01/02/2012 Author: Kirstie Brewer

HFMWeek Daily Snapshot - 1 February

NEWSPAPERS AND WIRES

GlobeOp Financial Services, one of the top ten global hedge fund administrators, has agreed the terms of a cash offer by Geo3, a newly-established partnership indirectly owned by private investment firm TPG Partners, to acquire its entire share capital in a deal that values the company at £508m ($800.5m), the company announced Wednesday. Under the terms of the offer, GlobeOp will be entitled to receive 435 pence (635 US cents) in cash for each ordinary share held, with the offer price representing a premium of approximately 48.5% to the closing price of GlobalOp’s ordinary shares on 5 January 2012 – the last business day prior to its announcement that it was in discussions with TPG.

The group supporting Mitt Romney, who swept Florida’s primary on Tuesday, identified bankers, investors and prominent businessmen who together contributed more than $30m last year. The group’s three most generous donors gave $1m each, or 400 times the amount they could legally give directly to Romney. All were hedge fund managers, writes the Washington Post. Robert Mercer, co-executive of Renaissance Technologies, Julian H. Robertson Jr, formerly of Tiger Management Corp and Paul Singer, head of Elliot Management Corp, made the top $1m contributions.

The commodities hedge fund industry has suffered its worst year in more than a decade as the sector’s top managers recorded heavy losses amid volatile markets, writes the FT. The average commodity hedge fund fell 1.7% in 2011, according to an index compiled by Newedge, the first loss since the index was created in 2000 and down from a rise of 10.7% in 2010. Last year’s casualties included Blenheim, Clive Capital, BlueGold and Merchant, who all posted double-digit losses.