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.
Reuters India – Lenders to French roofing company Monier Group have approved a restructuring deal that sees a group of debt investors take control of the company, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Thursday.
The deal is one of the largest "loan to own" restructurings in Europe, and has been led by debt investors Apollo Management [APOLO.UL], TowerBrook and York Capital.
Reuters – Prominent hedge fund manager Clifford Asness has struck back at the Obama administration, saying hedge funds had the right and responsibility to hold out on last week’s Chrysler LLC restructuring deal.
"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, who oversees about $20 billion at AQR Capital Management, LLC wrote in an undated letter.
Cape Cod Times – General Motors Corp. could get as much as $5 billion more in federal loans, while Chrysler LLC could get $500 million as they race against government-imposed deadlines to restructure, according to a government report filed yesterday.The quarterly report by a special inspector general on the auto industry and bank bailout programs says the money will be made available for working capital. GM has until June 1 to complete restructuring plans that satisfy the government’s auto task force, while Chrysler has until April 30
American Chronicle – An investment professional from Greenwich with more than 20 years of experience is going out on his own by starting a Stamford-based advisory firm for small- to medium-size companies from here to
Texas.
Peter Schweinfurth, a former senior executive at Avenue Capital, a hedge fund based in New York City and London, recently launched Gulf + Eastern to offer restructuring, turnaround and mergers-and-acquisitions advice for small but growing family-owned firms focused on consumer products and the service sector.
Traverse City Record Eagle – General Motors and Chrysler, which have received $17.4 billion in federal aid and face upcoming deadlines to restructure their companies, will designate the auto parts suppliers that need the financing, giving them a large role in determining which suppliers will survive. Ford Motor Co., which has not sought the government aid, has said it does not intend to use the program.
The White House sent a team of 15 people to Detroit on Wednesday to work with GM over the next two weeks to accelerate the restructuring process, an administration official said.
Guardian Unlimited – Three "distressed debt investors" – hedge fund Polygon, restructuring specialist Oaktree and private equity firm Alchemy – have taken control of Countrywide, Britain’s biggest residential estate agent, which was bought by US private equity firm Apollo less than two years ago for about £1bn, mostly financed by debt. Together, they have taken a majority stake for one-third of the price paid by Apollo.
Distressed debt investors, which specialise in buying financial instruments relating to troubled companies at rock-bottom prices, have been saying for two years that buying debt on the "secondary market" – where company loans are traded after the original lender has sold the debt on – was too expensive. Now, they appear to be judging it the right time to move back in.
