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.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – The largest hedge fund run by Citadel Investment Group has fallen 30 percent this year stemming from losses tied to convertible bonds. The $10 billion Kensington Global Strategies Fund has been hit hard by the credit crunch, prompting CEO Kennith Griffin to warn investors that returns may be extremely volatile in the next few weeks.
Yesterday, Mr. Griffin sent a letter to investors stating that September was the “single worst month, by far, in the history of Citadel. Our performance reflected extraordinary market conditions that I did not fully anticipate, combined with regulatory changes driven more by populism than policy.”
Rumors of the lagging performance were so strong that Mr. Griffin was forced to set the record straight. He also cited the temporary ban of short selling as one of the reasons for the losses, saying it “created material dislocations across many of our portfolios and disrupted our ability to assume and manage risk.”
Yesterday, Dealbreaker.com had published some of the swirling rumors highlighting Citadel’s problems, fueling fear and speculation in the market. The website eventually took the post down after Citadel expressed their disdain. Dealbreaker wrote: “We removed the citadel post after it was brought to our attention that it was a baseless rumor, and was irresponsible to repeat.”
Dealbreaker had pointed out that the fund uses 4 to 1 leverage, down from 7 to 1 earlier this year. Although they noted that this was high, it is not uncommon for hedge funds to use this much leverage, though some choose to use none. To put it into perspective, Long Term Capital Management and its infamous collapse used 25 to 1 leverage, or for every $1 they had, they borrowed $25.
Citadel was founded in 1990 and manages over $20 billion in assets throughout locations in the United States, Asia, England and Bermuda.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
Bloomberg – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission extended a rule forcing hedge funds to tell the agency about short-sale positions amid concerns investors bet against companies after spreading false rumors they will fail.
Investment managers who oversee more than $100 million must to disclose to the SEC the stocks they’ve bet will fall in price until Aug. 1, the agency said in a statement on its Web site today. Those positions won’t be made public, the SEC said.
The SEC said it’s concerned “about the possible unnecessary or artificial price movements” in stocks “that may be based on unfounded rumors and may be exacerbated by short selling.”
The SEC is investigating hedge funds and cracking down on short-selling after lawmakers questioned whether traders spread misinformation and used abusive tactics to attack companies. The collapse of Bear Stearns Cos. in March and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s September bankruptcy fueled concerns that investors were manipulating financial markets.
Reuters – A U.S.-based trade group for hedge funds has urged the Bank of England to step in and speed up the freeing up of assets frozen in the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, saying it has become "an issue of very substantial systemic significance."
Richard Baker, a former U.S. congressman who heads the Managed Funds Association (MFA), said the lock-up of Lehman assets threatens British prime brokerage businesses and "will exacerbate systemic risks if not handled properly."
He made the plea in a letter dated Oct. 13, sent to the British central bank’s governor on the eve of a meeting between the administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBIE) and UK regulators.
Baker also said the current process is adding more uncertainty to global markets and that expediting the return of assets will give the market "a much needed boost of liquidity and confidence."
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Moscow’s The Statesman reports that a Russian rogue trader lost his investment bank up to $50 million in risky trades that went wrong in the financial crisis, the Vedomosti business daily reported today. Quoting unnamed sources at Renaissance Capital, one of Russia’s biggest investment banks, Vedomosti reported that the rogue trader had disappeared.
A source close to the bank’s top management put the loss at about $50 million, although chief executive Mr Ruben Aganbegyan said it was only around $10 million. “He opened positions on blue-chip companies that were above the limits and outside of the controls. The market fell and we quickly found the problem,” he was quoted as saying.
The incident is eerily reminiscent of Nick Leeson ~ the rogue trader whose unchecked risk-taking caused the biggest financial scandals of the 20th century. The collapse of Barings Bank (personal bank to Queen Elizabeth II) in 1995 and Leeson’s role in it is one of the most spectacular debacles in modern financial history, according to the Leeson website.
The Independent – The financial fall-out in the vast, opaque credit default swaps market caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be smaller than originally feared, analysts say.
Optimism was rising yesterday that the unwinding of insurance contracts on Lehman debt might involve the transfer of barely $6bn, and that the settlement next week can be completed without a major player failing to pay.
The concern had been that banks and hedge funds who promised to compensate trading partners for losses on Lehman bonds would not have the money to do so, triggering a chain reaction of losses through the financial system.
Although Lehman bonds were valued in a closely-watched auction last Friday at just 8.625 cents on the dollar, and sellers of credit default swaps will have to pay out a higher-than-expected 91.375 cents on the dollar, the great majority of players are both buyers and sellers of credit default swaps – meaning they can net off their exposure.
Guardian.co.uk – Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has slipped more than 8% on news that Toscafund, the hedge fund run by former bank analyst Martin Hughes, has sold a chunk of shares in the business.
Tosca, which is said to have lost about £300m in the collapse of US bank Washington Mutual, held a 10.2% stake in Taylor Wimpey. But in an official filing just out, Tosca has now reduced that to below the 3% disclosable threshold.
Taylor Wimpey is down 1.75p at 19p, but rival Redrow, where Tosca had a 27% stake, has climbed 6.75p to 163p. On Friday, Redrow said Bridgemere Securities had bought 14.4m shares to take its stake to 16.24%. Traders wondered whether some of these shares might have come from Tosca.
Bridgemere is a fund set up by the Redrow founder, Stephen Morgan, and the purchase has prompted talk of a possible takeover of Redrow.
Newsday – A federal probe of the $1.8-billion collapse of Bear Stearns hedge funds has spread to include the activities of a number of banks and other lenders, according to court records and legal sources.
Investigators are also reviewing various private financial memorandums prepared by Bear Stearns officials for possible fraud against wealthy investors, said the sources.
One of the banks that may have been defrauded in the case was Barclays Bank PLC, the British institution that last year filed a federal lawsuit against Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. over losses from the hedge fund, said one attorney familiar with the case.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are overseeing the Bear Stearns case while other Wall Street probes are being carried out by federal officials in Manhattan, said attorney Andrew Entwistle, who is representing investors suing the parent Bear Stearns Companies Inc. and affiliates.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – The infamous collapse of the two $1.8 billion Bear Stearns hedge funds that many believe helped spark the credit crisis is still being investigated, and now other banks and individuals are being probed in the process.
According to those familiar with the matter, prosecutors are now looking at the offering memorandum of the funds, a set of documents usually constructed by the legal team that list strategies and other pertinent information, along with investigating the individuals who prepared them.
Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, both hedge fund managers for the now defunct funds, have had criminal charges filed against them in federal court. The two men allegedly defrauded investors in the hedge funds by neglecting to communicate the sharp losses they were experiencing due to their exposure to mortgage backed securities and hefty amounts of leverage. Cioffi was also charged with insider trading.
Investors who experienced losses in the fund have a number of cases against Bear Stearns. Barclays Bank PLC also filed a suit last year after losing approximately $400 million in the funds.
The High Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund and the High Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund collapsed last summer amidst the subprime mortgage fallout. The funds had sought liquidation in the Cayman Islands, possibly hoping to shield some assets from creditors. That request was denied in U.S. Court.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
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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.
Independent – An unprecedented crackdown on speculators preying on falling share prices began on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday, as Gordon Brown promised to "clean up the financial system" after days of turmoil.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) banned "short selling" of bank shares from midnight last night, after warnings that the practice helped fuel market turmoil that forced the dramatic £12.2bn takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB. This came as the New York Attorney announced his office had launched an investigation into illegal manipulation to profit from short selling. The move is to uncover whether speculators have spread misleading information or acted in concert to purposely drive down share prices.
Wealthy hedge fund traders, heavy users of the shorting strategy, have sparked fury after making millions from the collapse in value of UK banking stocks.
Reuters Paris – European hedge funds have had a bad week due to the market turmoil from the bailout of AIG and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the co-founder of French fund of hedge fund manager ERAAM said on Thursday.
Paris-based ERAAM selects European hedge funds in which to invest its clients’ money and constantly monitors the performance of these hedge funds.
"This is a bad week. The driver of the market is not valuations any more. It’s just rumours and liquidity," said Cyril Julliard.
"Some could have been short on HBOS and long on Morgan Stanley," he added, referring to the British retail bank and U.S. investment bank.
International Herald Tribune – As world markets shudder, the hedge funds based in London, once the toast of the city’s flashy financial elite and magnets for cosmopolitan capital, have stumbled badly.
The increasingly global sweep of the credit crunch and the collapse of Lehman Brothers have punished all manner of hedge funds – secretive investment pools that rely on generous lenders and a high tolerance for risk to thrive.
But in London, where a number have already shuttered, the hedge fund retreat has a pointed resonance. Along with celebrity chefs, Russian oligarchs and Italian soccer coaches, hedge funds that established operations here in the past decade have been seen as a mark of London’s hip new spirit of decadent cool – a notion reinforced by the pound’s long period of strength and the boom in home prices.
Now, the failure of Lehman Brothers, which had deep financial relationships with some of the largest hedge funds in the world, has unsettled an already jittery market – sparking fears that some hedge fund assets might be frozen there and thus be unavailable for sale if investors choose to redeem them.
