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Business24-7 – Investment funds that extended redemption periods because of adverse conditions in the market have started to cut their notice periods.
The move comes in response to positive factors such as the recent market rally and improved liquidity levels following the government’s measures to boost the economy.
Funds that have cut redemption periods – the time investors must wait to receive their cash when they sell a holding – include Permal, Markaz and Jabre Capital.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Fidelity International is launching the Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund through it’s Indian asset management arm, the new fund is an open ended fund of funds scheme offering asset allocation options with three plans.
The investment objective of the fund is to seek to generate reasonable returns based on the plan selected with minimum and maximum asset allocation between debt and equity. The fund manager will use a two-tier investment approach – asset allocation and fund selection – to invest in Fidelity’s funds. The NFO will be open from January 14 to February 5, 2009. The Fund will open for ongoing purchases and redemptions from March 2, 2009
“Asset allocation decisions can drive as much as 91.5% of investment returns variability, as studies have shown." Ashu Suyash, Managing Director and Country Head – India, Fidelity International, said, "In the current market conditions of heightened volatility, a fund like the Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund provides investors a convenient route to benefit from disciplined asset allocation. We are in an environment where attractive returns are likely in the bond market and there is potential for bear-market rallies in equities on the back of increasingly attractive valuations.”
Ms. Suyash added, “To encourage investors who have turned risk averse, the Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund is a fund with no entry load. Whether investors invest through their advisers or directly, they will not be charged an entry load. Moreover, the Fund also offers investors free switch-in and switch-out facility between the Plans, if, over time, investors’ outlook for debt and equity changes.”
The Fund will offer Growth and Dividend options. A dividend is proposed to be declared, subject to availability of distributable surplus, on a Quarterly basis under Plan A and Plan B. Under Plan C, the dividend may be declared by the Trustee, at its discretion, from time to time subject to the availability of distributable surplus.
The minimum initial investment is Rs.5000.($100K )Investors can invest in the Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund even through the SIP route with a minimum amount of Rs. 500 per installment with the total of all installments not being less than Rs.5000. In addition, the systematic transfer and systematic withdrawal plans are also available.
FIL Fund Management Private Limited is the Indian arm of Fidelity International, one of the world’s leading global investment management companies with operations in 23 countries and more than $197.9 billion in assets under management.
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Motley Fool – What does the turmoil in the hedge fund world mean to most investors? Losses and more losses. Over the past few weeks, the forced deleveraging of the industry, combined with redemptions by frantic clients, has led to hundreds of billions in stock sales (redemptions in the third quarter amounted to $117.3 billion, according to a new report out by HedgeFund.Net), creating horrific declines in many stocks — but interestingly, not in all stocks.
According to an equity strategist for one of the most successful fund-of-funds outfits in the country, stock holdings among equity hedge fund managers are and have been highly concentrated. Described as "crowded longs," these most-favored stocks tanked in September and October as funds scrambled for cash. Overall, equity long-short funds are down 25% year to date, according to Hedge Fund Research, compared with a near-40% slide in the S&P 500. While hedge funds have outperformed, the showing certainly is disappointing for an industry that is supposedly hedged. The shortfall is because so many managers own the same stocks, and all rushed to sell at the same time. (There were more than 8,000 hedge funds operating at the start of 2008.)
The Associated Press – College endowments and state pension funds plowed billions of dollars into hedge funds and private-equity investments as a way to balance their stock holdings, and for a time they got supercharged returns.
Those days are over. From Harvard University to the state pension fund of California, officials are watching the value of their alternative investments shrink.
So far, the losses are mostly on paper, but analysts say they could eventually lead to reduced payouts to retirees, higher taxes so state governments can fulfill their promises, or less cash available for colleges to give out financial aid.
Denver Post – College endowments and state pension funds that once plowed billions of dollars into hedge funds and private-equity investments as a way to balance their stock holdings officials are watching the value of their alternative investments shrink.
So far, the losses are mostly on paper, but analysts say they could eventually lead to reduced payouts to retirees, higher taxes so state governments can fulfill their promises, or less cash available for colleges to give out as financial aid.
In recent years, endowments and pensions heaped cash into hedge funds — private investment funds that often use unconventional and risky trading strategies. They also bought into private-equity funds, which make direct investments into private companies or buy them out.
Washington Post – Hedge funds cut stock holdings by almost two-thirds from a year ago, signaling that they are less willing to take risks amid tighter credit and almost $1 trillion in write-downs and losses, Goldman Sachs Group said.
Net holdings of equities decreased to 17 percent from 47 percent a year ago, David Kostin, who leads Goldman’s New York-based portfolio strategy team, wrote in a note.
"Hedge funds may have returned closer to their roots as ‘hedged’ investors, less dependent on market direction to produce returns, migrated away from the levered long strategies that many funds pursued during the upward-trending market of 2002 to 2006," Kostin said.
Washington Post – Hedge funds cut stock holdings by almost two-thirds from a year ago, signaling that they are less willing to take risks amid tighter credit and almost $1 trillion in write-downs and losses, Goldman Sachs Group said.
Net holdings of equities decreased to 17 percent from 47 percent a year ago, David Kostin, who leads Goldman’s New York-based portfolio strategy team, wrote in a note.
"Hedge funds may have returned closer to their roots as ‘hedged’ investors, less dependent on market direction to produce returns, migrated away from the levered long strategies that many funds pursued during the upward-trending market of 2002 to 2006," Kostin said.
