had personal experience of this, in a recent interview for French telly on how to prevent a repetition of the disaster: more-or-less all my interlocutor wanted to discuss was the alleged imperative of constraining the activities of hedge funds; there wasn’t even a nod at the reality that far more of the real culprits were in the banks, including French banks.

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Tags: bbc, belief-that, continental europe, culprits, disaster, european commission, french banks, global economic crisis, hedgies, imperative, interlocutor, nod, personal experience, private equity firms, repetition, telly