Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: In a report, Reuters said that demand has been subdued with the bulk of activities coming from short-term speculative investors. Last November 17, China ...

Big hedge funds win again on PetSmart, Riverbed From CNBC.com: Another week, another set of wins for activist investors. On Sunday, pet supply retailer PetSmart agreed to the largest leveraged buyout of the year at $8.7 billion. Hedge fund firm JANA Partners had been pushing for a sale and, with a 9.9 percent stake in the company, appears to be in line for a pay day o...

From Bloomberg.com: Iceland will this week tell hedge funds and other creditors in its failed banks how their claims can be settled. The government has designed a model to protect the krona from any jolts that might result from a capital outflow as currency controls are relaxed to enable repayment. The next step is to find out whether the creditors will accept the deal. “Creditors that...

This white paper was authored by FundCalcs, an independent software provider based in Dublin, and Global Perspectives, an Irish consulting and research firm. It examines the trends since 2008 of hedge fund performance and incentive fees becoming more co...

From Businessweek.com: A maturing U.S. economic recovery is prompting Paulson & Co. to change course. The $19 billion hedge fund firm, led by billionaire John Paulson, told investors on a conference call this month that the Paulson Recovery Fund will be renamed Paulson Special Situations Fund on Jan. 1, after concluding that the five-year-old U.S. recovery has matured, two people briefed on th...

From FT.com: …It is one thing to impose a regulatory burden when there is a clear need to do so. Banks are underwritten by taxpayers via deposit insurance as well as the too-big-to-fail safety net; they need to be reined in, and if they shrink as a result, that may be welcome. But it is another thing entirely to impose burdens on hedge funds, nearly all of which are far too small to threaten finan...

By: Meredith Jones, Alternative Investment Research. Last month I launched a blog series on capital raising with a diatribe about why money managers actually need a pitch book. I got several emails afterwards asking if I had any advice about what should go in an effective pitch book. Do I have any advice? Silly question! As a result of those inquiries, I came up with my Ten Co...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: V2 Capital has launched a new hedged equity vehicle. The V2 Hedged Equity Fund is an open-ended single manager mutual fund utilizing the hedged equity strategy the firm was previously using in its private offering. The fund is launching with $240 million of assets. "This is essentially the same strategy we were running a private fund, and w...

From Therealdeal.com: Father-son duo William and Richard Mack and former Blackstone Group managing director Peter Sotoloff are starting a new real estate debt fund. Together, the trio hopes to raise more than $750 million for the private equity fund, according to the Wall Street Journal. The fund will provide both junior debt and bridge loans to developers in the U.S. and Europe, according to the ...

From Bloomberg.com: Owning almost anything in the U.S. stock market has been a losing proposition since September. Owning smaller energy companies has been a catastrophe. Hercules Offshore Inc. and Resolute Energy Corp. are among 19 oil-and-gas equities in the Russell 2000 Index that lost more than half their market value over six weeks. Plunging oil prices fueled losses after production jumped an...

Big investors move to shore up Fannie, Freddie trade From Forbes.com: Two of the nation’s most prominent investors who have been leading the charge to make a big score out of the shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac moved on Friday to shore up shares of the mortgage giants that plunged recently due to a key legal ruling. Bruce Berkowitz, whose Fairholme Fu...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: What are the benefits of sustainable investing? Many pension funds look to focus on that angle to reflect their company’s good governance, but face many challenges while doing that. A portfolio manager at Univest, a large Dutch pension fund, discusses this issue during the recent ...

Court throws out lawsuits related to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac profits From WSJ.com: A group of Wall Street investors on Tuesday suffered a blow in their attempts to sue the federal government over their treatment of the shareholders of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after the financial crisis. A judge in the U.S. District Court for the D...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: A study by financial services firm TIAA-CREF showed that interest in socially responsible investing (SRI) is increasing rapidly, but investors are still asking if investing in an SRI strategy requires sacrificing performance or taking on additional risk, compared to a broa...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started a push to enhance the enforcement of Rule 105 of Regulation M last year to uncover hedge funds and private equity firms that have illegally participated in an offering of a stock after short selling it during a restricted period. Yesterday, the Commission announced it had sanctioned 19 more firms an...

Big hedge funds show interest in Alibaba From Hereisthecity.com: …Three other major hedge fund investors who have shown interest in the IPO are Dan Loeb of Third Point, David Tepper of Appaloosa Management and Dan Benton of Andor Capital Management. All three were among the roughly 800 people- 300 more than expected -who attended Alibaba's first road show present...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: A new study by Pershing Square, a unit of BNY Mellon company, showed that an effective value proposition strengthens audience connections and fosters growth, yet many advisors have had little objective guidance in formulating such statements until now. In the study entitled ...

Texas Employees sets 2015 tactical plan for alternatives From PIOnline.com: Texas Employees Retirement System will invest in up to four new hedge funds in the next fiscal year, which begins Sept. 1. Trustees approved 2015 tactical investment plans for the hedge fund, private equity and infrastructure portfolios at a meeting Tuesday at the Austin headquarters of the $26...

Hedge funds boost bad-loan prices as U.S. sales increase From Businessweek.com: Sales of U.S. delinquent mortgages are accelerating as lenders rush to meet demand from hedge funds and private-equity firms that has sent prices surging. Bank of America Corp. is marketing soured mortgages with a balance of about $3 billion, said David Tobin, principal at loan broker Missi...

From Risk.net: Whitebox plans to remain a mid-sized hedge fund but has big ambitions when it comes to the liquid alternatives area. Success, say the partners, will hinge on adherence to its investment principles. When Whitebox Advisors was set up in 2000, founder Andrew Redleaf laid out a set of investment principles he wanted to guide the company’s development. The Whitebox ‘edge’ is based on a p...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: As hedge fund assets top $3 trillion, and long/short strategies get more crowded than ever, with every manager hunting for even the tiniest bit of alpha, a new firm has emerged that claims its own edge – women. A recent Rothstein Kass study showed women-owned and women-managed hedge funds (collectively "women-run") posted annualized returns th...

AIMA Australia invite you to join us at our annual Hedge Fund Forum on Tuesday 16th September 2014 at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth. The AIMA Australian Hedge Fund Forum is a non-profit hedge fund conference organised by the industry for the industry, featuring quality Australian and international speakers sharing insights, reflections, war-stories and facts with hedge fund managers and ...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Success in marketing a fund is not linked to the performance, but to investor appetite, to the way you can market the fund, and to how much time you can spend to raise assets, said Antoine Rolland, the CEO of incubator and seeding firm NewAlpha Asset Management at the recent...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: A survey of 680 high net-worth individuals in the U.S. with $3m or more in investable assets found that the changing family structures, multi-generational and extended family circumstances, evolving gender roles, and generational views on investing and use of wealth are challenging traditional approaches to wealth planning. The 2014 U.S. Trust Insi...

Precy Dumlao, Opalesque Asia: Finless Capital has partnered with IMP Professionals to develop a cost-efficient, one-stop-shop solution allowing non-EU based investment fund managers to raise capital throughout the European Union under the new legislation, the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) which will come into full force on July 22. The partnership of th...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Liquid alternative funds continue to show fast growth, said hedge fund information provider Infovest21. In its latest report, Infovest21 said in 2013, net flows for alternatives were $40bn, up from $14.6bn in 2012. So far this year through April, net flows are at $11.6bn. Lois Peltz, pr...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Minnesota-based Pine River Capital Management, the $15bn hedge fund firm founded by Brian Taylor, is soft closes its $4.5vn multi-strategy Pine River Fund as it shuns new money because of "challenging environment" for the industry. In a report, the ...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has issued a new rule reducing the incentive fees assessed by hedge funds on institutional investors, allowing the sector to invest into the industry at a much lower cost. A report by ...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva for New Managers: FrontFour Capital Partners LLC has made appearances in Opalesque’s daily newsletter (AMB)’s Activist News section for a while. The last we heard of the hedge f...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Global asset administrator Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services announced it has completed acquisition of Meridian Fund Services Group on 27 May. The deal was completed as part of the ongoing growth strategy of Mitsubishi UFJ...

It’s been a good year for Chenavari Investment Managers, the credit hedge fund with a focus on distressed debt founded at the height of the financial crisis by former head of credit at Calyon, Loic Fery. Assets under management swelled by over $1bn, it received numerous industry accolades, most of its funds posted double-digit returns and it expanded into Asia. It’s also been hiring more senior st...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: In July of this year, it will be illegal for fund managers to market in Europe unless they are compliant with the AIFMD. What makes this regulation so weighty is that 25% of U.S. capital comes from Europe and most U.S. managers are unaware that their prospective investors may become illegal this summer. The European Union'...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: There is an increasingly active community of farmland investors hoping to profit from the world's growing need for nourishment, said CNBC in March. Famed commodity investor Jim Rogers, who launched the international Quantum Fund with George Soros in the early 197...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: A new survey from NEPC shows that endowments and foundations have a strong preference for hedge funds. 81% of those surveyed noted that they plan to continue their allocations in 2014. Based on current macroeconomic indicators respondents say that domestic equities are the strongest to invest In. On a strategy basis, allocators are examining e...

From Orange.co.uk: A video of a US flight attendant turning her safety talk into a comedy routine is proving a huge hit online. More than five million people have watched the clip of Marty Cobb which has her passengers rolling with laughter on a Southwest Airlines flight to Salt Lake City. She began:"If I can pretend to have your attention for just a few moments, my ex...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: A new trend in alternative alternatives is emerging - car appreciation funds. Classic Auto Funds Limited (CAF) is the first to market with several funds that make super elite luxury cars into real asset investments. As a result of growing overseas demand coupled with the limited supply of unique older vehicles, the returns on classic car investments hav...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva for New Managers: Here is a European long/short equity fund that has been beating the odds since its 2008 inception by employing its own investment model, frequent company visits and a concentrated portfolio. ...

Matthias Knab, Opalesque: Taurus Orators, the well-known alternative thinking group, have persuaded the Maltese Authorities to declare the Maltese island of Filfla as a tax free zone to encourage hedge fund managers to move to Malta and to domicile funds within the EU. The Three Maltese Islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino are well known to the international community, but the islan...

From PIOnline.com: Context Asset Management, a newly formed alternative investment mutual fund manager, on Wednesday launched its first fund, Context Alternative Strategies Fund. The new fund was seeded with $40 million from a family office that CEO Steve Kneeley said in an interview he couldn’t name. Portfolio managers for the multistrategy hedge fund-of-funds mutual fund are Andrew D...

Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services, a global asset administrator, announces the acquisition of Meridian Fund Services Group, a fund administrator with $14bn of assets under administration (AuA). Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services, part of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), provides a wide range of fund administration and investor services to hedge funds, fund of funds, private equity and real ...

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Hedge funds are once again net long the S&P500 following buying spree, according to the latest hedge fund monitor data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. F...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: Emerging market-focused hedge funds suffered sharp losses at the start of 2014 as the HFRI Emerging Markets (Total) Index declined by 2.5% in January on weakness in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Comparatively, the index gained 7.1% in the final four months of 2013. According to the latest ...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva for New Managers: Emerging markets have been suffering from slower economic growth, weak currencies, high interest rates and capital outflows of late. But frontier markets seem to have fared better. The MSCI Frontier Markets Index ro...

Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: A comprehensive online hedge fund glossary that provides users with a complete set of key terms, phrases, and definitions specific to all aspects of the global hedge fund industry has been launched by the Managed Funds Association in tandem with law firm ...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: Swiss voters on Sunday approved a restriction on immigration and a return of tighter quotas, overturning the Swiss-EU agreement on freedom of movement; the country must now renegotiate this treaty with the European Union. In fact, Switzerland can expect all of its treaties with the EU to be reviewed, Martin Schulz, the president of the Euro...

Fund targets legally entangled RMBS From Reuters.com: A hedge fund holding legacy mortgage securities entangled in JP Morgan's proposed private settlement with institutional investors is offering other bondholders a whopping 833% premium compared with the bank's recovery offer in order to get hold of one specific battered bond, according to offer documents s...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva for New Managers: The Topni Pacific Century Fund, L.P. is a fundamental long/short equity hedge fund managed by Ms. Jiyoung Kim in the firm that she founded in 2010, Topni Capital, in New York. A biochemistry graduate born in South Korea, Ms. Kim s...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva: James Faircliff and Richard Böttger, two young South African hedge fund managers, are passionate about the stock market and about investing: you’d have to be if you started trading stocks at the age of 13 – which they did. As grown-ups, they began their professional career in private equity, and then moved into the listed space. Together they eventual...

From Investmentnews.com: If the thought of paying the classic “two and 20” to a hedge fund makes you queasy, you may want to look away. Private-equity giant Blackstone Group is soliciting new shares for its $300 million Blackstone Alternative Alpha Fund, which carries a price tag that makes 2% in annual fees and 20% of profits look like a clearance sale. The non-traded fund of hedge funds has all-...

From PIonline.com: Yogesh Borkar was named co-portfolio manager at Axiom International Investors, according to Axiom spokesman Shane McMahon. The position is new. Mr. Borkar will co-manage the newly launched Axiom International Small Cap Fund with Matthew Franco, who manages the small/microcap equity team. Mr. Borkar will also work with Mr. Franco as a senior analyst for the internatio...

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva:In July 2013, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules in connection with the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, lifting an 80-year old ban on general solicitation and advertising and allowing hedge f...