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.co.uk – Sterling fell against the dollar to near a two-week low on Monday after a collapse of support for the UK’s ruling Labour Party in the European election raised the chances of further challenges to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Despite its losses against the dollar, the pound rose against the euro, as the single European currency came under broad selling pressure after Standard & Poor’s cut its sovereign rating on Ireland for the second time in three months.
Analysts said Labour’s drubbing in weekend European elections added to the uncertainty surrounding the political future of Britain’s embattled prime minister, who reshuffled his Cabinet on Friday after six of the party’s ministers quit.
Times Online – The role of the City of London as one of the world’s preeminent financial centres came under attack for the second time in two weeks yesterday, this time from proposed EU rules for private equity and hedge funds.
The EU wants private equity firms with more than €500 million under management and hedge funds with more than €100 million of funds to file detailed financial information with the Financial Services Authority. Private equity firms will also need to file figures relating to debt, risk and cash.
If the European Parliament approves the proposed legislation, about 1,000 British companies – owned by private equity firms either headquartered or with an office in the EU and with more than €500 million under management – would be saddled with annual compliance costs estimated at about £30,000.
ArabianBusiness.com – A record $155 billion was pulled out of hedge funds last year, punishing the once red-hot asset class for delivering its worst-ever returns, according to numbers released on Wednesday.
Chicago-based tracking firm Hedge Fund Research said hedge funds around the world now manage an estimated $1.4 trillion, the same sum they managed in 2006 and far less than the $1.93 trillion they invested in the middle of 2008.
This is only the second time since 1990 that the exclusive and often secretive hedge fund industry suffered net outflows for the full year, HFR said.
Daily Telegraph – Highbridge Capital Management, which is majority owned by JP Morgan Chase and has $25bn under management, is axing 10 per cent of its New York-based staff and plans cuts in Europe and Asia.
The volatility in global stock markets has savaged the performance of some of the world’s best-known hedge funds, raising fears of a collapse in the sector, which could cause a fresh crisis in the financial system.
Big names including Deephaven, Marshall Wace, Citadel Investment Corp, Lansdowne Partners, Third Point and Harbinger, have in recent weeks sustained losses of as much as 20 per cent in some funds.
Investors pulled at least $43bn (£25bn) from US hedge funds in September, according to TrimTabs Investment Research. This is nearly five per cent of the global sector’s estimated $2 trillion in total assets.
