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.
Guardian – Emerging markets have been the place to invest over the past decade. While the FTSE 100 is down more than a quarter since it peaked in December 1999, and the S&P 500 in the US by 28%, markets in Brazil, India and Russia have more than trebled in value, while China has doubled, according to figures compiled for Cash by BGC Partners.
The more recent performance of emerging markets has also been better than developed ones, undermining the traditional view that they overreact to bad news. And Bryan Coyne, head of emerging markets at BGC Partners, thinks “there’s no reason why these markets shouldn’t continue to outperform mature markets”.
Bloomberg – Moscow-based art dealer Gary Tatintsian has sued New York’s Luhring Augustine Gallery alleging breach of agreements on $3 million of art by artists George Condo and Richard Prince, according to a complaint filed Aug. 11.
In April 2008, Tatintsian, one of the first promoters of contemporary Western art in Russia, agreed to pay $2.7 million for 12 new Condo paintings at $225,000 each, according to the complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. The price reflected a 30 percent discount from Condo’s “minimum retail price” of $325,000, according to the filing.
Seeking Alpha – During the past week, almost 15 percent of investors have expressed a specific interest in India-focused funds. When compared with the first week of the second quarter, this percentage is almost double. In a recent article in Hedge Funds India (see, “Hedge Fund Managers Cautious: Focus on China and India,” June 22, 2009), Seppo Leskinen, an investment manager stated
I think the shift of the world’s economies has gone to China and India and these BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies. They are the new economy superpowers in the economic world.
A study by HedgeFund.net (HFN) seems to support this opinion. HFN found that since the first of the year, India-focused hedge funds have produced average returns of 19.6 percent. The same study also estimated that between late 2005 and September 2008, the total assets allocated to India-focused hedge funds increased from $2.8 billion to almost $14 billion. This increase of close to 500 percent shows that hedge fund investors have been looking for more exposure to India.
West Central Tribune – A federal magistrate judge ordered the release on bail Wednesday of an Illinois hedge fund manager who allegedly helped Minnesota businessman Tom Petters orchestrate what prosecutors call a $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme.
Prosecutors tried to persuade U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Keyes that Gregory Bell should be held without bail because he has no significant ties to Minnesota and has millions of dollars in offshore accounts.
They said he also may have or be able to get citizenship in Russia, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Bell was born in Moscow in 1965, emigrated to the U.S. in 1981 and is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Forbes – 2008 was a bad year for hedge funds that invested in Eastern Europe and Russia, forcing many to abandon the region. A month into the new year, they are still steering clear of the market and waiting for more attractive cheap buys to emerge.
"Most funds are waiting to see what happens, looking for distressed asset opportunities toward the end of the year," said the director of a London-based hedge fund, which has been investing in the region. "Potentially there are quite a few funds that could reorientate toward the region but mostly people are managing redemptions and waiting to see what happens," he told Forbes. According to the fund manager, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan’s industrial and resource sectors were likely to be among the first areas re-entered.
Bloomberg – The steepest plunge in crude prices on record may be setting up oil investors for a rally this year, if history is any guide.
The so-called forward curve of futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange suggests oil will rise 30 percent to $60.29 a barrel by December. The curve looks almost the same as 10 years ago, after Russia’s default and the collapse of the Long-Term Capital Management LP hedge fund raised concerns that a global economic slowdown would reduce energy demand. Crude prices fell 25 percent in the final quarter of 1998, the steepest drop in seven years.
