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London officials including Mayor Boris Johnson will today urge the European Parliament to modify proposals to tighten scrutiny of hedge funds and buyout firms, calling the steps “narrowly protectionist.”
Bloomberg – The rules under consideration in Brussels would limit the amount of borrowing the funds can use and require the use of European-domiciled banks. Around 80 percent of Europe’s $300 billion in hedge funds assets are managed from London, according to City Hall.
If the legislation goes ahead unchanged, “it will be narrowly protectionist, fail to take account of other global players (including the U.S.), and damage an important EU industry,” Stuart Fraser, who chairs the City of London Policy Committee and will join Johnson in Brussels, said in an e-mailed statement.
The Independent – Grimly aware that a European Commission crackdown on regulation of hedge funds and private equity spells disaster for the EU’s predominantly London-based industry, Treasury ministers have been desperately lobbying their counterparts in Brussels for months, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Now, however, the Americans have woken up to the fact that many of their hedge funds would find it impossible to do business in the EU under proposals for regulatory reform. In recent weeks, US Treasury officials have thus been touring the EU, letting their displeasure be known.
It appears that the Americans’ involvement is already paying dividends. Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, was quietly letting it be known yesterday that it will ensure some sort of compromise is brokered. The Alternative Investment Management Association, which represents the sector’s interests, now thinks disaster may be averted.
GrowthBusiness.co.uk – Its proposals would, if enacted, put an additional burden on both funds and the companies in which they invest. They have been greeted with dismay in the City, but what would they mean for the industry?
The central notion is that fund managers should be subject to ‘harmonised’ governance standards across the EU, with robust systems put in place to manage risk, liquidity and conflicts of interest. The rules would apply to private equity funds with more than €100 million (£90 million) invested, though this threshold would be increased to €500 million for funds which do not use leverage and lock in their investors for a minimum of five years.
Citywire.co.uk – European regulation intended to introduce some controls on hedge funds will inadvertently capture almost all investment trusts.
Draft rules released by the European Commission define ‘alternative’ funds as any non-UCITS investment fund, said the Association of Investment Companies.
Among the proposals unsuited to listed funds is a requirement to allow for the redemption of all shares and the assumption that one manager will be responsible for both asset management and administration.
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.
Forbes – India-focused property firm Hirco Plc said on Monday hedge fund and shareholder Laxey Partners Ltd has sought a shareholder meeting to remove chairman and two other board members, and to appoint its nominees on Hirco board.
Laxey has also urged Hirco’s directors to consider appointing a new chairman independent of the Hiranandani family, the company said in a statement. Comment On This Story
‘The board is taking legal advice as to the validity of the proposed requisition and due process. It considers the proposals are not in the company’s best interests and are misguided,’ Hirco said.
HorseRaceInsider.com – Richard Shapiro, former chairman of the Califorinia Horse Racing Board, has been "devastated" financially by the $50-billion Ponzi scheme that was engineered by Bernard Madoff, according to a letter that Shapiro wrote to a U.S. Congressman.
"Nearly all of my life’s work, savings and pension evaporated on December 11, leaving me in desperate financial straits," Shapiro said in the letter to Brad Sherman, a Democrat who represents the San Fernando Valley, an area where Shapiro lives. The letter was dated January 12.
In the letter, Shapiro asked Sherman to pursue Congressional relief that might help him and other victims of Madoff, who has confessed to defrauding dozens of clients from his company’s New York offices. One of Shapiro’s proposals is to allow Madoff victims to claim credit for back taxes that they paid on paper profits that didn’t really exist.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – The Central Bank of Bahrain will be participating in the Hedge Funds Review, Middle East Summit in Bahrain on November 11-12, 2008.
"As the funds industry continues to gather pace in the global arena, the CBB is determined to maintain its regulatory precedence in setting up the necessary initiatives to enable this development," said Abdul Rahman Al Baker, executive director, Financial Institutions Supervision, at the CBB who will be presenting an overview of the Hedge Funds Market and regulation in Bahrain on the first day of the event.
The two-day summit organised by Incisive Media will be addressed by Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance and Tarek Sakka, CEO of Ajeej Capital.
This will be the second time the event will be held in Bahrain. More than 250 major investors from across the region are likely to attend the summit, along side leading fund managers from Mena, Europe and the US discussing innovative alternative investment strategies.
The sessions will highlight opinions from expert investment managers, and views from academics on the global credit crisis.
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