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By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London: A roundup of last week’s hedge fund launches, closures, index performance, trends, regulatory, legal and financial events pertaining to the alternative investments world.

Last week, we heard of fund launches from Cazenove (European); SSG Capital (Asia ex-Japan distressed); Ajia Partners (CTA FoFs); Logik A. M. (multi-strat); RWC Partners (distressed convertibles); BlackTree (currency); Rockledge (Europe and U.S.); and 36 South (inflation). Alpstar launched a management group for distressed fixed income.

The CASAM CISDM hedge fund Index returned -0.18%, the FoFs index +0.95%, and the CTA Index -0.15% in January; The Credit Suisse L/S Equity Replication Index went down 1.27% in February; The CogentHedge Dynamic Averages returned -0.911, -0.979% YTD; The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index was down 0.38% (est.) in February (it was up 1.10% in January and the Convertible Arbitrage index was the best performer both months).

A Lipper report found net flows of hedge fund assets in Q4-08 had fallen to a negative $146.9bn, as global assets had dropped to $1.29tn at end-2008. Another report found that Spanish hedge fund assets had fallen to below €1bn. Hedge Fund Intelligence (HFI) reported that hedge funds had contracted 30% in 2008 to $1.8tn but performed better than other asset classes, although more redemption was expected.

Gottex confirmed redemptions requests would be part-paid and fees would be cut for investors who remained. Morgan Stanley forecasted "no deceleration" in redemption requests and estimated that global hedge fund AuM would shrink “by as much as 30% this year due to withdrawals, following a 20% decrease in the second half of last year,” leaving total assets at less than $1tn.

One of the largest hedge funds, DE Shaw, followed trend in its plans to appoint independent administrators; data compiled by the UK FSA “showed that leverage fell to......................

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