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 UK – The government has created a fund to invest in technology-based firms with high growth potential, which it hopes will raise up to 1 billion pounds over the next decade.
The UK Innovation Investment Fund will focus on investing in small businesses and start-ups in digital and life sciences, clean technology and advanced manufacturing, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said on Monday.
Tacoma News Tribune – Tucked among the hedge funds and the famous names on Bernard Madoff’s client roster is an unlikely group of about 800 people – strangers to one another, yet all listed at the same anonymous Denver address.
Now, they are discovering a painful common bond, shared with at least two previous groups of stung investors. For at least the third time in as many years, the company behind Denver PO Box 173859 has turned up as a go-between in a collapsed Ponzi scheme.
The address belongs to Fiserv Inc., which served as middleman for Madoff and scores of regular Joe-and-Jill investors: dentists and doctors, insurance salesmen and builders who trusted Madoff to manage specialized individual retirement accounts.
Their losses with Madoff, together with earlier cases, raise questions about Fiserv and the risks inherent in what are known as self-directed IRAs. These financial products are an increasingly popular way of letting people invest in real estate or small businesses and other less-traditional investments.
Jamaica Gleaner – The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela pledged Saturday to invest US$100 million each in a special fund in hopes of boosting cross-border trade as the world economic crisis slashes global demand for their exports.
The cash will help create small businesses and should finance infrastructure projects along the border, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said after four hours of talks in the Caribbean port of Cartagena with his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe.
"Nobody knows where this crisis might go," Chávez told a televised news conference.
Trade between the two nations reached a record US$7.2 billion in 2008, and Chávez said they should aim for US$10 billion a year in 2009 and 2010.
domain-B – Hedge funds will be allowed to borrow from the Federal Reserve for the first time under a landmark $200-billion programme intended to support consumer credit.
The new programme is aimed at injecting credit for consumers and small businesses including auto loans and credit cards will be launched in February.
The Fed said on Friday it would offer low-cost three-year funding to any US company investing in securitised consumer loans under the Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). This includes hedge funds, which have never been able to borrow from the US central bank before.
The New York Fed will offer loans under the TALF on a monthly basis. On a fixed day each month, borrowers will be able to borrow by means of one or more loans by indicating for each loan the eligible collateral, the desired amount, the desired interest rate format — fixed or floating.
