24/02/2010
Paradigm Global Advisors, one of the oldest fund of hedge funds (FoHF) managers, founded in 1989 by Dr James Park, has downsized its operations moving from midtown Manhattan to a smaller office space in Westchester after a tough couple of years left the FoHF well below its all time AuM high.
Marc LoPresti, of Tagaliaferro & LoPresti, which is counsel to Paradigm, said the manager has cut back its office space, in line with much of the FoHF industry, due to investor redemptions.
“Paradigm’s move to new offices was appropriate given the scale of its
24/02/2010
By all accounts, 2009 was a lost year for hedge funds in Japan. The Japanese market is heavily based on trust and long-term relationships. The effects of 2008 will not disappear from the collective consciousness of Japanese investors, who pulled out of hedge funds en masse.
Interest in the industry has dwindled almost to the point of none existence, so much so that last year virtually all hedge fund conferences in the country were cancelled.
Encouragingly, the outlook is a lot rosier for the industry in 2010. A listed hedge fund manager was recently out
24/02/2010
If you’re still in doubt whether activist investors like Carl Icahn and William Ackman actually improve the lot of investors in their funds, and enhance shareholder value in the companies they target, take a look at the recent research issued by three students at Columbia and Duke University.
Comparisons on the role of activism by pension and mutual funds versus hedge funds have been around for many years; a slightly unfair comparison considering the regulatory hindrances on mutual/pension funds.
Nonetheless, activist hedge funds have been found to outperform the overall market and other types
24/02/2010
The investment committee for the $397m City of Lakeland Employees’ Pension and Retirement System in Florida, is looking into alternative investments, including hedge funds, as a diversifier for its portfolio.
The pension’s portfolio is curently split between a 60% allocation to equities and 40% to fixed income. However, at the end of 2009, the committee met with the fund’s consultant, Mike Welker at the Bogdahn Group, for an overview of additional asset classes, including private equity real estate, infrastructure and hedge funds.
The committee looked at both single manager and funds of hedge funds, but
24/02/2010
The $10.3bn Ohio Fire and Police (OP&F) Pension Fund is set to complete the final stage of its portable alpha programme with an investment in Grosvenor Institutional Partners to be funded next month.
Grosvenor was one of two hedge funds to win the 3% mandate for market neutral long/short hedge fund managers started in 2007; however, Ohio has now chosen to include Russell Implementation Services in half of the around-$300m mandate.
Grosvenor and Investcorp were initially chosen by OP&F last April. While Investcorp was awarded half the mandate, Grosvenor’s funding remained unclear. An OP&F spokesperson
24/02/2010
Stripes Alternative Asset Management (Saam), a New York-based long/short fund of hedge funds (FoHF) manager with a preference for sector-specialist funds, has announced plans to add more underlying managers to its portfolio.
The FoHF is looking to add another financials fund, as well as a technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) manager to its existing allocations, HFMWeek has learned.
Will Patty, portfolio manager on Saam’s flagship Sentinel Fund, said of the manager selection process, “I build enough conviction that they are the best [hedge fund managers] in their sector and they are different from the current managers
24/02/2010
Hedge fund managers are still busily enacting operational change, as they seek to reduce risk and pick up new investors, according to a survey by Greenwich Associates.
Approximately 70% of the managers participating in the survey said they had altered their operations to reduce counterparty risk, with 60% increasing the number of prime brokers. Managers based in Asia were especially likely to have increased their number of prime broker relationships, with 78% noting an increase.
Commissioned by technology provider Omgeo, the study examined the operational practices of over 50 hedge funds each with assets over $1bn
24/02/2010
The burgeoning Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) universe continues to prove a popular draw for hedge fund managers, with managed futures specialist Qbasis Invest prepping a new vehicle for launch in the next two months.
The fund will be an onshore version of the European fund manager’s flagship offshore product, the Qbasis Futures Fund, and will be aimed, as a first step, at the retail markets in Germany and Austria.
“Since the principals of Qbasis are from Austria, we have a very good understanding of the Austrian and German retail market and feel confident that we can
24/02/2010
Mark Trounce, who has been trading foreign exchange (FX) since February 2008, is gearing up to launch his maiden hedge fund.
He recently formed London-based Pinpoint Capital Investments, which will initially launch the strategy as a managed account structure before rolling out the hedge fund version.
The strategy, an FX offering, will trade futures and commodities using high-frequency methodology.
For the launch, Trounce is looking to build a team of 12 traders worldwide, both manual and automated strategy developers trading intra-day and high-frequency analysis.
The fund will have a $1m investment
24/02/2010
Bob Grunewald, Joel Houck and Chris Small, who all recently left American Capital, have established their own maiden hedge fund.
After forming Washington DC-based Cicero Capital Partners, an alternative asset manager, their flagship CCP Total Return Fund I will launch with approximately $10m next month.
The fund is a long/short equity fund, which will invest primarily in publicly traded equities with an emphasis on the financial services sector.
Grunewald, a founding partner, said he and his colleagues formed Cicero Capital Partners to take advantage of what they consider to be a uniquely attractive investment
