Reuters UK - Fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management is eyeing opportunities to snap up funds of hedge funds and funds of private equity funds at bargain-basement prices, its chief executive said on Thursday.
Martin Gilbert said that with opportunities in these areas "now pretty strong" as the global financial crisis causes upheaval in the industry, the […]

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - Preparations are underway for the creation of a new European hedge fund association, hedgemeetings.com, which has the objective to communicate the public utility of this industry for wealth creation and risk management. A first meeting for founding participants will take place this Friday, November 14, in Paris.
Rene Friedrich, 45, who […]

Bloomberg - Van Biema Value Partners LLC, led by a former Columbia Business School professor, started a new fund to invest in Asian hedge funds while plunging markets and client withdrawals force rivals to scale back investments.
The Cayman Islands-domiciled van Biema Asia Value Fund Ltd. started on Aug. 1 with about $215 million from one […]

Seeking Alpha - As the Wall Street Journal pointed out earlier this week, “It may be premature to write the epitaph for funds of hedge funds”.
Maybe so, but with predictions for redemptions running in the high teens for this fall, one would be excused for believing the hedge fund “bubble” has burst along with the […]

HedgeCo.net - HedgeCo Networks LLC today announced the launch of the next generation online analytical and reporting tool, the Hedge Fund Calculator.
Designed for hedge funds and funds of hedge funds, the calculator is available for a monthly or annual subscription service. HedgeCo says, "(the calculator) facilitates the rapid computation of quantitative statistics, net performance […]

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - State-owned company China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) and hedge fund manager the Blackstone Group announced the closing of Blackstone’s investment in ChemChina subsidiary, China National Bluestar Corporation.
Bluestar has also completed its group restructuring and has registered as a Sino-foreign joint stock limited company. Blackstone will invest up to $600 million […]

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - MSCI Barra and Morningstar have entered into an arrangement to calculate and distribute hedge fund indices jointly.
“We are delighted to be working with Morningstar, and believe that this exciting development will greatly benefit all users of our hedge fund indices. Going forward they will have access to enhanced hedge fund […]

Wealth Bulletin - Geneva-based Union Bancaire Privée emerged as the largest fund of hedge funds provider, replacing UBS Global Asset Management at the top, with $56.8bn, according to the InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club. 
Funds of hedge funds showed the first signs of an asset slowdown in the first half of this year, but still managed […]

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - Funds of listed hedge funds are no longer providing reliable rates of return as the credit crunch continues - despite having been marketed as risk-free investments.
Analysis from Citywire shows that the sector has declined by 1.8% in net asset values (NAVs) so far in 2008, with funds losing much of […]

Zawya - Lionhart (Middle East) Limited, part of the Lionhart group of companies, a firm specializing in global multi-strategy arbitrage, today announced that it has gained regulatory approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) to open an office in the Dubai International finance Center (DIFC).

The Dubai office will be headed by Jim Quinn […]

Bloomberg - Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co., with more than 30 trillion yen ($274 billion) in assets, will invest more money with hedge funds to safeguard returns as financial markets falter.
Tokyo-based Dai-ichi Mutual, Japan’s second-largest life insurer, currently invests in more than 100 hedge funds as well as funds of hedge funds, Yuji Hirai, manager […]

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net) - Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank AG has been granted membership to the Compensation Fund of German Banks (EdB) by the German Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
Once the entry into the commercial register has been completed, the institution will be known under its corporate name, Baader Bank AG.
"Receiving the full banking licence is […]