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.
Explore the most informative hedge fund articles and take the news with you, using HedgeCo RSS.
Still want more? Browse the hedge fund blogs, authored by hedge fund industry experts.
Reuters - British hedge fund manager Man Group Plc said on Tuesday banks were more highly geared than hedge funds and bank deleveraging had been the main driver of asset-price declines.
"Hedge fund deleveraging has put pressure on asset prices as clients have redeemed. But the main point is banks are deleveraging and they are many times more leveraged than hedge funds," said Man Group Chief Executive Peter Clarke.
Speaking at the Hedge Funds World conference in Zurich, Clarke also said leverage across the hedge fund industry is now at around a third of leverage levels in 2007.
Reuters - Man Group plans to be a consolidator in the hedge fund industry in the long-term, said Chief Executive Peter Clarke, who thinks the industry could see redemptions of between a third and a quarter at the year-end. "Consolidation is undoubtedly going to happen … Longer-term we’d expect to be a consolidator in these markets," he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
However, he said the firm was "doing nothing in these markets, there’s too much uncertainty."
Clarke also said redemptions in the $1.7 trillion hedge fund industry of between a quarter and a third at the end of the year would be "the right sort of figure."
"The year-end is seeing significant levels of redemptions," he said.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - The CEO of Man Group, Peter Clarke, announced the appointment of the new CEO of the Middle East arm as Patrick Merville, to take effect from 1 October, following the retirement of Antoine Massad.
Man, a global leader in alternative investments, was the first hedge fund provider to open a local office in the Middle East 22 years ago. Under the leadership of Massad, Man has broken new ground and today enjoys clear leadership in the region.
Merville joined Man three years ago as deputy regional CEO and head of institutional business. He succeeds Antoine Massad who has decided to retire after nearly 20 years’ service with Man to pursue private interests.
Mr Clarke said the appointment was testament to Man’s ability to attract the best talent in the industry.
"Patrick takes the reins of the leading alternative investment firm in the Middle East at a time when sophisticated private and institutional investors are, increasingly, seeking an alternative to the traditional investment classes," he said.
"For Patrick, this is as a step up in his long career in alternatives. Patrick’s continuing goal will drive the business to new levels of success in the region on the back of Man’s range of innovative products and the region’s growing role in the global economy."
Before joining Man, Mr Merville was a director at Merrill Lynch in London, where he spent six years, first as an institutional salesperson in emerging market equities and then in the hedge fund prime brokerage sales group. An experienced banker with exposure to hedge funds and alternative investments throughout his career he has also held roles at HSBC in New York as vice-president in institutional sales, emerging market equities, and at Credit Agricole where he was an associate in the private equity business.
Merville holds a BA in Economics from the American University of Beirut and an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School.
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!
Financial Times - Man Group has teamed up with an Abu Dhabi-owned investment company to make electricity from the gas produced as a byproduct of oil drilling, which is currently wasted in the form of flaring.
Abu Dhabi will inject the first $300m (£151m) into a new fund, which aims to raise $1.5bn, and will receive a small equity holding in the management company.
The launch of the MENA Associated Gas and Global Environment fund is the latest attempt by Europe’s biggest hedge fund manager to cash in on the boom in environmental investing.
Through MTM, a London subsidiary, it already runs a $600m fund capturing methane emissions from Chinese coal mines, and it is considering launching a Brazilian biofuel fund.
Peter Clarke, Man chief executive, said talks were already under way with countries in the Middle East, north Africa and Asia about working with their national oil companies. He said it already had many expressions of interest from sovereign wealth funds keen to put money in and had the potential to double its size to $3bn if it attracted enough money.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net)- Man Group has agreed to pay $50 million for a 25% stake in Nephila Capital, an alternative investment manager specializing in insurance-based instruments such as insurance linked securities, catastrophe bonds, insurance swaps and weather derivatives.
The CEO of Man Group plc, Peter Clarke, said, "This transaction further develops Man’s strategy to expand the range of opportunities for our investors. The natural catastrophe and weather derivative markets offer significant opportunities for uncorrelated alternative investment returns. We are excited at the prospects of this strategic partnership and what it means for our and Nephila’s investors."
The investment, which follows Man’s purchase of 50% of credit specialist Ore Hill in March, comes as the increasingly competitive hedge fund industry hunts for sources of extra return not correlated with traditional markets.
Bermuda-based Nephila, which manages around $2.4 billion in assets and employs 25 staff, specialises in insurance-based instruments such as insurance-linked securities, catastrophe bonds, insurance swaps and weather derivatives, Man said in a statement on Friday.
Man is a world-leading alternative investment management business. With a broad range of funds for institutional and private investors globally, it is known for its performance, innovative product design and investor service. Man manages over $78 billion and employs 1,600 people in 13 countries worldwide.
Reuters- Man Group, the world’s biggest listed hedge fund company, posted a 60 percent rise in annual profit on Thursday, riding turbulent financial markets to show strong growth in funds under management which fuelled record management fees.
Chief Executive Peter Clarke told Reuters a key part of the firm’s strong results was the performance of its AHL futures business, which, with no exposure to equities, proved particularly successful during the intense volatility in stock markets over the past nine months.
"Diversification and low correlation is a key to surviving these markets," Clarke said.