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.
West Palm Beach, Dec 15, 2008 – Adding to its array of new and interactive features, HedgeCo.Net has unveiled the Hedge Fund blog platform, which provides both accredited investors and the general public the rare opportunity to view the world of hedge funds through the eyes of the industry experts themselves.
The HedgeCo.Net blogs provide a much anticipated compilation of expert analysis and opinion, while giving the user a detailed look into the minds and biases of industry gurus, which are all too often absent in mainstream media.
HedgeCo has already gathered a group of experts who will be contributing their timely knowledge to HedgeCo’s audience through the blogs. Topics will include everything from regulation issues and political influence, to due diligence procedures and tips on investing.
"Over the years HedgeCo.Net has worked towards promoting transparency in the Hedge Fund industry," explains HedgeCo Co-Founder Evan Rapoport. "The HedgeCo.Net database has gone a long way to provide simple communication between accredited investors and hedge funds. The Hedge Fund blogs further promote this idea by providing a way for the general public to get a glimpse into the lives of hedge fund professionals. The traffic and response we have gotten so far has been very positive."
To peruse the blogs or post a response, visit http://www.hedgeco.net/blogs.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - Vienna based hedge fund manager Salus Alpha Group Services GmbH said that any exposure to Madoff funds were systematically prevented by the proprietary investment approach of their funds at all times.
"I am not shocked that Madoff did blow up but I am shocked that so many obviously unqualified naive fund of hedge fund managers who are obviously doing no due diligence nor do they understand hedge fund strategies do manage so much amounts of money and wonder why this happened to them" said Oliver Prock, CIO of Salus Alpha.
"We never invested into US and UK hedge funds which work under the rules of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’," the hedge fund manager said, "We always scrutinized this model by one simple question to the biggest hedge fund manager?. A ‘No’ always meant that there are problems behind such as in the Madoff situation."
The investment approach of Salus Alpha consists of state of the art due diligence and executing investments as managed accounts only, which the fund manager says has prevented and will prevent the company at from investing into Illusion Alpha.
"We did not get any inquiry form existing investors since they know that all funds Salus Alpha manages are fully regulated under UCITS III and do invest in liquid alpha strategies through managed accounts only and are therefore protected at all times," Salus Alpha concluded.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – South Florida-based hedge fund Palm Beach Finance Partners LP says it lost more than $1 billion to the company run by famed fraudster Tom Petters.
Petters headed Minnesota-based Palm Beach Finance Holdings Inc. before being charged in September with money laudering, obstruction of justice and mail and wire fraud that were used to fund his extravagant south florida lifestyle.
Petters allegedly masterminded a scheme that bilked over $3 billion out of trusting investors by setting up fake companies in which he supposedly was invested in. Petters has been slammed with lawsuits in recent months, forcing a judge to freeze any further lawsuits until things can be sorted out.
According to the Palm Beach Post, five investors in Palm Beach Finance Partners have appointed New York law firm Sadis & Goldberg to probe deeper into whether the hedge fund properly managed their funds and whether or not the highly recommended due diligence was performed.
Petters, who currently resides in a Minnesota jail far from his $9 million oceanfront mansion, insists he is innocent. He currently has over 30 civil suits pending against him.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge fund third party marketing firm, Agecroft Partners has hired its 5th Managing Director, Jarratt Ramsey. Jarratt spent the last 11 years at multi-billion hedge fund Chesapeake Capital Management.
"Jarratt is a wonderful addition to our firm. Our business model is to introduce large well established hedge funds in a consultative manner to institutional investors," Agecroft Partners’ Managing Partner Don Steinbrugge said, "It is imperative that the members of our firm are highly technically competent. Jarratt’s educational and professional experiences are very impressive. Furthermore, his knowledge of the hedge fund industry, and security markets should give him a lot of credibility with large institutional investors."
Jarratt’s responsibilities will include assisting with due diligence on potential hedge funds the firm may represent and introducing the firm’s hedge fund clients to large institutional investors located within the Northern region of the United States.
Agecroft Partners recently received the 2008 Third Party Marketer of the Year award. It was founded by Donald A Steinbrugge, CFA, a Founding Principal of Andor Capital Management when it was the 2nd largest hedge fund firm in the world. Don was also Head of Institutional Sales for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. Agecroft Partners, LLC is a Member FINRA and SIPC.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
New York Post – The JPMorgan Chase CEO is seeing the coffers of the bank he runs being filled with "billions of dollars a day" coming from hedge funds that have pulled their cash from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, according to several large hedge-fund managers and other Wall Street sources.
The flood of new business has actually caused a bottleneck at the banking giant, as the prime brokerage unit scrambles to quickly conduct due diligence and credit checks to set up new clients, a source close to the bank said.
Most of JPMorgan’s new clients are being serviced through the old Bear Stearns prime brokerage force, which was a key part of Dimon’s acquisition of the fallen brokerage firm.
A spokesman for JPMorgan confirmed that the bank has seen a significant jump in volume and "they are managing it well."
He also said the bank is maintaining firm due diligence and credit-review procedures.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Castle Hall Alternatives, a provider of hedge fund operational due diligence, has hired Kosta Segounis as Senior Manager, he will supervise a team of analysts responsible for operational due diligence on numerous hedge funds.
"I am delighted to have the opportunity to join Castle Hall’s team." Kosta said, "Operational due diligence has become an increasingly important element of managing a hedge fund portfolio, and Castle Hall offers a unique solution for investors who wish to work with an external partner to enhance their due diligence program."
Kosta previously held the position of Senior Consultant, Compliance, at Standard Life in Montreal. Kosta is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and is also a CFA (chartered financial analyst) charterholder.
Chris Addy, Castle Hall’s President and CEO, said "we are extremely pleased to add Kosta to our growing team of due diligence professionals. His knowledge and experience will be a great asset to our firm, particularly with respect to compliance best practices in the hedge fund industry."
Castle Hall Alternatives helps investors identify better hedge fund managers – firms which not only have attractive performance but also match operational best practices. Castle Hall’s team of due diligence professionals uses a proprietary methodology to prepare a detailed operational assessment for each fund under review.
HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net) – Hedge fund Bay Harbour Management is poised to take over bankrupt clothing retailer Steve & Barry’s.
The company announced on Monday it has filed a "stalking horse" purchase agreement with the hedge fund in which Bay Harbour will acquire the bulk of the chain’s assets for the bargain price of $163 million. Bay Harbour is creating a subsidiary, BH S&B Holdings, which plans to continue to operate Steve & Barry’s stores with their current staff and key facilities.
Should the court approve the agreement, Bay Harbour will be able to perform due diligence to determine which stores it will take over. Hilco Merchant Resources will act as stalking horse bidder looking to conduct a final sale of anything that remains. The proposal will act as an opening bid during an auction of the company scheduled for August.
Bay Harbour could still be outbid if another investor comes up with a better offer. Steve & Barry’s had been foundering in the economic slowdown, however, and had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month.
Douglas Teitelbaum, managing partner of Bay Harbour, has often been labeled as a "bottom feeder" for his fund’s focus on distressed debt and companies sorely in trouble. The New York-based fund has more than a billion dollars in assets under management.
In a statement, Steve & Barry’s noted that Bay Harbour participated in "the rebranding and turnaround of the former Aladdin Casino, now operating on the Las Vegas strip as the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino." Other past holdings of the fund include Barney’s New York and telecom company TelCove, now owned by Level 3 Communications.
New York-based Steve & Barry’s operates 276 clothing stores specializing in apparel lines created by such celebrities as Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Bynes and Venus Williams. The company got its start back in 1985.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net) New York-based Fairfield Greenwich Group ("FGG"), a $16.6 billion global hedge fund and fund of hedge funds management firm has formed a cooperative venture with Sceptre Investment Counsel Limited, one of Canada’s leading independent money management firms.
The venture sees two of the oldest, most established, and most accomplished management firms in their respective markets forming a mutually supportive relationship to provide Sceptre’s clients access to the best-of-breed alternative asset products on FGG’s global platform.
"Sceptre has many strong relationships in the Canadian investment community, and our clients have long trusted us to manage their pooled funds, mutual funds, and other investments. FGG manages some of the industry’s finest funds of hedge funds and other alternative asset products." Richard L. Knowles, Sceptre’s President and CEO said, "We believe that Sceptre’s clients will understand the great value that FGG brings to the table, and that they will have considerable interest in the outstanding hedged products to which they may now gain access through this new relationship."
"We are excited to be working with Sceptre in Canada. For more than 25 years, FGG’s expertise in manager selection, due diligence, and risk management has benefited our investors." David B. Horn, Partner and Chief Global Strategist of FGG commented, "We have great confidence that Sceptre’s extensive network of investors will appreciate the quality and diversity of FGG’s platform of products, and the institutional investment and risk management with which we support it."
Sceptre manages client assets of $9.5 billion, utilizing a broadly diversified investment approach. Originally founded as an institutional fund manager, Sceptre has broadened its expertise to include both retail and private client portfolio management. Sceptre manages segregated and pooled fund portfolios for pension and other savings plans of corporations, government sponsored funds, universities, unions, charitable foundations, endowments and reserve funds of insurance companies.
Reuters – Pictures of hedge fund managers in handcuffs being led away to face fraud charges on Thursday have sent a chilling message to the $2 trillion (1 trillion pound) industry.
The warning was clear: mind what you say in your e-mails if you are a manager and do a lot of due diligence if you are an investor.
While this is not the first time hedge fund managers have been arrested — police are searching for a convicted manager who recently faked his suicide to avoid prison — the two former Bear Stearns managers who were surrounded by a swarm of federal agents on Thursday were in a different league.
Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin were called savvy managers who understood the complicated credit markets and worked for a bulge bracket investment bank that promised investors strong risk controls. Bear Stearns also had deep pockets in case something went wrong, analysts thought.
Much of the case against the two was based on e-mail traffic between Tannin and Cioffi, including one that included the prophetic line: "… the entire subprime market is toast."
Reuters UK- Mortgage market specialist edeus is launching a service that it says will allow investors and bankers to assess the quality of pools of mortgages behind asset-backed securities based on up-to-date information.
Edeus says its service differs from traditional due diligence in its scope; whereas traditional practices look at around 15 percent of a mortgage pool at the point of origination, edeus analyses the whole pool based on current credit scores and borrower data.
