NEWSPAPERS & WIRES

Butterfield Fulcrum, the alternative fund administration firm, today announced the launch of Altinus, an independent managed accounts platform that provides segregated and comingled managed accounts. The platform, the details of which were first revealed by HFMWeek, is the first administrator-sponsored managed accounts offering. “It is designed to eliminate service and fee duplication by allowing allocators to determine investment allocation,” said Akshaya Bhargava, Butterfield Fulcrum's CEO.
 
Man Group share gains slowed, but were still Wednesday's top FTSE 100 riser after a source close to BlackRock said the US fund firm had no interest in buying the hedge fund firm, says Reuters. Shares in Man, the world's largest listed hedge fund firm, which has been the subject of several unsubstantiated bid rumours in recent years, closed 5.2% up at 239.1 pence, having earlier risen as high as 245.7 pence. A person close to BlackRock said on Wednesday the firm had no interest in acquiring Man.
 
Some hedge funds have started to adjust their investment strategies as European officials voice harsher criticism of investors who have used exotic investments to bet against the debt of countries like Greece, traders said. Elected leaders in France and Germany have highlighted what they view as a potentially destabilising but largely hidden influence of banks, hedge funds and other investors in the markets for Greek sovereign bonds, reports the WSJ. The officials have taken the strongest aim at the use of credit-default swaps.
 
John Paulson, the New York hedge fund manager, is now betting big on Atlanta-based SunTrust, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. According to a company filing this week, Paulson’s hedge fund increased its stake in SunTrust to 30.4 million shares as of 31 December of last year, up from 1.5 million on 30 September. Paulson & Co is SunTrust’s largest investor, controlling more than 6% of the company. Jeff Davis, an analyst with FTN Equity Partners, said Paulson is gambling that SunTrust's future will "turn out better than Wall Street currently expects."
 
Institutional investors in the Persian Gulf region are on track to pour billions into hedge funds this year, following similar moves by US investors last year, reports FIN Alternatives. Khalid al-Rumaihi, managing director for placement at Bahraini investment bank Investcorp, told a conference in Dubai to expect investors in the region to follow suit. “You will have more investments from the Gulf this year,” he said. “We would expect a very good year.” Middle Eastern and North African investors currently have some $80bn to $120bn invested in the world’s hedge funds, al-Rumaihi estimated.
 
Australian unlisted property companies, facing a funding gap as banks cut back on loans, may turn to alternative investors such as hedge funds as they seek to repay maturing debt, reports Bloomberg, citing Nomura Holdings. Lenders including Westpac Banking Corp, the nation’s second-biggest, reduced commercial mortgages amid the worst global recession since World War II. Leda Holdings, a privately owned Australian real estate developer, hasn’t been able to obtain loans from banks to repay A$300m ($269m) of commercial mortgage-backed bonds due next week, it said 16 February.
 
The criminal fraud trial of Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam will begin on 25 October, a judge said yesterday after defense lawyers opposed a request by prosecutors to start the case in June or July, reports Bloomberg. Prosecutors requested a New York district judge to schedule the criminal trial before a related civil lawsuit, brought by the SEC, begins Aug 2. Lawyers for Rajaratnam and Danielle Chiesi, his co-defendant, said they needed more time to prepare.
 
After graduating from Harvard University in 1993, Julio DePietro got a job with Citadel Investment Group, then a small, obscure financial firm in Chicago. He planned to stay just long enough to pay off his student loans. By the time DePietro left 10 years later, he was a partner at one of the world’s largest hedge funds. “When I started at Citadel, I didn’t know anything about finance,” he said in a Bloomberg interview. Now the New Yorker is making another unlikely transition – to film writing and directing. His first feature, “The Good Guy,” is a romantic comedy with a Wall Street backdrop.
 
PEOPLE MOVES
Securis Investment Partners has announced that Tony Maximchuk has joined as head of distribution and relationship management. Maximchuk’s role will be centered on extending Securis’s relationships with clients, and developing its distribution capabilities. Maximchuk was previously CEO and Head of European Sales at Conning Asset Management in London. He has over 20 years of financial market experience stretching across fixed income, private equity, commodities and infrastructure investments.