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.
Bloomberg – It was a crisp autumn day in November 2005 when hedge fund manager John Ho entered the half- century-old Electric Power Development Co.’s headquarters in Tokyo, betting that Japan’s corporate attitudes were ripe for change.
Ho, then director of Asia-Pacific investments at the Children’s Investment Fund Management UK LLP, also known as TCI, was ushered into a conference room with a worn carpet to meet with Masayoshi Kitamura, then executive vice president of the utility. The visitor, who was offered a bottle of water, told Kitamura he wanted to learn more about the company’s plans for growth.
Insurance Journal – Demand for disaster derivatives is surging as insurers seek alternatives to scarce reinsurance and expensive catastrophe bonds, with the forthcoming North Atlantic hurricane season likely to give a further boost.
Prices are at record levels for Industry Loss Warranties (ILWs) and derivatives such as catastrophe futures, used by insurers to cover their potential losses from natural disasters.
"People are trying to purchase as much cover as they can, be they insurance companies in Florida or reinsurers in Bermuda, and obviously pricing has been driven up considerably," said Stephen Breen, Executive Vice President at Tradition Re, which brokers traditional reinsurance and catastrophe derivatives.
Reuters – What is it about siblings and the White House? Jimmy Carter had Billy, Hillary Clinton had Hugh Rodham, and George W. had Neil Bush. If Abel got elected president, it’s a near-certainty that Cain would have skipped the fratricide and instead built a nice little business trading off his brother’s name.
The family saga that’s gotten the blogosphere riled up in recent days doesn’t have to do with the president. It’s the vice president’s brother—Jim Biden—and his son, R. Hunter Biden, who’ve been drawing attention, thanks to a midsized, New York-based money-management firm they bought control of in 2006 called Paradigm Global Advisers.
In the News – A fund of hedge funds run by two members of US vice president Joe Biden’s family was marketed by firms connected to Sir Allen Stanford, it has been claimed.
The Texan billionaire is facing charges over a $9 billion fraud involving certificates of deposit with unrealistically high interest rates from his Stanford International Bank in Antigua.
The claims have rocked the worlds of investment and sport, with Sir Allen heavily involved with English cricket.
Reuters – Officials from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank on Sunday vowed to fight the damaging effects of deflation as the global economy suffers a deep and lengthy recession.
In just a few months, central bankers’ concerns have flipped from fighting inflation to staving off possible deflation — a condition in which falling prices cause consumers and businesses to delay purchases, resulting in an even steeper economic downturn.
Both Janet Yellen, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, and Lucas Papademos, vice president of the ECB, highlighted the risks of deflation at the annual meeting of the American Economics Association.
