03/03/2010
NEWSPAPERS & WIRES
The US Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether hedge funds might have acted together betting against the euro, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters reports. The newspaper said the department has asked hedge funds including SAC Capital Advisors, Greenlight Capital, Soros Fund Management and Paulson & Co to retain trading records and emails relating to the euro.
The Alternative Investment Management Association (Aima), the global hedge fund industry association, has welcomed the recognition by the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) that legitimate short
01/03/2010
NEWSPAPERS & WIRES
Hedge funds have made large profits from Greek debt and providing insurance to overexposed European banks, it emerged yesterday. France signaled that private banks were likely to help in any rescue plan for Athens. The hedge funds have been successful as traders anticipated that over-exposed European banks would drive a wave of selling against Greece, industry insiders told the FT. “There are a group of funds, perhaps three or four, that have played this as a huge sovereign basis trade, and made a lot,” said a strategist at one of London’s biggest hedge funds. Paulson &
26/02/2010
NEWSPAPERS & WIRES
Just one in 10 hedge fund managers expects to see the fees they charge investors fall in spite of recent underperformance that has seen income reduced, according to a Credit Suisse survey, says the FT. The industry suffered its heaviest outflows ever in 2008-09 but hedge funds still balk at the idea of cutting the standard "two and 20" fee structure, 2% of assets and 20% of returns, that they charge clients, the poll found. But the survey, which took in responses from nearly a third of the $1.7trn global hedge fund industry, found that managers
25/02/2010
NEWSPAPERS & WIRES
Hedge fund supervisors worldwide will require hedge funds to provide uniform data across jurisdictions from September in a bid to spot broader risks more quickly, a global regulatory body said today, Reuters reports. The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (Iosco) published a template for supervisors listing 11 types of data that hedge funds will be required to provide. "Iosco believes that regulators should seek to develop a comparable and consistent set of data to be collected from local hedge fund managers and advisers to monitor systemic risks and prevent gaps in regulator reporting requirements," Kathleen Casey,
24/02/2010
NEWSPAPERS & WIRES
Hedge fund assets may climb 14% this year as proposed regulations ease the concerns of risk-averse investors, according to Eurekahedge, says Bloomberg. Assets may reach $1.68trn by the end of the year, compared with about $1.48trn in 2009 when managers posted their best annual performance in six years, according to the Singapore-based industry researcher. Eurekahedge also reported that Asia ex-Japan hedge funds declined 2.42% in January, after gaining a record 37.4% in 2009.
The US Treasury Department wants to give regulators discretion to define proprietary trading, as the White House tries to revive its plan
24/02/2010
Investors in the states of Texas and New Mexico have been boosted by plans to ease the way for future hedge fund investing.
The $19.8bn Texas Employees Retirement System (ERS), which manages five retirement systems, is gearing up for its first hedge fund investment, HFMWeek can exclusively reveal.
Meanwhile, across the border in New Mexico, the state legislature has scrapped plans to force the region’s largest pension and endowment funds to set up investment advisory committees. The proposals would have added onerous steps to hedge funds dealing with the largest state investment agencies.
The
24/02/2010
Corniche Group, the London-based family office of the Saudi Arabian Farsi family, is to seed a new quantitative hedge fund, formed by two former prime brokers.
The offering is part of Algodeal, a systematic trading platform for independent traders. With plans to eventually raise close-to $3bn, the new fund, also called Algodeal, was set up by former Lehman Brothers prime broker Benjamin Filippi and ex-Newedge employee Jean-Christophe Allemand. Paris-based Algodeal will launch at the end of the second quarter and initially invest in futures and then equities.
Seeding the Algodeal fund is Corniche Group’s
24/02/2010
Hedge fund lobbying efforts suffered a potentially serious setback in the EU Parliament on Tuesday, as the legislation’s parliamentary representative announced he was reassessing his approach to third-country marketing stipulations in the draft Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Directive.
Directive rapporteur Jean-Paul Gauzés began Tuesday’s two-hour Economics and Monetary Affairs (Econ) committee meeting – scheduled to discuss amendments to his largely well-received first drafting of the AIFM document – by announcing that he was “rejecting” his previous position on third-country marketing in which he had reinstated the Directive’s use of national private placement rules.
24/02/2010
Deutsche Bank is poised to offer multiple prime brokerage relationships to clients on its $8bn managed accounts platform, HFMWeek can exclusively reveal.
An agreement is in place with four unnamed, high-profile prime brokers, which will enable clients to pick the nature and extent of their multi-prime set-up. Deutsche – currently the sole prime broker on the platform – will not to impose itself as the leading prime in the new set-up, with investors free to choose their own ‘house-prime’ from among the five on offer. The multi-prime offering is expected to go live in three-to-four months.
24/02/2010
A rejuvenated hedge fund industry is back in the recruitment market and hiring at will. Many of the largest hedge funds, buoyed by inflows, are actively on the look-out for new staff.
DE Shaw, Fortress Investment Group, AQR Capital Management and Two Sigma Investments are among the managers hiring, with particular interest given to marketers and asset raisers.
According to sources familiar with the managers' plans, DE Shaw is looking to fill a senior marketer position in New York and an investor relations role in Dubai, and AQR Capital Management is seeking to hire a
