18/08/2010
Prime broker standards of service and communication, widely slated during the aftermath of the Lehman collapse, have received fresh support from hedge fund clients, with managers voting it the industry’s number-one selling point in an HFMWeek survey.
Disappointment with the capital-raising environment appears to be lingering however. After a strong start to the year, the current slow rate of inflows – marred by May and June’s market volatility – has been a strong feature of the investment landscape, and survey participants rated the capital introduction category poorly across the board, resigning the service to last place
18/08/2010
Anchor Capital, an Orange County, California-based advisor specialising in quantitative long/short high-yield bonds and long/short equity strategies, has launched a hedge fund structure from one of its separately managed accounts.
Last month, the firm debuted the Alteras Fund, an extension of one of its separately managed accounts, with 75% of the portfolio in alpha high-yield long and short securities and the remaining 25% in long/short equities. All the fund’s positions are index-based and highly-liquid. The offering, which has a 750m capacity, has no lock-up and 30-day liquidity.
“We launched the Alteras Fund to meet the
18/08/2010
Almost two years after Ospraie Management told investors it was shutting the doors on its main hedge fund, investors finally look set to reclaim their outstanding capital.
Buyers have bid to scoop up the remaining funds’ assets at 70% of its 30 June net asset value (Nav), according to an investor letter from Credit Suisse, which is handling the transaction.
Richard Heller, partner in the investment management subgroup at Thompson Hine, said a reason the majority of buyers of Ospraie’s assets wanted to pay less than 70% of the funds’ Nav was because they were
18/08/2010
US prime broker Merlin Securities has picked up its first $1bn client, as hedge fund cashflow problems and managers' continued need for multiple prime broker relationships helps drive business to the prime brokerage industry’s one-stop-shops.
The $1bn fund’s assets – which are to be divided between Merlin’s three custodians, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America – will arrive in three tranches across August and September. The record mandate follows an influx of larger mandates for Merlin in the second quarter, including an $800m client.
“We are finding more managers who are looking for
18/08/2010
Troubled mini-prime Lighthouse Prime Services has officially closed after failing to secure a last-minute buyer for the business.
Lighthouse Prime Services and its parent company, Lighthouse Financial Group, had been in negotiations to offload the troubled division for some time, HFMWeek has learned.
Most recently, Jersey City-based Hudson Securities looked to strike a deal before pulling out of discussions. Earlier in the year, Miami-based Ladenburg Thalmann & Co had also considered acquiring the mini-prime before stepping back.
Meanwhile, Lighthouse had already lost a steady stream of its hedge fund clients to competing prime brokers. Boutique
18/08/2010
Implied correlation among the S&P500 is at an all-time high; little wonder then that investors are turning their attention away from hedged equity, and towards macro and fixed income arbitrage bets.
The main worry isn’t the shift in capital flows out of equity-hedged strategies, since flows overall are picking up into hedge funds, but the capital, amassed in beta, that will take a nasty hit if markets dive. Long/short managers have been cautious, paring positions and reducing net exposures.
But for many, the prospect of making money from July’s rally was too great. Horseman needed
18/08/2010
Commodities have been a hot topic in the past month, particularly agricultural commodities, but gold’s reaction to swinging investor sentiment is also giving money managers pause for thought.
July hit many CTAs hard because of the fall in both gold and the likes of wheat; in both cases the falls were dramatic and made worse by significant leverage. Mulvaney Global Markets fund is having a tough year. February, March and May all saw the CTA lose more than 5%, but July was the killer, when it was down more than 12%, leaving it off by more than
18/08/2010
London-based fund of hedge funds (FoHF) Key Asset Management, part of Swedish bank SEB, is preparing to launch its first Ucits FoHF.
According to chief investment officer Chris Jones, the move was primarily driven by an increase in client demand. “We have definitely perceived a need, especially in the high-net-worth area,” he told HFMWeek. “Clients want the comfort of a Ucits stamp, as well as the liquidity that can be offered by Ucits.”
He stressed that while this is the first launch of its kind for the firm, the yet-to-be-named fund is “well-supported by SEB”,
18/08/2010
Morgan Stanley has launched its first Ucits III fund on its FundLogic Platform as the firm prepares plans to make further moves into the space over the next few months.
The fund, which will be managed by alternative fund management firm P Schoenfeld Asset Management, will provide investors with exposure to a global event-driven strategy.
HFMWeek first reported on plans for Morgan Stanley’s Ucits offerings to be launched under its FundLogic brand last month, as well as revealing that the bank had begun incorporating outside managers for its Ucits offerings earlier in the year.
19/08/2010
Almost all hedge fund strategies have benefitted as the performance of the global economic market continues to improve, according to data released by EDHEC-Risk Institute.
According to the EDHEC-Risk Institute, the S&P 500 index exhibited extraordinary performance of 7.01%, its best return over the past twelve months, following two months of severe disappointment.
This, in turn, had a positive impact on equity-oriented strategies, and both the Long/Short Equity and Event Driven strategies returned to profitability, with profits of 2.13% and 1.83% respectively.
However, the best performing strategy was Emerging Markets, which posted returns
