03/01/2012 Author: Will Wainewright

HFMWeek Daily Snapshot - 3 January

NEWSPAPERS AND WIRES
Bridgewater Associates has made big money for investors in recent years by staying bearish on much of the global economy and the hedge fund firm has no plans to change that gloomy view as the new year rings in, writes the Wall Street Journal. Robert Prince, co-chief investment officer at Bridgewater, and his managers at the world's biggest hedge fund firm are preparing for at least a decade of slow growth and high unemployment for the big developed economies. Prince describes those economies, the US and Europe in particular, as "zombies".

Scott Rothstein, the Florida lawyer sentenced to 50 years in prison for running a $1.2bn Ponzi scheme, said officials at three Manhattan hedge funds helped him prop up the fraud in its final months, according to transcripts of a court deposition, says Bloomberg. Rothstein said his scheme began to collapse early in 2009, when he could no longer pay customers. Officials at Platinum Partners Value Arbitrage, Centurion Structured Growth, and Level 3 Capital Fund agreed not to tell potential new investors he failed to make payments to them, he testified.

Directors of Canadian Pacific Railway are under growing pressure from Pershing Square Capital Management, the activist hedge fund run by William Ackman, to shake up the management of the underperforming Calgary-based rail operator, writes the FT. Pershing intends to try and oust most of the current board unless it agrees soon to install Hunter Harrison, a former chief executive of Montreal-based Canadian National Railway, as CP Rail’s CEO, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Many of the hedge fund managers who came into 2011 riding a wave of momentum ended the year scratching their heads and nursing losses, whipsawed by markets that seemed to punish them month after month, reports the Wall Street Journal. Take billionaire hedge-fund titan John Paulson, arguably the industry's biggest star and one of the wealthiest people in the world after making billions of dollars in 2007 with bearish bets on subprime mortgages.

Tankers hauling liquefied natural gas at sea will earn record rates in 2012 as demand reaches an all-time high, beating returns from vessels carrying oil and coal, according to the world’s biggest shipping hedge fund, writes Bloomberg. The tankers, each holding enough gas to meet about 25% of peak daily winter demand in the UK, will earn as much as $200,000 a day this year, from $140,000 at the end of 2011, said Andreas Vergottis, the Hong Kong-based research director at Tufton Oceanic.

LAUNCHES
Temasek Holdings has set up an investment vehicle to expand its coverage in North Asia, especially China, as part of the Singapore state investment company's efforts to shore up its presence in one of the world's fastest growing economies, reports the Wall Street Journal. The new investment company – Pavilion Capital – will focus on investment opportunities at privately owned enterprises and small and medium enterprises in China, a Temasek spokeswoman said on Tuesday.