From Bizjournals.com: Dallas-based LIG Assets Inc. has partnered with Texas Real Estate Hedge Fund LP to invest, acquire, manage and finance commercial real estate properties priced between $5 million to $100 million. The partnership is looking for well-located apartment, retail, hotel and office properties in the Southwest, West and Midwest areas of the United States. The investors wi...

Florian Guldner, Opalesque Research: Emerging manager hedge funds and managed futures funds gained 0.3% last month, according to a first estimation based on the data of 305 funds listed in Opalesque Solutions' Emanagers database. The Emanagers Total Index was up 0.3% in November, bringing its net year-to-date return to 4.14%. Estimates for October and September were c...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: According to a new survey released this morning by Citi Prime Finance, it takes $250m in assets under management for a hedge fund to exist on its management fees alone. The report, 2012 Hedge Fund Business Expense Survey, was c...

Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London: The fund of hedge fund (FoHF) industry is not as dead as it might seem, says SEI in their 2012 funds of hedge funds (FoHF) survey. The survey was conducted in June 2012 by the SEI Knowledge Partnership, with online quest...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Advent Software, a global investment management software provider and IntraLinks a global technology provider have come together to create an interface between the Advent Tamale RMS product and IntraLinks. The new interface offers enhanced information automation and saves multi-manager organizations time throughout the research and due diligence proces...

Bass says half his fund is invested in subprime bonds From Bloomberg.com: Hedge-fund manager Kyle Bass, who made $500 million shorting subprime mortgages during the 2007 crash, said he’s now betting half his firm’s money on a rebound in those assets. Securities tied to the riskiest mortgages are virtually “bullet-proof,” because even if the U.S. housing ma...

From Bloomberg.com: Weintraub Capital Management LP, the $1 billion San Francisco-based long-short equity hedge fund, will return money to investors and become a family office overseeing the wealth of founder Jerry Weintraub. "Like lots of big decisions, it's not any one particular thing, it's a process," Weintraub said today in a telephone interview. "It'...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) might be considered the ultimate in diversified investing. With an investment scope that ranges from the immediate to well into the future, SWFs make large and complex investments in order to create long-term value for their states. Historically, these funds have stayed out of the spotlight, but in recent years, their ob...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: Multiplicity Partners sees a massive increase in long-term investors like pension funds, UHNWIs and family offices losing patience with their hedge fund providers over their progress in liquidating side pockets or other illiquid/impaired investments. As a Zurich-based independent investment boutique that helps investors liquidating their...

Marina Lewin becomes head of sales for Asset Servicing in the U.S. for BNY Mellon BNY Mellon has named Marina Lewin head of sales for its Asset Servicing business in the Americas. Lewin will report to Samir Pandiri, CEO of Americas Asset Servicing & Alternative Investment Services. She will be based in New York, managing teams in several U.S. cities, as well as Du...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: As Opalesque has reported in detail, tail-risk hedging has gained renewed interest from investors following the 2008 crisis. For those who invest in hedge funds, a variety of ...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is sending a letter to new investment advisors telling them they will now be required to take a "presence exam," as part of its new National Exam Program (NEP). The exams will be conducted by the Office of Co...

Attalus Capital hires senior portfolio strategist to enhance customizable portfolio capabilities Attalus Capital, L.P., a global asset management firm, announced the appointment of Joshua Silva as Senior Portfolio Strategist. In this newly created role, Mr. Silva will work with Attalus’ trading and risk management teams to enhance the cost and benefit characteristics ...

Blackstone raises $900m for GSO Strategic Credit Fund GSO/Blackstone, part of the credit platform of Blackstone, one of the world’s leading investment and advisory firms, announced the successful pricing of the initial public offering of Blackstone/GSO Strategic Credit Fund. The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek high current income, with a secondary objec...

From Sacbee.com: Palmer Square Capital Management, along with Montage Investments and Atlantic Asset Management, today announced a partnership with Geneva Arbitrage Fund L.P. Geneva invests in equity opportunities of companies that are engaged primarily in corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions while simultaneously seeking to reduce portfolio risk through hedging. In addition to...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Engaged Capital, an activist investment firm focused on investing in small and mid-cap North American equities, announced a strategic partnership with Grosvenor Capital Management, one of the oldest and largest global alternative investment managers, with over $22bn in assets under management. The Engaged deal is the second strategic partnership entered...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Private equity is responsible for billions of dollars in investments the world over, however, those investments are often slow moving and more complex than other investment options. Despite that, private equity continues to show strong growth at all levels and with that comes increasing investor demand for transparency. In a new book - Private ...

From Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Rotella Molinero LLC, a joint venture formed by Rotella Capital Management Inc. and Molinero Capital Management LLP, reported that its Rotella Molinero MultiQuant Futures Fund LLC was up 13.61% year-to-date as at end July (and up 6.25% in July) despite experiencing a continuation of ...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Texas-based asset management and wealth advisory firm, Salient Partners has launched a first-of-its-kind Risk Parity Index. The index is the first and only benchmark that will enable investment managers to measure the performance and effectiveness of their risk-parity strategies against...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: Macro CTA managers captured strong trending dynamics across multiple asset classes, pushing Hedge Fund Research's HFRI Macro: Systematic Diversified Index to a gain of 2.77% in July (1.80% YTD) - whereas the...

Greenlight Capital dumps Best Buy From Startribune.com: Hedge fund manager extraordinaire David Einhorn bet big on Best Buy stock. Then he lost big on Best Buy stock. In a letter to investors Monday, Einhorn's Greenlight Capital said it sold off its 2.27 percent stake, or 7.7 million shares, in the Richfield-based consumer electronics giant. Greenligh...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: In our previous installment of this series, we examined how risk experts define tail risk and if certain tail events can be predicted. Now we will turn to how tail risk hedges are structured relative to the rest of the portfolio. ...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque, New York : In our previous installment of this series, we laid out a basic introduction to tail-risk that outlined what it is, its most common variations, and discussed the debate around whether these events can be adequately hedged. In this installm...

From PIonline.com: University of Texas Investment Management Co. invested or committed a total of $2.995 billion of endowment assets to new and existing external money managers in the three months ended May 31, according to an investment transaction report presented at a board meeting on Wednesday. UTIMCO's largest single investments and commitments in the quarter ended May 31 were $400 milli...

From FT.com: It is sometimes possible to believe that suffering is worthwhile, a way of paying for past sins. In this light, the age of austerity in which we supposedly live has a sort of redemptive quality. Grit our teeth and we’ll come out the other side, purified and ready for robust economic recovery. However, after five years, we are in a worse place than when we started. One woul...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: US-based hedge fund Fletcher International Ltd. managed by Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher, has filed for bankruptcy in district court in Manhattan, the Wall Street Journal reports. The filing which went f...

From Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Japanese pension funds are expected to increase its current asset allocations from weighting between zero and 3% to between 5% and 7% into alternative investments, a move that would benefit hedge funds, said Ed Rogers head of research and investment firms Rogers Investment Advisors, Wolver Hill Asset Management, and Wolver Hill Advisors in the latest &...

SEC releases FAQ for new Form PF requirements From Complianceweek.com: The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a collection of “frequently asked questions” regarding the new Form PF required of registered investment advisers that manage $150 million or more in assets attributable to private funds. The document seeks to clarify the categorization ...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: For investors in the failed Weavering hedge fund, the recent outcome of the civil case in the UK does not guarantee they will have much of their money back. Indeed, the liquidation process is still going on – and according to an investor, this lengthy process is letting the liquidators profit from significant fees, while leaving investors uncertain ...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque, New York: In the wake of the 2008 crash, persistently high levels of market volatility and the Eurozone crisis investors have come to realize that diversification alone is not always sufficient to avoid the effects of black swan events or tail risk. A variety of funds offer tail risk hedges and some, as Opalesque ...

Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London: Shane Brett, managing director of Global Perspectives has written about the arrival of AIFMD in a paper entitled 'AIFMD & the Death of t...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: Two managing directors have just left Société Générale (SG), the French investment bank, to launch a new commodity hedge fund house in Paris called Belaco Capital. The official launch date of their first fund is expected in Q4 this year. One of them is Dr. Frédéric Lasserre; he built and headed the SG commodity research and strategy team,...

From Investmenteurope.net: Sciens Fund of Funds Management Holdings, part of the Sciens Capital Management Group and provider of single- and multi-strategy funds of hedge funds and managed account services, has added J E Moody's Commodity Relative Value Program to its managed account platform. J E Moody's CRV Program is a highly diversified natural resource strategy investing...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: $5bn is the magic number for hedge fund success when it comes to attracting capital, according to participants speaking on hedge fund allocations at the SALT Conference which started today in Las Vegas, Nevada. The SALT Conference is a global conference that attracts financial, business and policy leaders from around the world. During a panel that amass...

By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: Paris-based fund of funds manager Rothschild & Cie Gestion is undergoing a face-lift; part of its plan is to acquire a fund management company in the near future, and to seek partnership with a managed account provider, Opalesque can reveal exclusively. Diego Fluxa, head of alternative investments at ...

Precy Dumlao, Opalesque Asia: The majority of hedge fund managers in Asia are not clearly digesting the full impact of the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) and are ignoring its consequences, particularly to their operations, according to a report by...

By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: The FT published an article this weekend claiming newly proposed financial regulations coming out of Switzerland would affect hedge fund managers negatively. The proposals were in fact issued in February by FINMA, the Swiss...

By Precy Dumlao, Opalesque Asia: The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act , which was signed into law by President Barack Obama last week, could provide some welcome relief for the alternative investment industry, both in how funds are marketed and in a potential increase in the investor base, according to Phil Niles, Director of Product Development at fund administration firm ...

From PIOnline.com: More than three years after catastrophic market declines of nearly 40% decimated institutional portfolios, investors increasingly are adding tail-risk hedging strategies to protect against future unexpected, severe market declines. ..."People's memories of the pain of the sharp market declines of 2008 are fading, and most investors still have not dealt with...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: GlobeOp a global fund services firm has released the results of its test filings of form PF, a new regulatory filing required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The first official filing of form PF is required for funds starting in June. GlobeOp pr...

From PIonline.com: Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management board's investment committee voted Tuesday to recommend that the full board approve boosting the Boston-based $49.8 billion retirement system's direct investments in hedge funds by about $2.7 billion over the next 15 months, terminating four of PRIM's five hedge fund-of-funds managers in the process. ...

Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London: Insurance and risk management advisory group SKCG believes it has evidence that the regulatory crackdown on hedge funds has pushed rates for insurance covering potential lawsuit costs going ever higher. The firm finds rate hikes of 5-10% for directors and officers of a company and coverage of 'errors and omissions’. The company says that this p...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Turnkey investment solutions are gaining traction with both institutional and retail investors. A unique example of these turnkey products is US-based, Hatteras Funds. Hatteras Funds was founded by a group of partners with a deep understanding of big endowment portfolios. The founde...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: A new hiring trend in hedge funds is emerging in the wake of the ongoing economic crisis - job seekers are choosing stability over pay. Many are also looking for work at hedge funds for the first time. Beaten down by layoffs and collapses, financial job seekers are more willing now to take lateral moves or less money if it means a steady career trajecto...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Yearly financial statements take a significant amount of resources for both hedge funds and auditors. Typically a financial statement is comprised of a variety of excel spreadsheets providing account records and supporting documentation. The manual nature of financial statements construction often leads to human error adding further to the resources nee...

By Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London: A new case study from Markov Processes International reveals how their predictive analytic techniques could be used to reproduce beta exposures of hedge funds. Using MPI’s research, the firm tried to capture dynamic betas embedded in the $23bn Bridgewater Pure Alpha II Fund. This fund is ...

By Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London: Global hedge fund research and investment specialist Financial Risk Management (FRM) has produced its market summary for January 2012 and its outlook for the rest of the year. Over January, FRM reveals that there was a broad-based rally in equity ma...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: Funds of funds’ image has suffered since late-2008, as many who had underlying funds offering different liquidity terms, found themselves unable to return money to investors while overall performance was diving. The Madoff scandal was also a blow, particularly for many who are based in Geneva, a center for the fund of funds industry. Fun...

By Mark Melin, Opalesque’s Chicago-based editor of OFI and OFS. Critical documents related to MF Global’s financial condition appear to have been delayed for release by the Securities and Exchange Commissio...

From Yonhap.com: Millennium Partners, a fund managed by the U.S.-based Millennium Management LLC, is considering tapping the South Korean hedge fund market, sources said Monday, in what would mark the first local entry of an overseas fund. Millennium Partners, which manages funds valued at around US$13 billion, reportedly plans to set up a local affiliate and seek regulatory approval a...

Deutsche Bank and FRM partner to launch first hedge fund seeding managed account platform Deutsche Bank and Financial Risk Management announced a partnership to launch the industry's first hedge fund seeding managed account platform.The dbalternatives Discovery platform, based on Deutsche Bank's established and award winning dbalternatives managed account pl...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: The fund managers sitting around the recent Opalesque Roundtable in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland, agreed on how tough the environment is – and will be – for hedge fund start-ups. They said that (1) focusing on performance in the initial period, (2) bei...