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.
Washington Post – Seven years ago the Patriot Act required every financial institution to establish a program to combat money-laundering.
But the roughly $2 trillion hedge-fund industry today remains free of any such government restrictions, and this week the Treasury Department formally withdrew its once proposed rules.
"Hedge funds do represent some risk because their operations and the identity of investors are generally not very transparent," said Steve Hudak, a spokesman for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Treasury Department. But "that risk needs to be studied and carefully assessed prior to implementing any anti-money-laundering regulations."
Hedge funds, which are largely unregulated investment pools whose investors are often wealthy individuals or sophisticated financial firms, have drawn increased scrutiny during the financial crisis.
Reuters – American International Group Inc’s asset management division has reached a joint venture agreement with Larch Lane to make seed funding investments in hedge funds.
The AIG Investments and Larch Lane venture expects to invest between $50 million and $200 million in each deal, according to a joint statement on Wednesday.
Larch Lane is an affiliate of Old Mutual Asset Management, the U.S. asset management group of Old Mutual Plc.
AIG Investments currently manages about $10 billion in hedge fund assets, spread among 130 hedge funds. Larch Lane has invested in 22 hedge fund start-ups over the last seven years, according to the statement.
"This venture gives us the opportunity to not only invest with up-and-coming managers, but to also participate more directly in the profit growth of a rapidly growing industry," said Robert Discolo, AIG Investments’ head of hedge fund strategies.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net)- Man Group announced the retirement of hedge fund magnate Stanley Fink, who will not be seeking re-election as Chairman. He stepped down from Chief Executive in April of last year to become Deputy Chairman.
Fink joined Man in 1987 and was Chief Executive for seven years till 2000, prior to which he ran the investment management business.
"I have spent more than 21 years at Man Group, and have been on the Board for all but the first six months of that time," Stanley Fink said regarding his time with Man Group, "during which the company has undergone immense change which has seen it emerge as a leading player in the alternative asset management industry."
Fink also said, "I have many commercial and philanthropic interests outside Man Group to which I am increasingly committed and I am eager to pursue these, and other new opportunities, more fully."
Man is the leading global alternative investment management business, the original business being founded in 1783. It is ranked in the top 40 companies of the FTSE 100 Index with a market capitalisation of about $20 billion.
Reuters – Boutique alternative fund firm Triple A Partners said on Friday it was backing a new South Korea-focused hedge fund which it expects to launch on Sept. 1 with around $40 million in assets.
Triple A, also known as Asia Alternative Asset Partners, said it would seed KS Asset Management, which will launch the KS Asia Long/Short Fund. The new hedge fund will be a Korean-focused vehicle with the ability to trade across Asia.
The new fund will be managed by Kyle Shin, formerly the head of Kingdon Capital Korea. Triple A said Shin will establish the new business in Hong Kong, from where he will build out his team.
It said he would be joined by an analyst with more than seven years experience in managing Korean portfolios, and an external investment consultant.
Shin has "an outstanding record in Asian stock picking and has an extensive local network with access to company executives … his proprietary research on the technology sector will also be of substantial benefit," Triple A Chairman Hans Tiedemann said in a statement.
