27/01/2012

HFMWeek Daily Snapshot - 27 January

NEWSPAPERS AND WIRES
The world’s biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, is also one of the best performers, writes the New York Times’ Dealbook blog. The $120bn fund posted returns of 23% in 2011 – a year when the average hedge fund portfolio lost 5%. Against the backdrop of fear over European debt and stagnant global growth, the hedge fund, led by one of Wall Street’s more enigmatic titans, Ray Dalio, sidestepped the mess.

The Financial Services Authority is preparing to fine a second financier connected to the Greenlight Capital insider-dealing case, writes the Telegraph. The City regulator is understood to be seeking to impose a penalty of £350,000 on former Bank of America Merrill Lynch broker Andrew Osborne for his part in the deal that led to Greenlight Capital and its founder David Einhorn being fined £7.2m. The regulator announced the fine against Einhorn on Wednesday, one of the largest ever handed out to an individual, for trading in Punch Tavern shares prior to a refinancing in 2009.

Hedge fund manager William Ackman donated $25m to New York’s non-profit Signature Theatre, which said it will rename its new, Frank Gehry-designed off- Broadway complex after his foundation, according to Bloomberg. The “Pershing Square Signature Center” is scheduled to open on Tuesday with three theaters, two rehearsal studios and public space on W. 42nd Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. Ackman, 45, is chief executive and founder of Pershing Square Capital Management.

Jyske Bank, Denmark's second-biggest bank, posted a fall in profit after making a $40m provision against lawsuits brought by investors who had lost money in one of its hedge funds during the nadir of the credit crisis, writes Reuters. Jyske said on Thursday it had made a provision of 229m Danish crowns ($40m) against its potential liability after the Danish High Court allowed investors in the bank's Jyske Invest Hedge Markedsneutral fund to bring a class-action lawsuit.

The State of Texas’ Permanent School Fund may hire in-house money managers to oversee its $25bn in assets because returns are being “eaten alive” by hedge-fund fees, according to CIO Holland Timmins, reports Bloomberg. Returns were less than 1% for the 44 months through November on assets managed by the five companies that bundle multiple hedge funds into single investment vehicles, Timmins said on 25 January at a State Education Board meeting.

The collapse of two US equity trading firms this month suggests difficult market conditions are likely to keep claiming small shops, jeopardizing the jobs of scores of stock analysts, traders and the salespeople who hawk stock research, writes Reuters. Ticonderoga Securities, which last year purchased stock research firm Soleil Securities Corp, is closing its doors on Friday, confirmed Richard Sgueglia, head of global equity sales and trading at Ticonderoga.