17/02/2010
The $11bn Wyoming Permanent Funds, one of four sovereign wealth funds in the US, has invested in a third fund of hedge funds (FoHF) manager.
The Wyoming Treasurer’s Office, which manages the nine Permanent Funds, approved a $150m allocation in the Grosvenor Global Recovery Fund managed by Grosvenor Capital Management.
Wyoming already invests $240m each with Paamco and Aurora Investment Management.
As a result of the market conditions in 2008, the Wyoming Treasurer’s Office decided to officially increase the hedge fund allocation from 5% to 7.5%, according to Michael Walden-Newman, chief investment officer. Even
17/02/2010
The investment committee for the $1.3bn Fairfax Educational Employees’ Retirement System (ERFC) is set to meet in the next few weeks to review its hedge fund investments, according to a spokesperson.
The committee met at the end of last year to outline investment projects for 2010. According to meeting minutes, the projects include a review of the diversification among ERFC’s current funds of hedge funds (FoHFs) as well as ‘implementing revised strategic allocations’.
Virginia-based ERFC will also review its real estate portfolio, and is considering adding a private equity and a global Reit allocation.
17/02/2010
Hain Capital Group, a New Jersey-based deep value investor, has launched an onshore version of its flagship value hedge fund.
The offering, Hain Capital Value Fund, launched last month, 18 months after its offshore fund launched in June 2008.
The fund, which has a capacity of $500m, is a liquid long/short strategy focused on building materials, residential property development and related industries. It has 25 positions. Currently, the strategy has $30m under management.
Daniel Carasso is the fund’s portfolio manager. Prior to joining Hain Capital Group in 2005, he was a senior sell-side analyst at
17/02/2010
PBS Capital Management, a Texas-based healthcare hedge fund started by Highland Capital veterans, has created its first separate account for a Dallas family office.
According to an investor letter, the family office allocated $10m to the account which will be dedicated to investing in pharmaceutical royalties, an asset class the hedge fund structure is also expected to employ.
Last month the PBS Capital Fund returned 1.2%.
At the same time, the Health Care Select Sector SPDR increased 0.7%, the S&P 500 declined 3.7%, and the Russell 2000 declined 3.7%.
PBS invested
17/02/2010
Brian DeChristopher, formerly with Putnam Investments, has launched his maiden hedge fund, HFMWeek has learned.
After forming Boston-based Chordant Capital Partners, the Chordant Lifesciences Fund debuted this month. The offering is a long/short global healthcare and life sciences fund with a slight long-bias. It has 20 long positions and 20-30 shorts. Its capacity is $500m.
DeChristopher, the fund’s portfolio manager and founder, was a healthcare analyst and portfolio manager at Putnam Investments.
Last year, the BarclayHedge healthcare and biotechnology index returned 28% and is down slightly at the start of 2010.
Stocks in the healthcare
16/02/2010
The Alternative Investment Management Association (Aima) has heaped further criticism on Spain’s version of the Alternative Investment Fund Management (AIFM) Directive, calling its third-country marketing provisions “protectionist”.
In a statement released today, Aima warned that council president Spain’s decision to reinstate Article 35 – a provision potentially preventing EU investors accessing non-EU funds and managers and that had been deleted by the Swedish presidency – as part of its redrafting could “hit” asset managers and investors across the globe.
“Stipulating that these co-operation arrangements must be in place sounds reasonable enough but we are worried that they
16/02/2010
NEWSPAPERS & WIRES
Investors are positioning themselves for halts in both Europe and China’s economic recovery, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers for February. Investors have scaled back their growth expectations, retreated into cash and are increasingly skeptical that the European Central Bank (ECB) will increase interest rates in 2010. The panel was responding to questions against a backdrop of economic crisis in peripheral eurozone countries and concerns over monetary tightening in China. World equity markets fell by 8.9% during the survey period.
Dietmar Schmitt, founder and CIO of London hedge fund SAM Capital
15/02/2010
NEWSPAPERS & WIRES
Global hedge funds have staked millions of dollars against some of Europe's biggest companies amid continuing fears over the strength of the euro, reports the Daily Telegraph. A raft of European banks, healthcare companies and property firms have attracted a sudden spike in short positions over the past two weeks, according to figures from DataExplorers. Financial stocks, considered to be in the frontline in the event of a full-blown attack on the euro, have been particularly targeted. Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles (BME), the operator of the financial markets in Spain, is showing a short position worth
12/02/2010
NEWSPAPERS & WIRES
Och-Ziff Capital, the listed US hedge fund manager, has received more than $650m in new client money over the past six weeks, according to regulatory filings – surpassing the net amount it pulled in over the last six months of 2009 combined, the FT reports. The inflows are one of the first concrete signs of a turnaround in investor sentiment for the group and the hedge fund industry at large. Och-Ziff, which oversees just over $24bn in assets, is often cited as an industry bellwether because of its size and relatively conservative approach. Bluecrest and
11/02/2010
The Hedge Fund Standards Board (HFSB), whose code of practice is obligatory for its members, has added representatives of two of world’s biggest hedge fund investors to its board in a move that suggests a growing recognition of investor power.
New Holland Capital is hedge fund advisor to €240bn ($329bn) Dutch pension scheme APG, the largest of its kind in Europe, while The Future Fund manages public pension funds for teachers and health workers in Australia.
In a statement released today, HFSB also announced that BlueCrest Capital Management and Winton Capital Management, two of London’s most
