09/03/2010 Author: Tony Griffiths

HFMWeek Daily Snapshot - 9 March

NEWSPAPERS & WIRES
UK fund firm Gartmore, which made its market debut in December, swung to a 2009-pretax profit of £47.6m ($71.34m) and said it saw strong net inflows in early 2010 into its hedge fund products, reports Reuters. Chief Executive Jeffrey Meyer told reporters net inflows in the first two months of the year were £273m, of which £210m were in its hedge funds.

Goldman Sachs Group was sued on Monday by a large union pension fund that accused the Wall Street investment bank of overpaying its executives, reports Reuters. The International Brotherhood of Electric Workers fund filed the lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court, seeking to recover money for the company on behalf of other shareholders. It seeks to stop Goldman from allocating roughly 47% of 2009 net revenue as compensation.

Two major investors in General Growth Properties are joining Brookfield Asset Management in offering to inject a combined $6.5bn in fresh funds into the shopping mall operator to help it emerge from bankruptcy protection, reports The Associated Press. General Growth said in a statement late Monday that its board is weighing an offer from Fairholme Capital Management, one of its largest unsecured creditors, and Pershing Square Capital Management, one of its largest shareholders, to invest $3.93bn.

Emii.com reports that AlphaOne Capital Partners has outsourced its operations to SEI, for its portfolio of investment products, according to PR Newswire. SEI will provide the equity money manager with institutional and hedge fund accounts services, which include trade processing, investment accounting, daily cash and position reconciliations, daily and month-end performance measurement and end-client reporting and billing.

The majority of investors in the Middle East expect to increase or maintain their existing allocations to hedge funds this year in comparison to an expected decrease last year, reports the Gulf Daily News.

Fundraising for Doubloon Capital, a hedge fund headed by activist shareholder Thomas Hudson, is underway, according to a report circulating in the business press. HedgeFund.net reported on Doubloon Capital in February, questioning if Pirate Capital, a once potent billion dollar hedge fund founded by Hudson, had shut down. The new fund will invest in distressed real estate.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp, the world’s biggest custody bank, may consider other European acquisitions after agreeing to buy BHF Asset Servicing in Germany, reports Bloomberg. The bank will “carefully examine” takeover opportunities that arise in Europe even as the focus remains on organic growth, Michelle Grundmann, managing director and Frankfurt branch head at BNY Mellon, said in an interview.

Man Group was a gainer yesterday as the FTSE 100 held at an 18-month high, reports the Financial Times. The hedge fund manager rose 2.3% to 251p after house broker Merrill Lynch dismissed concerns about its benchmark fund. The algorithm-powered AHL fund last year registered its first ever annual decline. Merrill argued that investors should be taking a longer view.

Just as hedge funds are celebrating another month of positive inflows and marginal performance gains, the Securities and Exchange Commission is gearing up add more than 30 new investigators to its New York office—to focus on such firms, reports Crain’s New York Business. To do that, the agency is looking to attract former hedge fund types and analysts with hands-on investment experience.

PEOPLE MOVES
Citigroup has hired John Liptak from Hong Kong-based hedge fund Tribridge Capital to head its Asia Pacific distressed and special situations group, an internal memo showed. Reuters reports that Liptak, who has been involved in Asian distressed investing for 12 years, was a partner at Tribridge since mid-2009 where he set up its Asian distressed fund. Prior to his stint at Tribridge, Liptak ran an 11 person special situations and distressed debt team at Bank of America from 2001 to 2009. Liptak moved to Hong Kong from New York to head the special situations team at Dutch financial group ING.

LAUNCHES & CLOSURES
The ex-Asia head of Deutsche Bank’s Saba proprietary trading desk is planning a hedge fund seeking to profit from mispricing of securities in Asia’s equity and credit markets, said two people with knowledge of the matter, reports Bloomberg.  Hong Kong-based Nine Masts Capital intends to start the relative-value capital structure arbitrage fund in the second quarter, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information is private.