General News

	Habitat for Humanity Gets Hedged	Sep 26/07
	Nonprofit housing organization Habitat for Humanity International is getting support from the hedge fund industry. HFHI is partnering with third-party hedge fund administrator LaCrosse Global Fund Services for a joint venture name...Read more
	Man Group Sails On from Summer Squalls	Sep 26/07
	LONDON (HedgeWorld.com)—Man Group plc has emerged with little visible harm from the summer turbulence that damaged a number of hedge fund operators and dented several big quantitative funds in particular. In a pre-close trading st...Read more
	Portus investors to share $100M in settlement	Sep 26/07
	Portus Alternative Asset Management Inc. investors will soon receive cheques worth a total of $100-million, marking a long-awaited first payment after the defunct hedge-fund company's collapse.An Ontario court was told yesterday o...Read more
	Portus co-founders charged with fraud, money laundering	Sep 26/07
	The two co-founders of collapsed hedge fund Portus Alternative Asset Management Inc. are facing criminal charges following a two-year RCMP investigation.Boaz Manor, 33, who lives in Israel, and Michael Mendelson, 41, of Toronto, f...Read more
	Majority of hedge funds say '08 U.S. recession likely	Sep 26/07
	A majority of hedge fund managers say a U.S. recession is "very likely" in 2008, but fewer than one in five said an economic slowdown would be bad for their funds, a survey of several-hundred hedge fund managers released...Read more
	RBC ordered to produce Norshield documents	Sep 25/07
	Ontario court's ruling is the latest twist in battles involving animation firm Cinar Corp.An Ontario judge has ordered Royal Bank of Canada to produce all documents relating to its dealings with scandal-plagued hedge fund Norshiel...Read more
	Doomsday Clock for Hedge Funds Is Ticking	Sep 25/07
	Without access to any proprietary data, Amir E. Khandani and Andrew W. Lo, two financial engineers at M.I.T. (though Lo does run his own hedge fund), set out to reconstruct the blood bath brought upon many quant funds that traded ...Read more
	Online recruitment eases soaring cost of finding talent	Sep 25/07
	With the demand for talented human resources in the alternative asset sector soaring, recruiting agencies are cashing in. However, many companies are avoiding these eye-watering fees by going direct to online specialist recruitmen...Read more
	MFS Sub To Seed HFs	Sep 25/07
	MFS Investment Management is getting into the hedge fund game, setting up a subsidiary to provide seed capital to hedge funds, Reuters reports. The new subsidiary, Four Pillars Capital Inc., will be run as a separate entity, with ...Read more
	HSBC to Recommend Hedge Funds	Sep 25/07
	Banking giant HSBC plans to start recommending hedge funds to wealth management clients in Hong Kong. HSBC has offered a similar service in Singapore since May. According to reports, it will expand the offering into Hong Kong some...Read more
	Butterfield Fund Services receives Bermuda fund administration licence	Sep 24/07
	Butterfield Fund Services (Bermuda), a subsidiary of Butterfield Bank, has received a fund administration licence from the Bermuda Monetary Authority under the Investment Funds Act 2006 that became effective on March 7 this year, ...Read more
	Hedge Fund Execs Don't Expect New Rules	Sep 24/07
	A majority of executives at U.S.-based hedge fund firms do not think there will be increased regulation of the industry, new research has shown. Just 5% of partners at firms with assets worth between $100 million and $750 million ...Read more
	Yam `Not Happy' With Transparency of Hedge Funds	Sep 24/07
	Hong Kong Monetary Authority Chairman Joseph Yam said he's displeased with the low level of disclosure by hedge funds compared with other investors. ``I have not been happy with the asymmetry in transparency,'' Yam said after a sp...Read more
	Bill Gates richest; Many Hedge fund managers among Forbes Top 400 List	Sep 23/07
	Billionaires in United States have made more money this year as per the Forbes list of 400 wealthiest Americans. While there are some new entrants to the list, the top positions are mostly held by familiar faces. The entry vault w...Read more
	Hedge fund ‘hero’ who jumped ship	Sep 23/07
	IN an exclusive nightclub in Zurich last Friday, revellers laughed as a tall, dashing German ripped off his shirt and jumped onto the dance floor. He was drunk but charming and, judging by the cut of his dishevelled clothes and th...Read more
	Morgan Stanley May Buy Stake in Hedge Fund Traxis, Person Says	Sep 22/07
	Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley is considering buying a minority stake in Traxis Partners LLC, the hedge-fund firm founded by Barton Biggs and other former executives at the securities firm, according to a person w...Read more
	Isle of Man takes swift action to update funds regime	Sep 21/07
	The Isle of Man, which has seen alternative fund assets grow from USD7bn in 2003 to a current level of USD50.1bn, is aiming for an ambitious total of USD100bn under administration and USD50bn under management by the end of 2010 th...Read more
	A Beta Way To Boost HF Returns	Sep 21/07
	The secret ingredient to boosting performance of a hedge fund portfolio is some alternative beta, according to Stonebrook Capital Management. In fact, a first-of-its-kind study conducted for the New York-based firm that specialize...Read more
	Long On Hope, Short On Returns	Sep 21/07
	Those mutual funds that hoped to give investors the best of the traditional asset and hedge fund worlds are doing neither. Bloomberg News reports that hedge-like mutuals that employ long/short strategies not only trail traditional...Read more
	Haligiannis Rearrested as U.S. Preps Extradition	Sep 21/07
	A manager who admitted to orchestrating a multimillion dollar fraud was rearrested by police in Greece. Angelo Haligiannis had been allowed to remain free while U.S. law enforcement prepared an extradition request. Haligiannis had...Read more
	Bear Stearns Net Tumbles 61%	Sep 21/07
	NEW YORK (Reuters)—Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. said on Thursday [Sept. 20] that its quarterly profit plunged 61% to its lowest level in five years on bad bets on subprime mortgages and disrupted fixed-income trading. The U.S. investmen...Read more
	Abu Dhabi Buys Stake in Carlyle Group	Sep 21/07
	WASHINGTON (HedgeWorld.com)—Mubadala Development Co. will purchase a 7.5% stake in the Carlyle Group for $1.35 billion in cash, according to a joint statement issued by the two firms. The parties also agreed upon a valuation of Th...Read more
	New hedge-lite quant funds held up in Aug-study	Sep 21/07
	NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) - New quantitative "hedge-lite" investment funds often called 130/30s didn't sustain the kind of underperformance last month that afflicted other kinds of quant hedge funds, a new study releas...Read more
	Goldman's Global Alpha Fund Declined 2.8 Percent in September	Sep 20/07
	Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Global Alpha hedge fund fell 2.8 percent in the first two weeks of September, adding to last month's record decline on losses from currency and stock trades. ...Read more
	US rate cut boosts performance of funds that hedge currencies, says MPL	Sep 20/07
	The 50-basis point cut in the Federal Funds rate decided by the US Federal Reserve on Tuesday is boosting the returns of sterling and euro-denominated funds that invest in US assets if they hedge their currency exposure, according...Read more
	Asset flows moving from long-only equities to hedge funds, says Tabb study	Sep 20/07
	Assets invested in 120/20 and 130/30 active-extension funds are set grow at a compound annual rate of 141 per cent, from USD140bn this year to nearly USD2trn by 2010, according to a new report by the Tabb Group.By contrast, active...Read more
	Two Firms Offer Reassurance on Chapter 15 Fall-Out	Sep 20/07
	GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands (HedgeWorld.com)—A company that provides independent directors for hedge funds has joined the list of industry service providers that have issued cautions about reliance on Chapter 15 bankruptcy procee...Read more
	Absolute fights for survival as $100m exits	Sep 20/07
	New chief executive Jonathan Treacher says he is considering all options, including calling in administrators.Absolute Capital Management, the $3.25 billion London listed hedge fund, was fighting for its survival today after inves...Read more
	Founder Wired Wife $11M Before Sentinel Bust	Sep 19/07
	Sentinel Management Group founder Philip Bloom wired $11.3 million to his wife a month before the company froze client money, according to The Chicago Tribune. The newspaper said Bloom made the transfer to his wife, Sybil, on July...Read more
	Goldman vows improvement at Global Alpha fund	Sep 19/07
	NEW YORK, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc's (GS.N: Quote, Profile , Research) Global Alpha hedge fund has promised it will handle borrowing and volatility better, the Wall Street Journal said in its online edition on W...Read more
	Swiss regulator calls for tax changes to attract hedge funds	Sep 19/07
	The Swiss Federal Banking Commission, the country's financial services regulator, has concluded in a report that Switzerland would become a more popular location for the establishment hedge funds if its tax laws were more similar ...Read more
	Even hedge fund billionaires tighten purse strings	Sep 19/07
	NEW YORK: On a sun-splashed day this month, Harald Grant, a Sotheby's real estate agent, showed his top listing to a hedge fund client.The client himself was not touring the jaw-dropping, 11-acre estate, with its two swimming pool...Read more
	56% Of FoHF Assets Come From Institutional Investors	Sep 19/07
	Institutional investors account for more than half of all money allocated to funds of hedge funds, according to Pensions & Investments. In what is believed to be the first survey of its kind, P&I found that of the $542 bil...Read more
	Commodities bull expected to run further	Sep 19/07
	GLOBAL – Asset managers are predicting the bullish run in commodities will continue against the backdrop of the subprime crisis.“Increasing global demand, supported by the acceleration in the pace of economic development of emergi...Read more
	SEC Scrutinizes Hedge Funds in Insider-Trading Probe	Sep 18/07
	Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is examining hedge funds for signs of insider trading, demanding information about relationships between managers, employees, family members and public c...Read more
	New Approach To Hedge Fund Indexing	Sep 18/07
	In the past, hedge fund indexes have followed one of two models. Either they tracked the performance of actual hedge funds, or they tracked the performance of quantitative strategies designed to mimic the returns characteristics o...Read more
	Alternatives Boost Traditionals	Sep 18/07
	Traditional asset managers are enjoying a handsome payoff by offering alternative products, according to McKinsey. In a survey of 85 managers with total assets of more than $10 trillion, McKinsey found that two-thirds of them list...Read more
	August May Be Jolt HFs Needed	Sep 18/07
	Sagging returns in August not only will knock some hedge funds out of business, but are likely just the jolt the industry needed to sock it out of its complacency, according to HF players. Mehraj Mattoo, head of alternative invest...Read more
	Volatile market a test of hedgelike strategies	Sep 18/07
	Alpha Hedged Strategies, Beta Hedged Strategies attract inflows amid market volatilityLast month, when the stock market was volatile and many investors started running toward any kind of stability, Lee Schultheis accepted the sit...Read more
	"OSC hearing to probe Norshield collapse"	Sep 18/07
	The Ontario Securities Commission will hold a hearing next spring into alleged wrongdoing at collapsed hedge fund Norshield Asset Management (Canada) Ltd. Yesterday a two-member OSC panel ordered a hearing to begin on May 8, 2008....Read more
	New hedge fund rules may require health warnings	Sep 17/07
	The Financial Services Board (FSB) has just published the long-awaited hedge fund regulations, but what exactly do they mean?Firstly, it is important to note that the regulations regulate only the hedge fund management firm and t...Read more
	Hedge Funds Break Bank Trading Monopoly	Sep 17/07
	By Luke Jeffs and Duncan Kerr, Of FINANCIAL NEWSInvestment banks have lost their monopoly to trade with one of the world's leading interdealer brokers.GFI, one of the largest brokers in the off-exchange markets, is allowing hedge ...Read more
	Hedge Funds and Private Equity Alter Career Calculus	Sep 17/07
	MOST people who knew Gabriel Hammond at Johns Hopkins in the late 1990s could have predicted he would rise quickly on Wall Street. As a freshman, he traded stocks from his dorm room, making a $1,000 bet on Caterpillar. Soon after,...Read more
	Man Group's Clarke Warns HFs	Sep 17/07
	The recent credit squeeze is likely to prompt investors to bypass hedge funds in favor of more traditional investment vehicles, therefore threatening the survival of some hedge funds, according to Man Group CEO Peter Clarke. “Ther...Read more
	‘India-focused hedge funds among top global performers’	Sep 16/07
	Fund tracker points to five-fold increase in assets managed at $13.97 b On a roll In last 12 months through July, average return was 53.6% (45% on Sensex).Hedge funds investing in India now trail only ChinaBL Research Bureau Chenn...Read more
	Two Goldman Partners Part Ways	Sep 14/07
	Another high-profile couple has split up. On one side is a former media boss/economist and on the other, a former star trader—both formerly hail from Goldman Sachs. Former BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies, who also has served as chief ec...Read more
	Hedge fund numbers may decline	Sep 14/07
	The number of hedge funds may fall after last month’s turmoil in equity and credit markets shook confidence in the industry, said the head of alternative investment strategies at Commerzbank AG. “The events of August may be one o...Read more
	Analyst Slams Biovail	Sep 14/07
	Contrary to the claims of pharmaceutical company Biovail, former Bank of America analyst David Maris says he is not cooperating with the company in any way in its campaign against a group of hedge funds. After harassing Maris for ...Read more
	Canada’s alternative marketplaces about to go mainstream, new study finds	Sep 14/07
	Nine out of 10 money managers in Canada plan to use alternative marketplaces for some of their equity trading in 2008, a big jump from today.A dramatic shift from a dual-marketplace structure to a multiple-marketplace structure in...Read more
	Rebound for hedge funds using statistical arbitrage strategies likely: Credit Suisse	Sep 14/07
	A rebound for hedge funds that use statistical arbitrage strategies is likely, according to the latest research from Credit Suisse Index Co., Inc. The new research examines the effects of recent market turmoil, including the effec...Read more