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.
West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Brotman Capital Management has chosen this, the worst year for hedge funds in over a decade, to launch its flagship Market Timing Fund.
Since inception through August 2008 the fund is up 14% net of fees. The fund has a $100,000 minimum investment, 2% Management fee and a 20% Incentive allocation.
Domiciled in Boca Raton, Florida, Brotman Capital Partners began trading in January 2008. The proprietary Trend Timing Model that the hedge fund employs dictates when the partnership should be long, short, or retained in cash.
Although trend timing is certainly not a mainstream Wall Street philosophy, the General Partner believes that the Trend Timing Model is valid and will deliver superior returns in the long run when compared to a “just buy and hold the S&P 500” philosophy.
"Even though most market gurus believe nobody can “Time the Market” correctly and consistently," Dr. Randy Brotman, Chairman and CEO, stated, "We are very pleased with our performance and we never use margin to enhance our results."
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Financial Times – RAB Capital is planning to restructure its flagship hedge fund, which plunged more than a third this year, and offering investors lower fees in return for agreeing not to withdraw their money for three years.
It is unclear how much of the $1.4bn that RAB Special Situations had at the end of June will be locked up for three years.
But any agreement to limit withdrawals could be good for the London-based fund, much of which is invested in hard-to-sell Aim-listed shares and private equity.
RAB is the latest in a series of hedge funds to offer discounts to investors who agree to stick with a poorly performing manager. Others include Ore Hill, the New York credit fund half-owned by London’s Man Group.
According to people familiar with the requests, RAB could announce the restructuring within a few days.
Bloomberg – RAB Capital Plc is trying to freeze client redemptions for three years to avoid liquidation of its flagship hedge fund, which lost almost half its value this year.
RAB fell as much as 14 percent in London trading after it said investors have until Sept. 29 to vote on the plan, which would cut fees and postpone redemptions until Oct. 3, 2011.
Special Situations, RAB’s largest fund, has lost more than $1 billion this year from investments in Northern Rock Plc, a mortgage lender nationalized by the U.K. government, and small natural-resources companies such as Oxus Gold Plc, a miner down 68 percent this year. RAB Chief Executive Officer Philip Richards stepped down this month to focus on the fund, once one of London’s best performers, returning 1,475 percent in 2003.
“If the investors reject the proposal, the group would then have to liquidate the portfolio,” said Irfan Younus, an analyst at NCB Stockbrokers in London who has a “reduce” rating on the stock. “In a worst-case scenario, unwinding of this could pose a significant threat to the franchise.”
RAB plans to liquidate the investments if it’s unable to get investor support for the new structure, the company said. It didn’t disclose how many investors had to approve the changes.
We “regret the impact that the performance will have on investors,” Richards said in a statement. “We believe that the underlying thesis of investment in early-stage natural resources is one that will repay patient investors over time.”
Daily Telegraph – Ruth Keattch, the star fund manager nicknamed "Rock Hard Ruth", is to make a come-back with a move to Artemis, the activist fund manager with £14bn under management.
Mrs Keattch, who earned a fearsome reputation at Deutsche Asset Management, where she fought against private equity firms trying to snap up publicly listed companies on the cheap, has been hired by Artemis to again spot the value in companies that have been hit hard by the credit crunch.
She has been appointed to co-manage Artemis’s flagship fund, the £800m Special Situations fund with Derek Stuart.
Mr Stuart, a founder member of Artemis, said: "We want to focus on the stocks that have been hardest hit in the recent sell-off. Ruth has a formidable reputation in the area and we’re very excited that she’s joining."
Zawya – The Lionhart Group, an alternative investment management group that specialises in global multistrategy arbitrage, aims to attract $2 billion (Dh7.4bn) of investment from the Gulf in the next few years through its new branch at the Dubai International Financial Centre.
The regional office has two main roles. The first is to pull in cash from the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) for its investment and hedge funds, and the second is to expand the group’s investments in regional markets.
"We have had relations with GCC investors for a long time," Jim Quinn, Chief Operating Officer of Lionhart Middle East, told Emirates Business. "Around 10 per cent of our assets under management are from the region and these relations started 10 years ago.
"We are planning to build on these relations to attract around $2bn of GCC investments into our funds during the next two to three years. "We are opportunistic and the Mena region is witnessing major economic developments. We have two flagship investment funds with total assets under management of $500m.
Irish Independant – The fund manager who predicted that the credit crunch would rip a hole through the banking sector has been rewarded with £28m (€35m) in pay and bonuses.
Crispin Odey trousered the bulk of the profits made by his Odey Asset Management Group after a hugely successful year with profits soaring from £16m to £55m. Mr Odey, 49, the founder, paid himself £28m. His 11 partners shared the other £27m.
The performance was driven by the flagship hedge fund Odey European Inc, which generated returns of 55 per cent, and is up 15 per cent in the first half of 2008. Launched in 1992, it is one of the longest established hedge funds in Europe, delivering an annual average return of 14.2 per cent.
The fund made millions from the risky practice of going short on bank stocks – selling shares not already owned in the hope they can be bought back at a lower price later. David Stewart, chief executive officer for Odey Asset Management, said: "We went short of banks and financials because we expected them to have a difficult time. We were long of agricultural and other commodity companies which did well and helped to boost overall performance."
