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.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Execution LLC, an agency-only global broker dealer, today announced that it has opened a New York office as part of its long-term US growth plan.
Execution’s new office is located at 450 Park Avenue and will include space for US sales and trading, desk analysts, options and European sales. The New York office will allow for further growth in headcount, and will facilitate deeper relationships and exceptional service for many of the firm’s New York based clients.
“Having a New York presence will enable us to hire outstanding talent from New York, New Jersey and Long Island and will further enhance the level of service for both new and existing clients,” Gary Cunningham, CEO, Execution LLC said. “New York will complement our existing offices in Greenwich and San Francisco and was the natural next step for the firm.”
Daniel Fox, Partner of Execution, will oversee the NY office and will be joined by Jonathan Fairhurst, AnnaMarie O’Neill, Chief Market Strategist Rick Bensignor and Financial Desk Analyst Yousef Abassi. John Margolis, who recently joined Execution following a 20 year career in technology and trading most recently with Thomson Financial, will also be joining the team to build out an options capability.
Execution will maintain its Greenwich office and is in the process of opening a Boston office where the firm will service Boston based accounts for US, European and Asian equities. Execution has developed an edge operating in a velvet rope environment on a platform free of proprietary trading conflicts.
Execution LLC is the U.S. subsidiary of London based Execution Limited, a full-service agency broker providing clients with execution, sales, trading, research and corporate access, free from the conflicts inherent in proprietary trading and corporate broking. Execution services many of the world’s major investing institutions, including mutual funds, pension funds, insurance companies and hedge funds. Empowered by its technology and differentiated by its people, Execution provides access to the market’s core liquidity providers through extensive personal relationships and expertise. Execution LLC is a member of NASD and SIPC.
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Bloomberg – China Investment Corp., the nation’s $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, may invest as much as $500 million in hedge funds including those run by Blackstone Group LP, said two people familiar with the matter.
CIC aims to allocate $6 billion to hedge funds by the end of 2009, company adviser Felix Chee said two days ago at the GAIM International hedge fund conference at Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum. Chee, who is a special adviser to the chief investment officer of CIC, said he will initially run CIC’s hedge fund and proprietary trading effort.
The move adds to signs of improved confidence by CIC Chairman Lou Jiwei, who said in December that he didn’t “dare to invest in financial institutions” after losing money on investments in Blackstone and Morgan Stanley. CIC raised its stake in Morgan Stanley earlier this month by buying an additional $1.2 billion shares.
Bloomberg – Felix Chee, an adviser to China’s $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, said it aims to make investments in hedge funds.
“We will have a preference for managed accounts,” he said in an interview today at the GAIM International hedge fund conference at Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum. “The platform would like a core of single-manager funds and fund-of-funds.”
Chee, who said he will initially run China Investment Corp.’s hedge fund and proprietary trading effort, is a special adviser to the chief investment officer of CIC.
“It’ll be across the spectrum of strategies,” he said. “We’re looking for the best managers and a handful of fund of funds, and when I say handful I mean five or less.”
June 17 (Bloomberg) – Felix Chee, an adviser to China’s $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, said it aims to make investments in hedge funds.
“We will have a preference for managed accounts,” he said in an interview today at the GAIM International hedge fund conference at Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum. “The platform would like a core of single-manager funds and fund-of-funds.”
Chee, who said he will initially run China Investment Corp.’s hedge fund and proprietary trading effort, is a special adviser to the chief investment officer of CIC.
“It’ll be across the spectrum of strategies,” he said. “We’re looking for the best managers and a handful of fund of funds, and when I say handful I mean five or less.”
Chee previously managed the University of Toronto’s endowment, where he managed a portfolio of about $1 billion in hedge fund assets. Asked if he was daunted by the prospect of running a $200 billion portfolio, he said “I try not to look at the zeros.”
Bloomberg - John Costas and Michael Hutchins, are reuniting to start a financial services firm after running UBS AG’s hedge fund Dillon Read Capital Management LLC, according to people familiar with their plans.
Costas, 52, took over UBS’s investment bank in 2001 and spun off the proprietary trading desk to form Dillon Read in 2005. Zurich-based UBS shut down the unit in May 2007 and said it accounted for $3 billion of the $19 billion in losses the bank reported that year. Hutchins, 53, was president of Dillon Read and previously headed the debt unit of UBS.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Global alternative asset manager, GLG Partners LP, is teaming up with two of the founding partners of London hedge fund Pendragon Capital, Kaveh Sheibani and Julian Harvey Wood, to focus on event driven strategies.
In addition, GLG Partners LP will become the investment manager of the funds and accounts managed by Pendragon Capital. Before founding and managing Pendragon Capital with Gordon Lawson, Kaveh and Julian had worked together managing European proprietary trading in equities at Salomon Brothers (subsequently Citigroup).
"Kaveh and Julian are both highly experienced, event driven professionals and we expect that this team will greatly enhance and expand GLG’s own event driven franchise," Emmanuel Roman, Co-CEO of GLG commented.
As of September 30, 2008, GLG managed net AUM of over $17 billion.
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CNBC – A Goldman Sachs hedge fund that launched in January with over $6 billion under management lost close to $1 billion by September, according to the Financial Times.
The fund, known as Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, has told investors it lost $989 million by September, the newspaper said on Monday.
Most of the fund’s losses stemmed from investments in commodities, basic materials, metals, mining, energy and agriculture, the FT said.
Losses from investments in convertible bonds — debt instruments that can convert into equity — also contributed to poor returns, the newspaper said.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Alternative investor, Polygon Investment Partners LLP has agreed not to further oppose the restructuring of the company by British Energy and other shareholders, in exchange the shareholders and British Energy have agreed to stop all outstanding legal actions against Polygon.
In the circumstances, Polygon believes that there is no commercial logic in proceeding with the EGM or supporting the proposed resolutions.
Polygon has also frozen redemptions on their $4bn flagship multi-strategy fund, Global Opportunities, while it unwinds the fund and returns money to investors.
Polygon Investment Partners LLP ("Polygon") is a global private investment firm based in London and New York, investing in a wide range of publicly traded securities. The firm currently has over $1.35 billion under management.
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!
The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has recently issued new rulings and regulations that have an impact on tax filings by many hedge funds. The new rulings deal with the deduction of investment interest expense for trading funds and fund-level expenses incurred by fund-of-hedge funds.
Investment Interest Expense
The ruling recently issued by the IRS regarding investment interest expense will not dramatically change how trader funds report investment interest expense. Rather Revenue Ruling 2008-38 clarifies the position taken by the majority of the hedge fund industry for trader funds.
Many trader funds would take the position on the Schedule K-1s issued to its investors stating that investors that do not materially participate in the fund’s activity can deduct investment interest expense from trading activities as an ordinary business expense subject to the investment interest expense limitation. Prior to this new guidance issued by the IRS, there was question regarding where this deduction should be claimed on an individual’s tax return. The new ruling states that investment interest expense incurred on debt allocable to property held for investment, subject to the investment interest expense limitation, is now deductible in computing ordinary income or loss from partnerships on Schedule E.
Fund-of-Hedge Fund Expenses
There has been much debate regarding how fund-of-hedge fund expenses are deducted by many tax professionals and fund managers. Some have taken the position that a fund-of-funds is in the business of investing in other investment partners, others have taken the position that a fund-of-fund invests in other funds, while many others are somewhere in between. However, this gray area has now been cleared up by guidance issued by the IRS.
The IRS has recently issued Revenue Ruling 2008-39 which addresses how fund-of-hedge funds expenses are deducted in arriving at taxable income, specifically how management fees are deducted.
In the past, many managers have bifurcated their fund-level expenses between ordinary and portfolio deductions based upon the type of funds that they invest in. For example, if 60 percent of the fair value of the fund’s underlying investments are invested in trader funds with the remaining 40 percent in investor funds, the manager would take the position that 60 percent of its fund-level expenses were deductible as trade or business deductions and 40 percent as portfolio deductions. However, Revenue Ruling 2008-39 states that a fund-of-hedge funds invests in and disposes of interests in other funds. The conduct of holding the investments in other funds is deemed to be holding limited partnership interests for the production of income within the meaning of Internal Revenue Code §212. Expenses incurred within the meaning of §212 are treated as portfolio deductions. Portfolio deductions are only deductible to the extent that they exceed 2 percent of adjusted gross income and are not deductible in arriving at alternative minimum taxable income.
Filing Deadlines
The IRS has issued Temporary Treasury Regulations §1.6081-2T which reduces the extension period for partnership tax returns. Prior to these treasury regulations, partnerships were allowed an automatic six-month extension of time to file its partnership tax return. Under the new regulations, partnerships will only be granted an automatic five-month extension which creates additional stress and pressure on fund-of-hedge fund managers to issue their Schedule K-1s. The new regulations are effective for applications of extension of time to file returns after July 1, 2008.
If you would like to discuss how these changes will affect your fund or would like to discuss other issues that face your fund, please feel free to contact Sean Tafaro or Michael Callahan at (303) 753-1959.
Black Enterprise- A team of young managers formerly with hedge fund Brahman Capital is preparing to launch a fund in August to focus on Western European turnaround situations, the firm’s founder said.
Cara Goldenberg, a 27-year-old former star investor and partner at the $3 billion Brahman Capital, heads the new firm, called Permian Investment Partners. She is joined by former Brahman colleagues Alex Duran and Scott Hendrickson.
New York-based Permian hopes to raise some $200 million this year, mostly from wealthy individuals and families, said Ms. Goldenberg. The firm was seeded with what it said was a "sizable" investment from Privet Capital, a family investment firm.
