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.
Seeking Alpha – While John Paulson’s position in AngloGold Ashanti (AU) is no secret, his hedge fund has just filed a 13G with the SEC with regard to the position. Paulson & Co has disclosed a 12.1% ownership stake in AngloGold Ashanti due to activity on May 20th, 2009, with the bulk of the position in his Advantage Plus fund. They now show holdings of 42,849,801 shares of AU. We covered their initial purchase on March 23rd when Paulson & Co took a large position in AngloGold at $32 a share.
This is just one of the many gold miners that Paulson’s hedge fund now has a stake in. He additionally likes the Gold Miners ETF (GDX), Gold Fields (GFI), and Kinross Gold (KGC). When we just last week looked at Paulson’s entire portfolio, we noted his massive stake in the precious metal Gold, bought through ticker GLD.
Seekingalpha.com – Bill Ackman explains how hedge funds work, specifically with regard to investors in Pershing Square IV, his fund dedicated (disastrously) to going long Target.
Some of these investors, who are for the most part other hedge funds (that comprised approximately $1.3 billion of the original $2 billion of fund capital), have told me that they previously hedged a substantial portion, or in some cases 100% or more, of their exposure to Target through PSIV.
So a bunch of hedge funds invested in PSIV to go long Target (while paying Ackman his 2-and-20), and at the same time went short Target in order to hedge their PSIV exposure. And for this piece of genius they charge their own investors 2-and-20.
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.
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Bloomberg – Hedge fund managers, after enduring the industry’s worst month in a decade, are seeking to explain to investors what went wrong and what they are doing about it.
“We clearly underestimated several things, most importantly the tsunami of redemptions that are being delivered to hedge funds as investors line up to get out of these funds as well as record outflows from equity mutual funds,” Jeffrey Gendell, who runs Greenwich, Connecticut-based Tontine Associates LLC, wrote in an Oct. 1 letter to clients.
“I am not a nervous person by nature, but should have been under the circumstances,” wrote Gendell, whose Tontine Partners LP fund plunged 59 percent in September, leaving it down 67 percent for the year, according to investors. Gendell, 49, had expected shares of steel, engineering, airline and chemical companies to appreciate because of falling oil prices. Instead they plummeted.
Proactive Investors UK – The top thirty gainers for the London Stock Exchange (‘LSE’) read out like a roll call for the British and Irish financial industry, after the Financial Services Authority (‘FSA’) announced late last night that it was imposing a temporary ban on short selling financial stocks. Groups with short positions over 0.25% in the 29 companies included in the ban will have to declare their positions by Tuesday.
Not surprisingly, the FTSE 100 roared to life this morning, climbed a whopping 340 points, or 7.1% to 5225 by 10:30am, the biggest single day gain in more than two decades. The surge higher was lead by financial institutions, which have been offered a temporary reprieve from the usually lucrative tactic by hedge funds to short sectors out of favour with the market. Even large spread betting firms, like CMC Markets, informed private investors this morning that it was not accepting any new short bets on financial stocks, as under normal circumstances, it would hedge those bets, but can no longer do so.
Wealth Bulletin – The UK’s financial regulator has hired Australian Andrew Crain to head up the team that oversees the roughly 40 largest hedge fund managers that operate in the UK. Crain, a former regulator in his home country, assumes his new job later this month.
The team he will run sits within the wholesale investment division of the Financial Services Authority, the UK’s equivalent of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The appointment comes as the UK regulator is stepping up efforts to discourage unsavoury behaviour, including insider trading and other market abuses by hedge funds and others.
Those efforts have included measures that are widely unpopular among fund managers, including a rapidly introduced rule requiring disclosure of short positions — or bets that a stock will fall — in certain circumstances.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net)- The SEC has clarified its position on the "Cash Solicitation Rule" saying that a registered investment adviser may compensate a person for soliciting investors for, or referring investors to his or her investment fund.
Usually, under the rule, it is illegal for an investment adviser to pay a cash fee, directly or indirectly, as the "Cash Solicitation Rule" only applies to solicitations of “clients.”
But the SEC has taken the position that solicitations of investors for investment funds should not fall ito that category. The determination of whether the cash payment is being made solely to compensate that person for soliciting or referring investors will depend on the facts and circumstances of each particular case.
The SEC also warned that "Despite the additional guidance provided by the interpretative letter, investment advisers will need to continue to be mindful of potential traps for the unwary when entering into solicitation agreements."
Independent- The UK’s financial watchdog has targeted hedge funds for the second time this month, demanding more disclosure for those trying to build anonymous stakes in companies using a complex derivative, in a bid to combat market failure.
The move to force disclosure of contracts for difference (CfDs), which comes just weeks after the regulator brought in disclosure rules for short positions in certain circumstances, will leave some hedge funds "fuming", according to one market expert. CfDs and shorting are tactics predominantly used by hedge fund investors.
The Financial Services Authority outlined plans yesterday for investors to disclose their positions if they have built up more than 3 per cent in a company through CfDs. Under the new rules, investors must disclose a position, whether held through shares or CfDs or a combination. Previously there had been no requirement to disclose any CfDs positions other than when the target was in a takeover process.
Money Management- Despite tightening credit conditions, hedge funds are continuing to gain favour, with the latest Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index up 2 per cent in May.
The president of Credit Suisse Index Company, Oliver Schupp, said the index had been up in circumstances where hedge funds had continued to generate positive performance across strategies.
“We estimate that each of the 10 hedge fund sectors will end May with gains for the month, with long/short equity being the highest performing sector,” he said.
