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.
Times Online – They must think it’s Christmas in Geneva. Alistair Darling delivered an early present last week by slapping a 50 per cent tax rate on top earners.
Highly paid but footloose financiers are now betting when the rate will go up to 60 or 70 per cent and are digging out those brochures from the Swiss inward investment agency.
As if that wasn’t enough, here come our friends at the European Commission with proposals for the regulation of hedge funds and private equity funds.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge fund manager Meridian Global Fund Services Group has launched a hedge fund consulting affiliate team with Joyce E. Heinzerling as head.
The affiliate, Meridian Fund Advisers LLC, will provide hedge fund regulatory and corporate governance best practices advice to hedge funds both within and outside of the Meridian Global client base. In this capacity, Heinzerling will work side by side with her extensive network of leaders in the hedge fund legal and accounting fields.
“As President of Meridian Fund Advisers, Ms. Heinzerling will lead the development and delivery of our new hedge fund consulting affiliate, and help bring us to a position of distinction in the hedge fund administration industry in terms of a value add for our clients," said Randy Troy, President of Meridian Fund Services (USA) LLC.
"Meridian Fund Advisers essentially has been established to broaden and strengthen our dedication to clients in an effort to provide the highest level of client service in light of the increasingly complex issues that now arise in the hedge fund industry resulting from the heightened regulatory environment and exposure to litigation," Mr. Troy added.
Heinzerling joins Meridian Fund Advisers after serving nine years as General Counsel, CCO and Head of Operational Due Diligence at Archery Capital LLC, an investment adviser to emerging manager funds of funds. Prior to joining Archery Capital, Ms Heinzerling spent fourteen years in private practice advising hedge funds, venture capital funds, private equity funds, and mutual funds.
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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Goldman Sachs Asset Management announced today that it has raised its fifth dedicated private equity secondaries fund, GS Vintage Fund V, with approximately $5.5 billion in capital commitments.
GS Vintage Fund V will focus primarily on acquiring portfolios of private equity assets, including limited partnership interests in private equity funds, as well as providing unique liquidity and capital solutions to both limited partners and general partners around the world.
The GS Vintage Funds evaluate opportunities ranging from $1 million to over $1 billion in size, across all private equity strategies and geographies. As one of the largest investors in the secondary market for private equity, the GS Vintage Funds draw on Goldman Sachs’ global sourcing network, due diligence capabilities, risk management expertise, and extensive private equity relationships.
GS Vintage Fund V is the latest fund raised by the Alternative Investments & Manager Selection (AIMS) Group of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. With more than 200 professionals worldwide, the AIMS Group provides investors diversified and customized portfolio solutions, across traditional long-only managers, hedge funds, and private equity funds around the world. To date, the private equity strategies of the AIMS Group represent more than $32 billion of capital commitments across private equity fund-of-funds, secondary market funds and co-investment vehicles.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management is the asset management arm of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS), which manages $779 billion as of November 28, 2008. Goldman Sachs Asset Management has been providing discretionary investment advisory services since 1989 and has investment professionals in all major financial centers around the world. The company offers investment strategies across a broad range of asset classes to institutional and individual clients globally. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is a leading global financial services firm providing investment banking, securities and investment management services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals.
Chicago Tribune – The chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. called for new standards on how Wall Street executives are compensated and new regulation of large hedge funds and private-equity funds.
Lloyd Blankfein said lessons from the financial crisis include the need to "apply basic standards to how we compensate people in our industry."
He suggested a handful of guidelines, including only junior employees being paid mostly in cash and that the percentage of pay awarded as company stock increase significantly along with a worker’s total compensation.
Reuters – Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, is in New York on Friday to meet with hedge funds, private equity funds and pension groups to promote the government’s plan to cleanse banks’ balance sheets of toxic assets, a source familiar with the meeting said on Friday.
Bair has said she would like all types of investors to participate in the Public-Private Investment Partnership PPIP.L, including private equity groups and individual investors.
New York – Trident Trust is expanding its fund administration service to the U.S. to cater to domestic hedge and private equity funds.
The new U.S. office offers clients access to Trident Trust’s three decades of experience providing independent corporate, trust and fund services to the financial services sector worldwide. Trident Trust currently provides services to more than 320 offshore funds with combined assets under management of more than $25 billion.
The new office is headed by Brian Visel, whose auditing and fund administration experience includes working for a leading international accounting firm and heading a global funds administration team servicing clients from start-up to large, diversified hedge funds.
Employing Geneva® and Advent Partner® as its core fund accounting platform Trident Fund Services, Inc offers U.S. funds a comprehensive, independent, administration service which includes complete fund accounting, net asset valuation, investor reporting and anti-money laundering compliance.
With the increased regulatory and investor demand for independently administered funds, Trident Trust’s new office is well-placed to provide both existing and new domestic funds an effective administration solution to their needs based on Trident Trust’s unique pricing model.
For more information contact:
Eileen Casey Trident Trust Fund Services NYC Representative Office 545 Fifth Avenue, Suite 402 New York, NY 10017 Tel +1-212-840-8280 Fax +1-212-944-5923 ecasey@tridenttrust.com
Reuters – Fortress Investment Group LLC , one of the few publicly traded U.S. alternative asset managers, said on Monday its quarterly loss more than quadrupled, hurt by writedowns in some private equity funds.
The net loss was $140 million, or $1.50 per share, compared with a reported net loss of about $29 million, or 43 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Fortress said.
Results reflected a $265 million loss in principal investments. This included a $228 million for investments in private equity firms, a $27 million loss on investments in hedge funds, and $10 million of interest expenses.
Reuters Blogs – It seems that private equity fund sales are heating up so much they need their own market.
SecondMarket said today it is opening trading in limited partnership interests in private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds and fund of funds (the intention to launch into this market was reported a few weeks ago by our sister publication peHUB).
The firm also hired Jeffrey Bollerman, previously at Citigroup Wealth Management, to help lead its LP interest market.
Times Online - Some of Britain’s most powerful fund managers are setting aside billions of pounds to fund cash calls from sound companies hamstrung by a lack of bank lending.
Investment bankers say that they have been inundated with calls from Britain’s biggest institutional investors over the past few weeks offering billions of pounds to fund the right recapitalisation deals. The institutional investors, corporate brokers say, are insisting that they be shown deals before private equity funds that are also waiting to snap up bargains.
Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, owned by Lloyds Banking Group, and M&G, owned by Prudential, the insurer, are among big investors ready to take up equity or debt of UK plc, whose shares have slumped in the past year. The FTSE all-share index is down almost 30 per cent over the period.
Hedge Fund Net – Alternative investment strategies around the world are trudging through a slowdown, but that is not scaring away the world’s organization, the United Nations, from investing in these areas. The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF) is set to move forward with plans to put its money into hedge funds and private equity funds.
The UNJSPF was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1949 to provide retirement, death, disability and related benefits for staff of the U.N. and the other organizations admitted to membership in the fund, according to the UNJSPF Web site. As of Dec. 31, 2004 the fund served 20 member organizations with more than 88,350 active participants and nearly 53,000 beneficiaries.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - Morrison & Foerster LLP is announced the election of ten new lawyers into their partnership, including specialists in venture capital, hedge funds, bio-technology, patents, corporate transactions and chapter 11 bankruptcy, among others. Their election is effective January 1, 2009.
“We have elected an exceptional group of lawyers to the partnership. This year’s newly elected partners reflect continued investment in our distinguishing practice strengths and our international reach,” said Keith Wetmore, Chairman of Morrison & Foerster. “Our new partners have demonstrated a commitment to client service and legal excellence. We are confident that they will make tremendous contributions to our clients’ success and our Firm’s progress in the years ahead.”
Elected as Partner Thomas M. Devaney, a member of the Business Department, will be resident in the New York office. Devaney specializes in private equity fund formation and investment, representing a variety of domestic and international private equity funds, including real estate funds, venture capital funds, and debt funds, in addition to hedge funds with a broad range of investment strategies.
The other lawyers elected as Partners are; Anders T. Aannestad, Jonathan Bockman, Christopher B. Eide, James M. Halstead, Rebekah Kaufman, David E. Melaugh, James J. Mullen III, Ph.D., Norman S. Rosenbaum, and Ivan G. Smallwood, a resident in the Tokyo office.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – According to a report in the Financial Times, London hedge fund manager Alan Miller has returned to the industry after a two-year absence by becoming a partner at SilverStreet Capital, a small London fund of hedge funds manager.
Miller, who co-founded New Star Asset Management with John Duffield in 2001, went on a sabbatical in 2006 following a bitter and highly public divorce battle. His absence from the UK fund manager was made permanent in February last year, the FT report said.
SilverStreet Capital is an asset management firm specialising in alternative investments, including hedge funds, private equity and property management.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: alex@hedgeco.net
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