30/01/2012

HFMWeek Daily Snapshot - 30 January

NEWSPAPERS AND WIRES
Swiss fund of hedge funds manager Gottex said it would slash running costs by 15% in 2012 after assets fell by some $1bn from a year earlier as some large clients pulled money in order to invest directly in hedge funds, writes Reuters. The fund's assets under management have fallen to $7.34bn, less than half the $15.6bn the company had in June 2008 before the worst effects of the financial crisis hit.

Hedge funds increased wagers on rising commodity prices to the most in two months and the rally in raw materials accelerated as the Federal Reserve pledged to keep borrowing costs low for three more years, says Bloomberg. Money managers raised combined bullish positions across 18 US futures and options by 13% to 742,902 contracts in the week ended 24 January, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. The so-called net-long position in copper jumped 53% to the highest since August and in silver by 22% to the most since September.

New York-based hedge fund Elliott Management Corp has picked up a 9.4% stake in Patni Computer Systems, possibly scuppering iGate Corporation's efforts to delist the Indian IT firm, according to the Economic Times. Elliott has been buying small chunks of Indian technology outsourcer Patni Computer Systems since October. It is, however, not clear why a company headed for de-listing is attractive for Elliot Management, a hedge fund known in the Wall Street for its tenacity and gall to take on deep-rooted management head-on and win despite holding minority stakes.

GlobeOp Financial Services has added a fourth office to its Mumbai network, increasing capacity to meet growing client service demand and to enhance business continuity planning. A new 46,700 square foot (4,339 square metre) hedge fund administration and data centre facility is now operational in Airoli, part of Navi Mumbai on the eastern side of the city. It is located in the same Airoli business complex as GlobeOp’s third Mumbai office, opened in 2009.

LAUNCHES
BlueCrest Capital Management, one of Europe's biggest hedge fund firms, is looking to raise more than £150m for a new listed feeder fund into its computer-driven BlueTrend fund, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The closed-end fund, BlueCrest BlueTrend, will feed into the firm's main BlueTrend fund, the company said in a statement. BlueTrend manages $13.6bn (£8.7bn) in assets and was one of the hedge fund industry's top performers during the financial crisis in 2008.