09/01/2012 Author: Will Wainewright

HFMWeek Daily Snapshot - 9 January

NEWSPAPERS AND WIRES
Former Soros Fund Management trader John Zwaanstra plans to return outside capital in Penta Investment Advisers, the Asia-focused hedge fund he set up in 1998, said two people with knowledge of the matter, writes Bloomberg. The company plans to give investors more details this week, said the people, who asked not to be identified. Penta managed as much as $2.9bn in mid-2011, about 40% of which came from Penta principals, said another person.

Hedge funds have endured a torrid year, according to the latest edition of HSBC’s ranking of hedge funds by their returns, according to Investment Europe. Big names featuring in the bottom 20 of the HSBC Hedge Fund Performance Report include Odey European (-22.7%, equity diversified fund), RAB Global Mining & Resources Fund (-26.35%, an equity diversified/global) and three of John Paulson’s six funds (Advantage and Advantage Plus and Recovery, all multi-strategy/global funds). Paulson was forced to apologise to his investors in November for his worst performance in 17 years.

IMQubator, backed by APG, asset manager for the biggest Dutch pension fund, has teamed up with Hong Kong-based Synergy Fund Management to provide capital to hedge funds in Asia to start up or accelerate fundraising, reports Bloomberg. Synergy, led by Eliza Lau, a former chief executive officer and chief investment officer of Sail Advisors, will help IMQubator find Asian managers, the Hong Kong firm said in an e-mailed statement today.

John Paulson, the billionaire money manager mired in the worst slump of his career, lost 51% in one of his largest funds last year amid a failed bet on an economic rebound, writes Bloomberg. Paulson’s Advantage Plus Fund, which seeks to profit from corporate events such as takeovers and bankruptcies and uses leverage to amplify returns, declined 8.6% last month, according to an investor update, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. The fund’s gold share class dropped 10% in December and 36% last year.

It may go down as the second-worst year in hedge fund industry history, but 2011, like all other years, produced a mixed-bag of hedge fund returns for the biggest names in the business, reports Finalternatives. None did better than Renaissance Technologies, according to HSBC's final Hedge Weekly report for the year. The firm's best fund returned 34.66% on the year, topping a list that included funds managed by BlackRock, Brevan Howard and JPMorgan Chase. The worst performers were headlined by a firm used to being on HSBC's other list: Paulson & Co., whose biggest fund fell 47.77% on the year.