02/02/2012

HFMWeek Daily Snapshot - 2 February

NEWSPAPERS AND WIRES
A Goldman Sachs Group unit will take a stake in Lee Robinson’s Altana Wealth after holding an earlier investment in his previous hedge fund, reports Bloomberg. Goldman’s Petershill fund has exercised its right to invest in Monaco-based Altana, which Robinson started last year after leaving Trafalgar Asset Managers, Altana said today in a statement. Petershill was given the right to invest in any new venture set up by Robinson, 42, when it bought a 20% stake in Trafalgar in 2008.

Shrinking bonus pools in London's City financial district will reduce bankers' clout in the British capital's buoyant prime housing market this year, with hedge fund managers set to outspend them for the first time, data from Savills showed, writes Reuters. The property consultancy said on Wednesday that while banker bonuses were a key factor behind rocketing London house prices in 2006-7, their importance has been overtaken by overseas investors and buyers from the hedge fund and private office-populated West End district.

LAUNCHES AND CLOSURES
Strategic Value Partners (SVP), an investment firm with a focus on distressed, event driven and turnaround strategies, is closing the Strategic Value Special Situations Fund II (SVSS II) at $918m. SVSS II, which originally had a target of $600m, aims to generate returns over a two to three year period and will invest in distressed and deep value corporate opportunities in the middle market, with particular focus on Europe. 

PEOPLE MOVES
Stenham Asset Management, the $2.7bn fund of hedge funds (FoHF) manager, has hired a new head of risk management and quantitative research. Pablo Balan, who joined the company in the last quarter of 2011, is a member of its investment advisory committee and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of risk across Stenham’s portfolios. Balan spent eight years at Coutts & Co, where he had responsibility for more than £20bn ($32bn) as global head of portfolio risk and quantitative analysis.