MSN MoneyCentral (AP)- Market Wizards Fund Ltd., a hedge fund investment company that had planned to debut on the London Stock Exchange postponed its initial public offering because it wouldn’t havemet a target of 200 million pounds ($397.3 million), highlighting the mixed reception investors have given to these kinds of companies.
Simon Hopkins, chief executive at Fortune Asset Management Ltd., which manages the Market Wizards investment platform, said tax issues had prevented some of the fund’s cornerstone investors from participating and that the company didn’t want to bring an issue that would be too small to provide sufficient liquidity to shareholders.
The IPO was slated to debut on Tuesday, but Hopkins said an open-ended version of Market Wizards that has been placed with investors privately raised $68 million. Fortune intends to revive the IPO plan in the fall, he added.
Market Wizards is similar to a fund of hedge funds but invests only in so-called managed accounts that are run by hedge fund managers in parallel to their existing funds. The assets are held by an external custodian, reducing the risks of fraud or operational issues that could affect returns.
