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.
Tehran Times – Atticus Capital LP sold 23 of the 25 U.S.-listed stocks it owned in the first quarter as the New York-based hedge-fund firm run by Timothy Barakett put more money into cash while equity markets fell.
Atticus sold 1.69 million shares of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Potash, the world’s largest producer of its namesake fertilizer, had been the firm’s top U.S. holding.
Barakett, whose firm oversees about $6 billion in assets, also sold all of his 5.31 million shares of Microsoft Corp. The world’s largest software maker, based in Redmond, Washington, had been the firm’s second-largest U.S. position.
Bloomberg – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened a new investigation into whether Pequot Capital Management Inc., the hedge fund run by Arthur Samberg, illegally profited in 2001 by tapping inside information on Microsoft Corp., two people familiar with the matter said.
Investigators learned of documents that show former Microsoft employee David Zilkha may have obtained confidential information about the software maker, said one of the people, declining to be identified because the investigation isn’t public. Zilkha left the company in 2001 to join Pequot.
Independent – Hedge funds could have an unprecedented level of cash pulled out by investors this quarter, according to insiders, just as they faced millions of pounds of losses from last week’s shock regulation of short selling. It has been a tough year for the industry with high-profile funds blowing up, clients increasing redemptions, as well as public fury over short selling and increased threats of regulation.
One hedge fund expert pointed to The Hedge Fund Implode-O-Meter (HFI) as how he judges the state of the industry. The HFI was set up online in the wake of the credit crunch "to track as hedge funds learn the double-edged-sword nature of the often extreme leverage they use".
The group’s "imploded funds" list has hit 51 companies since the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States kicked off a widespread downturn. That compares with its historical list, stretching back more than a decade to the end of 2006, of just 14, including the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management and Amaranth.
New York Post – Jim Simons, a man known for running one of the world’s most secretive, expensive and successful hedge funds, is on track to wow investors with another year of double-digit returns.
Simons’ $8 billion Medallion fund, the oldest of the three Renaissance Technologies funds, was up 48 percent at the end of July, net of fees, according to people familiar with the funds’ returns.
Medallion, which is funded mostly by Renaissance insiders, charges a whopping 49 percent in fees, including a 5 percent management fee and 44 percent incentive fee.
That’s high even by the standards of an already costly industry – the industry average is a 2 percent management fee and a 20 percent incentive fee – but with such eye-popping returns, no one’s likely to complain.
