MarketWatch – French regulators are investigating trades in a portfolio managed by a founding partner at hedge-fund company GLG Partners LP, according to a media report Tuesday.
The investigation is as part of a broader probe into whether several large London hedge funds breached insider-trading rules, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. See Wall Street Journal story (subscription required).
The company also is under investigation in Britain, The Journal reported, where regulators are expected this week to report on their investigation into trading activity in funds managed by two of three top executives at GLG.
France’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers is investigating whether two GLG funds, one of which is managed by GLG co-founder Pierre Lagrange, profited from nonpublic information about a 2002 convertible-bond deal from French entertainment company Vivendi Universal SA (V :V30.08, +0.20, +0.7% ) , The Journal reported. The investigation focuses on fund groups and not individual traders such as Lagrange, The Journal said.
Lagrange, one of the founders of GLG in 1995, referred calls to GLG’s press office, the Journal said.
GLG is one of the world’s largest hedge-fund companies in the world. With $11.5 billion under management, it is a big player in European stock and bond markets, enjoying significant market clout because of its size and the huge trading commissions it pays brokerage firms.