BusinessWeek- Assets invested in Asia-focused hedge-fund strategies fell about 10% in the first quarter of 2008, with industry assets under management plummeting from $110 billion to $100 billion, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research.

Net allocations to Asia-only strategies also decreased in the first three months of the year, although net allocations to global emerging-market strategies, which include Asian markets, increased by $1 billion.

On a global basis, the hedge-fund industry attracted a net of $16.5 billion in the first quarter (versus receiving $194 billion throughout 2007), with total capital under management virtually flat over the quarter at $1.9 trillion.

Read Complete Article

Tags: 100-million, asia-ltd, citigroup-inc, composite-index, domicile, external-managers, fourth-quarter, investment-criteria, money, new-york-mercantile, screws, select-fund, stock-markets

Times Online- Citigroup is to close an $800 million hedge fund co-founded by its chief executive Vikram Pandit, following bad returns and the loss of top managers.

The US investment bank will now buy what is left of Old Lane Partners’ assets and be forced to further write down the value of the fund in the second quarter, The Wall Street Journal reports. In the first quarter Citigroup wrote down the value of the fund by $202 million to reflect investor redemptions.

Old Lane’s closure is the latest blow for Citigroup, which has struggled with sub-prime mortgage related losses, losing nearly $15 billion in the last two quarters, forcing it to cut jobs and sell businesses.

Read Complete Article

Tags: alan-greenspan, charge-offs, chief-executive, credit-cards, curbs, first-avenue, journalism, losses, nutmeg, prime-brokers, screws, simons, trillion