28/07/2010
The Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (Perac), which oversees $12bn in assets across 103 public pension systems in Massachusetts, has drafted a new placement agent policy.
The policy applies to investment partners that Massachusetts Public Employee Retirement Boards, including the Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (Prim), do business with, such as investment managers, sponsors of hedge funds, private equity, real estate and infrastructure funds.
The policy will require the pension funds to provide “timely and updated disclosure of placement agent relationships, compensation and fees”.
Perac’s executive director, Joseph Connarton, told HFMWeek that currently,
28/07/2010
University endowments and foundation funds in the US have been quick to move back into the hedge fund space, following the climate of redemptions during the financial crisis.
As confidence in the sector returns, US university funds are reassessing their asset allocations and, as a result, the pace of investment is quickening as they look at more creative ways to use hedge funds, John Griswold executive director at the Commonfund Institute, told HFMWeek.
While many of the smaller endowments still ‘bucket’ hedge funds within an alternatives allocation, more investors are re-assessing their strategies and thinking
28/07/2010
The $36.5bn Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC) has committed around $20m to absolute return strategy Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (GSIP) through an external CIO real return mandate also managed by the same firm.
Due to an SEC rule that states a firm cannot direct a client’s money into a fund that they own 20% or more of without consent, Goldman Sachs had to ask permission to invest 4% of the $500m real return mandate it manages for APFC, effectively the Alaskan state’s sovereign wealth fund, into one of its hedge funds.
In fact, APFC has
28/07/2010
The $1.1bn Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System (Lampers) has dropped Cadogan Management as one of its two new funds of hedge funds (FoHF) allocations as it moves to replace its direct portfolio.
In April last year, Lampers chose Cadogan Management as one of its two FoHF allocations, however, Kathy Bourque, director of the retirement system, revealed that EnTrust Capital has now replaced Cadogan Management. Lampers has funded Permal Group and EnTrust Capital with mandates of $20m each.
Bourque declined to reveal why the change was made, however, she told HFMWeek last April that the
28/07/2010
Credit Suisse has unearthed an interesting, yet anecdotal, correlation between the monthly change in the Vix and the relative performance of global macro managers.
Without more rigorous testing not an awful lot should be assumed from the results, however, as a guide to which strategies actually perform well when volatility shifts dramatically, up or down, this certainly is a point of interest.
Volatility has often been considered a friend to hedge funds, but very few will enjoy working in wildly swinging markets. In terms of the reaction of global macro managers to volatility changes, they
28/07/2010
Macro managers continue to garner interest from investors in light of their diversification benefits, particularly as correlations are getting worryingly high.
On an absolute scale, the strategy isn’t blowing the competition out of the water, but is comfortably topping equities for the year. Conquest Capital was having one of the better years for a global macro manager before July. It still is – up 13.5% YTD, but a 7.14% drop in returns through the first two weeks of July has certainly taken that shine off.
Early July was difficult for the majority of global macro
28/07/2010
Greycourt & Co, an investment advisory firm that caters to ultra-high-net-worth families in the $130m-135m assets range, along with select endowments, is expanding its alternatives platform.
Greycourt, which has $9bn in assets under advisement, is eyeing the energy space and long/short equity for natural resources through hedge funds and funds of hedge funds (FoHFs).
Erik Haskel, managing director, said the firm is interested in active long/short funds in the commodity space and is currently investing in Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) through a short-biased hedge fund manager. “We’re being opportunistic in real estate, distressed debt
28/07/2010
Investors, both private and institutional, are increasing their allocations to alternatives, according to two new industry surveys.
Most institutional investors were found to be ‘staying the course’ with their alternative investments and expect to increase their allocations over the next few years, according to Russell Investments 2010 Global Survey on Alternative Investing.
“Hedge funds have survived the ‘stress test’ of the financial crisis, and allocations are expected to rebound in most regions, although recovery may be slow in Europe,” states the report, which covered 119 global investors with a total of $1.3trn AuM.
28/07/2010
Skyline Capital Management, a newly formed investment management company, is preparing to launch its first hedge fund in November.
The company, founded by former head of public sector client business at Barclays, Vernon West, and former Matterhorn and Nevsky analyst Geoff Bamber, expects FSA approval immently.
London-based Skyline’s debut product is a global long/short equity fund with significant emerging markets exposure. The fund will principally focus on western-listed large- and mid-cap companies with strong ties to emerging markets. The fund has raised $15m and expects to launch with $50m-100m in November, according to West.
28/07/2010
Sandell Asset Management has launched its latest event-driven strategy, with more expected in the near future. HFMWeek exclusively reported in November that the New York-based firm, headed by Thomas Sandell, was considering a couple of new hedge fund launches.
The alternative asset manager, which specialises in international, event-driven and multi-strategy investing, has established the first of those launches, the Castlerigg Merger Arbitrage Fund, according to a capital introduction document.
Merger arbitrage is one of the better performing hedge fund strategies this year, returning 1.67% YTD, beating the overall hedge fund index, which has only returned
