General News

	Hedge-Fund Titans Hear Chanos, Einhorn, Raise Funds for Cancer	May 26/09
	At last year’s Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference, Greenlight Capital Inc.’s David Einhorn told an audience of hedge-fund managers that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. wasn’t disclosing the whole truth about its finances...Read more
	Paul Singer's hedge fund already finances most of Universal's films	May 26/09
	He is hardly your average movie investor. He cultivates his privacy, and he heads a $13 billion hedge fund that, unlike those run by Carl Icahn and others, rarely mounts a proxy fight. But while most Hollywood bankers have tu...Read more
	Batten down the hatches	May 26/09
	It’s fashionable now for leading economists and financial wizards to claim that they saw the credit crunch coming and the kind of dislocation it would create. But how many have predicted where the next implosion will oc...Read more
	High yields encourage investors to re-enter UK property market, says Aberdeen	May 26/09
	Rental levels in the UK continue to fall, but the pace of capital decline is slowing substantially, according to Aberdeen Property Investors. Aberdeen says capital values have already fallen by over 45 per cent. However, the p...Read more
	Jean-Francois Tardif to retire from Sprott Asset Management	May 26/09
	Sprott Asset Management's senior portfolio manager, Jean-Francois Tardif, has expressed his intention to retire on 7 July.Tardif currently leads the investment management team for the Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund, the Sprott...Read more
	CalPERS hints at starting own hedge funds	May 26/09
	The $180bn California Public Employees’ Retirement System is hinting at a bold stroke: building its own hedge funds and running them in-house. Sacramento-based CalPERS, the biggest public pension fund in the U.S., sees the m...Read more
	Thailand launches sharia-compliant index	May 26/09
	FTSE and the Stock Exchange of Thailand add the FTSE SET Shariah Index to the market’s benchmarks. ...Read more
	Canadian Hedge Funds Fall In April	May 26/09
	Canadian hedge funds managed to miss out on both the equities rally and global hedge fund bounce in April, according to Scotia Capital. The Scotia Capital Hedge Fund Performance Index’s asset-weighted benchmark actually fell 0....Read more
	Mutual funds copy hedge fund strategies in turf war	May 25/09
	Mauled by the carnage on Wall Street, mutual funds are copying hedge fund strategies in an effort to regain some of the shine they have lost this decade. Many investors have been burned investing in a single asset class...Read more
	New hedge funds: smaller and thriftier	May 25/09
	An industry lately synonymous with losses, liquidations, and fraud is showing signs of recovery. An uptick in new hedge funds suggests that investors are warming to them again. And trends among the newly launched funds show how...Read more
	Move over, black boxes: brains are back	May 25/09
	Quantitative fund managers, who use computer models rather than human judgment to pick securities, have seen their world turned upside down by the credit crisis. The first generation of managers and their models have moved on:...Read more
	Chill wind blows for triple A nations	May 25/09
	Rich countries face a threat to their status as the safest places to invest after the UK was warned last week that it could lose its top-notch credit rating.The triple A club of countries with the highest quality credit ratings...Read more
	Hedge funds absent after ASIC lifts short selling ban	May 25/09
	PREDATORY hedge funds were conspicuous by their absence today after the ban on covered short-selling of financial stocks was scrapped. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said the balance between mark...Read more
	EU draft hedge fund directive needs rewrite-AIMA	May 25/09
	Draft directive potentially ambiguous Implementation could be unworkable * Could conflict with existing financial services directives LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) - The European Commiss...Read more
	Canada's Financial System: How Is It Still Stable in This Crisis?	May 25/09
	The IMF Country Report for Canada published Friday offers some unique perspectives on the reasons for the stability of Canada’s financial system since the credit crunch began. There have no been no failures of financial institu...Read more
	Columnist argues hedge funds should be “regulated out of existence”. Time for a reality check.	May 22/09
	A lot of commentators - particularly in the mass media - have blamed hedge funds for the financial crisis. But unfortunately, their rhetoric is often very knee-jerk and lacks the necessary detail to actually make their argume...Read more
	Asian hedge funds return 4.1% in April	May 22/09
	Asian hedge funds rose 4.08% on average from a month ago and gained a second consecutive month of returns in April, according to Eurekahedge. This brought gains in Asian hedge funds to 4.16% in the four months to ...Read more
	Hedge Fund Insurance Costs Rise as Lehman, Madoff Spur Scrutiny	May 22/09
	The cost of insuring hedge funds against negligence has risen as much as 20 percent in the past six months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy and Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme increased the threat of lawsuits...Read more
	Lyxor Global Hedge Fund index down -0.45 per cent in April	May 21/09
	he Lyxor Global Hedge Fund index, an investable index based on Lyxor's hedge fund platform which tracks the overall hedge fund universe, was down -0.45 per cent in April. Since the beginning of the year the index is flat. The...Read more
	Fund Managers Burned by Obama Now Say They Are Wary	May 21/09
	Hedge fund manager George Schultze says he may avoid lending to any more unionized companies after being burned by President Barack Obama in Chrysler LLC’s bankruptcy. Obama put Chrysler under court protection on A...Read more
	Fraud police plan hedge fund crime detector	May 21/09
	The Serious Fraud Office is building a warning system to help it spot hedge fund fraud, the head of the agency said on Wednesday. "We're looking in particular at a system of red flags to give warnings in respect o...Read more
	Proxy Advisors Back Hedge Funds . . . Or Not	May 21/09
	With corporate annual meetings almost upon us, proxy advisory firms are busy issuing their support to one side or another in company proxy fights with activist hedge funds. In the proxy fight between Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc...Read more
	The sad sound of hedge fund whining	May 21/09
	A century ago, when workers organized for better conditions, employers brought in their hired goons to club them into submission or shoot them dead in cold blood. Today, class warfare is much more genteel -- Wall Street just wa...Read more
	Hedge funds adopting best practice procedures	May 21/09
	Alternative investment firms are adopting best practices in the face of looming regulation and demands from clientele for greater transparency, according to TKS Solutions. In the past, hedge funds accounts payable typically ope...Read more
	RBC Hedge 250 Index returned 2.37% in April, 2.6% YTD	May 21/09
	RBC Capital Markets today reported that for the month of April 2009 the RBC Hedge 250 Index had a net return of 2.37%. This brings the year-to-date return of the Index to 2.60%. These returns are estimated and will be finalized...Read more
	Treasury secretary says US financial system starting to heal	May 21/09
	Treasury secretary says US financial system starting to heal but that caution is still needed.Declaring that the U.S. financial system was "starting to heal," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday that majo...Read more
	Global tax hikes strengthen the hand of stable jurisdiction	May 20/09
	Never mind the noise in the U.S., U.K., and Europe about offshore jurisdictions and the economic turmoil, Bermuda continues to seek and unearth business opportunities. The British territory, located in the North Atlantic Ocean,...Read more
	Ban Hedge Funds?	May 20/09
	What are they smoking on Wall Street? First the bankers grouse that they need to pay multimillion-dollar bonuses to their employees with taxpayers' money. Now hedge-fund managers express outrage because President Obama slammed t...Read more
	Investors expect better hedge fund terms	May 20/09
	Some of the biggest fund-of-fund investors expect hedge funds to lower management fees and introduce terms that let shareholders eventually claw back performance fees, The traditional take-it-or-leave-it stance in the h...Read more
	Hedge funds under fire for not spotting market rally	May 20/09
	First they failed to provide a "hedge" against falling markets, now the world's highest paid fund managers have failed to spot the recovery.New research on the performance of the world's hedge fund industry shows client...Read more
	Man eyes switch to independent valuation-sources	May 20/09
	Man Group (EMG.L), the world's largest listed hedge fund firm, is likely to extend the independent valuation of its flagship AHL strategy to calm investors spooked by Madoff, sources familiar with the matter said. AH...Read more
	Will hedge fund managers flee the UK?	May 20/09
	George Bull, Head of Tax at accountancy firm Baker Tilly, analyses whether hedge fund managers are likely to leave the UK to counter the recent changes in taxation announced in the Budget: "Advances in technology and the e...Read more
	Time To Follow The Top Hedge Funds And Buy Gold?	May 20/09
	So the two top holders of the gold ETF are revealed as hedge funds in their first quarter regulatory filings. Paulson & Co, whose founder was the highest paid fund manager in 2007 thanks to a well-timed bet against sub...Read more
	Assets plummet 21%, worst in 30 years	May 19/09
	Annual P&I survey also finds market volatility spurs changes in rankings of the nation’s largest managers.The 500 largest money management firms suffered a 21% plunge last year in worldwide institutional assets — to $21.364 tr...Read more
	Hedge Fund Power Shift Could Be A Good Thing	May 19/09
	Hedge fund investors, impatient with disappointing performance, high fees and redemption roadblocks, aren't waiting for Congress to legislate some type of federal oversight. Hedge fund managers, including superstars that previousl...Read more
	Investors abandon 130/30 strategies	May 19/09
	In a risk-averse environment, 130/30 has lost its cool factor, with investors shying away from the strategy after getting clobbered in the market downturn. Top-ranked JPMorgan Asset Management saw its assets under management in 13...Read more
	A 'Second' Wind For Hedgies	May 19/09
	Satellite Asset Management, a once high-flying hedge fund that managed billions of dollars in assets, was recently forced to shut down at the hands of massive investor redemptions. The failure sent shock waves through the industry...Read more
	US Banks Race to Repay Tarp Cash	May 19/09
	US banks are vying to be in the first wave of lenders to repay US bail-out funds after Washington said it would allow five or six big financial groups to repay their Tarp loans before the rest of the industry to avoid a “rush for ...Read more
	PIPE hedge funds form trade group to combat image woes	May 19/09
	Companies that make private investments in public equities, also known as PIPE investments, have formed a trade group to educate the public about what they do. The Direct Funding Preservation Alliance will attempt to squelch misco...Read more
	Tax haven crackdown to hit offshore financial centres	May 19/09
	The number of offshore financial centres could shrink by half within the next five years as the worldwide crackdown on tax havens gathers pace, according to a prominent Jersey-based financial lobbyist.Geoff Cook, chief executive o...Read more
	Renaissance Technologies Plummets In April	May 15/09
	Most hedge funds flourished in April. Renaissance Technologies took a bath. The Long Island firm’s Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund lost between 8.33% and 9.47% last month, depending on the share class. The ...Read more
	Blackstone Cancels Plan for Asian Event-Driven Fund	May 15/09
	Blackstone Group LP, the world’s biggest buyout company, canceled a plan to start a hedge fund that initially aimed to invest as much as $1 billion in Asian companies affected by events such as mergers and reorganizations....Read more
	Forzani Group rejects hedge fund's proxy demands	May 15/09
	Forzani Group (FGL.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) recommended on Thursday that shareholders oppose a bid from a New York-based hedge fund attempting to nominate its own members to the board. The Canadian sporting-goods re...Read more
	Ospraie Sees a Rebirth in Its Hedge Funds	May 15/09
	It looks like hedge fund managers that lost big when the markets plunged last year are already planning their revivals. Take Ospraie Management. The investment manager apparently plans to open up two new commodity-related fun...Read more
	Madoff Trustee Sues Harley International, Picower	May 14/09
	Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s defunct New York money-management firm, sued Harley International (Cayman) Ltd. seeking the return of $1.07 billion invested with the convicted confidence man. T...Read more
	U.S. Considers Financial Pay Rules	May 14/09
	Obama administration officials are contemplating a major overhaul of the compensation practices in the financial services industry, moving beyond banks to include more loosely regulated hedge funds and private equity firms. ...Read more
	KeyCorp liquidating Madoff-linked fund	May 14/09
	KeyCorp (KEY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said it is liquidating an investment fund linked to Bernard Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme, after its investors suffered as much as $186 million of losses. The Cleveland-ba...Read more
	Fortress Plans to Raise $125 Million in Share Sale	May 14/09
	Fortress Investment Group LLC, the private-equity and hedge-fund manager, plans to raise $125 million by selling stock and will use some of the money to pay part of its outstanding debt. The firm will grant underwriters ...Read more
	Soros pledges $50 million to aid NYC's poor	May 14/09
	Billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist George Soros has promised to donate $50 million to a foundation that helps poor New Yorkers. But there is a catch. Soros, who runs Soros Fund Management LLC an...Read more
	Even Picasso cannot protect you from this recession	May 13/09
	But they were far from dreadful. The same is expected at this week’s contemporary auctions. While the financial crisis has taken a thwack to the hedge fund heavies and Russian industrialists that bid up art during the boom, ...Read more