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.
Norristown Times Herald – The Treasury Department is making it easier for hedge funds and other private investors to participate in its plan for buying up banks’ bad assets, an acknowledgment that the interest level so far has been lackluster.
Analysts said the move shows the program hasn’t yet attracted enough large fund managers who may be wary of ending up on the wrong side of a congressional probe or public backlash. The program’s requirements also excluded too many smaller managers, they said.
Evening Standard – Krom River, which has £453 million in assets, said it was moving to Switzerland, known for its low tax regime.
The fund is one of the few to perform well in the credit crunch and would see its partners’ income tax rate fall from 40 per cent to 10 per cent with the switch to the small town of Zug, south of Zurich.
The move makes the firm the latest to quit London for lower tax regimes. It came as HSBC fuelled fears of an exodus of leading companies. Three FTSE250 firms disclosed last month that they were leaving London.
The disclosure by Britain’s biggest bank that it was reviewing having its headquarters in London will heap more pressure on the Government to end uncertainty over its tax policies. Key tax concerns include government proposals to begin taxing "non-domiciled" foreign staff.
FT Alphaville- New figures from Singapore’s central bank bear out the (abundant) anecdotal evidence of the quickening exodus of Asia-focused hedge funds out of Japan and elsewhere and into Singapore.
Reuters reports that assets managed by fund managers in Singapore grew 32 per cent to S$1,173bn ($862bn) last year, driven by a doubling in assets held by hedge funds.
Assets managed by hedge fund managers in Singapore doubled to close to S$80bn in the year, while the number of hedge fund firms in Singapore increased by more than 50 per cent to almost 300, according to the island state’s Monetary Authority. Meanwhile institutional investors such as pension funds, endowments, foundations, companies and financial institutions accounted for 43 per cent of the funds.
Reuters- The hedge fund industry is set to attract bankers and traders from an exodus of high-flyers leaving troubled investment banks in search of bigger bonuses and better job security.
Bankers joining hedge funds is not a new phenomenon, but the trend has usually been for one or two people to leave the relative comfort of an investment bank for the risky but potentially much more rewarding option of a new hedge fund.
As investment banks, hit by huge subprime-related writedowns and a tough business environment, cut back staff and slash bonuses, however, the $2.6 trillion hedge fund industry has begun to look far more appealing — even to very senior bankers.
