Opalesque Exclusive: Investors are sticking with alternatives but are putting pressure on managers to focus on ESG, succession planning... [more]Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Investors are continuing to allocate to alternatives, but they're choosing private equity and real estate over hedge funds according to EY's latest Global Alternative Funds Survey. Investors also want to see a robust talent management strategy and greate

Alpine Investors raises the largest fund yet at $1bn... [more]Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: San Francisco-based technology-focused midmarket firm Alpine Investors has raised $1 billion for its newest fund, the largest amassed by the firm to date. The final tally for Alpine Investors VII LP was nearly double the $532 million the San Francisco-based firm rai

Record number of US venture fund raise 23% more assets by Q3 than in 2018... [more]Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: 2018 was a record-breaking year for US-based venture capital funds, and 2019 is poised to overtake it in terms of both the number of funds closed and amount of capital raised. At the end of Q3, 299 venture capital funds have already closed this year, raising an agg

New Launches: Ex-Citadel, Highland managers start hedge fund with $750m, Singapore boutique launches new fund targeting HNWIs, Norwest Venture Partners raises $2bn venture and growth equity fund, Northgate Capital closes Fund VIII, at $120m, Vintage gets $133m in investor commitments for new fund, JPMAM, UBS GWM launch genetic therapies fund... [more]Ex-Citadel, Highland managers start hedge fund with $750m From Bloomberg: David Witzke, a former money manager at Citadel, started his health-care focused hedge fund Avidity Partners Management with about $750 million in commitments, according to people familiar with the matter. The

Fingers point at hedge funds after Japan bond sell-off... [more]From FT: Hedge funds are taking the blame for a drop in Japanese government bond prices that has reverberated around global debt markets. Benchmark bonds in the US, Germany and the UK have all taken a tumble in recent weeks, driven by an?unusual outbreak of optimism about the global economic outlook

Institutional Investors: Virginia commits $250m to private equity, real assets, CalPERS looks to shovel more money into private equity, San Antonio Fire & Police dispatches $36m for 2 real estate funds, Danish pension fund awards Nordea sustainable mandate, Norway's SWF blacklists UK's G4S, shedding $86m of its shares, September public pension commitments to private equity hits record for the year... [more]Virginia commits $250m to private equity, real assets From PIonline.com: Virginia Retirement System, Richmond, committed $250 million to private equity and real assets and terminated a credit manager, the $82 billion pension fund announced Wednesday. In private equity, the pension f

Investing: Hedge funds shop for Netflix, Facebook in volatile third quarter, Bridgewater's top 5 new buys in the 3rd quarter, Berkshire Hathaway stake boosts shares in upscale furniture retailer RH, Appaloosa increases stake in Alphabet, lowers stake in UnitedHealth, D1 Capital Partners is loading up on FAANG stocks... [more]Hedge funds shop for Netflix, Facebook in volatile third quarter From Bloomberg: U.S. hedge funds bought shares of Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc. despite steep declines in the technology darlings during a volatile third quarter. Chase Coleman and David Tepper were among the money ma

People: Deval Patrick resigns from Bain Capital to run for president, Los Angeles County Employees names new CEO... [more]Deval Patrick resigns from Bain Capital to run for president From PIonline.com: Deval Patrick resigned as co-managing partner of Bain Capital's Double Impact business to join the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, a Bain Capital spokesman said. Mr. Patrick, who

Crypto: SEC's settlements with some cryptocurrency firms showing cracks, China throws its weight behind A.I. and blockchain as it aims to be the world's tech leader, Inner Mongolia pushes inspection of local crypto token mining companies, China's military press suggests using cryptocurrency to reward soldiers... [more]SEC's settlements with some cryptocurrency firms showing cracks From WSJ: Regulators' efforts to push cryptocurrency startups to comply with laws governing fundraising may be faltering, as several firms that agreed to fix past misdeeds missed deadlines to repay investors or provide more t

Currency: Quant hedge fund Aspect sees more FX risk on investor radars, Founder of $1bn hedge fund bets Pound has potential to rally more, In swaps we trust? Disappearing dollars drive currency trading dependence... [more]Quant hedge fund Aspect sees more FX risk on investor radars From Bloomberg: Aspect Capital Ltd., a quantitative hedge fund with about $7 billion in assets, is seeing greater demand for currency hedging products from Australian pension funds looking to boost returns. The money manag

U.S.: How Warren's wealth tax would hit 'rich list' hedge fund managers, Americans are not addicted to debt and U.S. stocks should do fine... [more]How Warren's wealth tax would hit 'rich list' hedge fund managers From Institutional Investor: Bridgewater Associates' founder Ray Dalio likes to say that capitalism isn't working for most Americans - one thing the hedge fund heavyweight and Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warr

Europe: EU set to revise MiFID II following backlash, Russia, climate change, and the $30tn ESG investment prize... [more]EU set to revise MiFID II following backlash From FT: Brussels is preparing to retune some of its Mifid II markets rules from next year, less than three years after implementation, following a wave of criticism from investors and regulators over the effectiveness of the far-reaching legis

Asia: Korea: Minimum investment in hedge funds to be raised to $26m, S. Korea bans lenders from selling high-risk private equity funds, No more easy profits as China's venture capital boom fizzles... [more]Korea: Minimum investment in hedge funds to be raised to $26m From Business Korea: Individual investors' minimum investment in hedge funds will be raised from the current 100 million won to 300 million won ($26m). Eun Sung-soo, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, announced on N

PE/VC: Private equity has been booming, but public markets are starting to push back... [more]From Financial Post: One of the features of this decade-long bull market is the rise of private equity. PE firms are in the middle of almost every corporate deal, and many buy, sell and merger transactions have multiple firms involved. PE managers are raising larger amounts of money with each ne

Study: It really is time to outsource your trading, Buyout funds: Fundraising has been strong, but the private markets firm reports that it appears to have peaked... [more]It really is time to outsource your trading From Institutional Investor: Asset managers are vigilant about looking for signals of impending change in the markets, and rightly focused on investment returns - it's what they are paid to do, and they are good at it. But as they push on to mee

Bridgewater's Ray Dalio warns of capital war between U.S., China... [more]From Bloomberg: Warnings of a capital war between China and the U.S. are growing louder. The conflict between the two countries could expand beyond trade and technology, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said at the annual gala of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in New York on

How SoftBank is putting its stamp on LatAm's venture capital scene, How can SoftBank's Vision Fund restore its vision?... [more]How SoftBank is putting its stamp on LatAm's venture capital scene From Reuters: SoftBank, whose $5 billion Latin America fund has showered regional startups with cash, is also courting local venture capital funds, an unusual move for the Japanese investor that has jolted the region's te

ESG: Europe investments by ESG funds to rise by $1.2tn, Asset managers say they're into ESG. Their product descriptions say otherwise, Green is the new black as ESG buzz fuels inflows... [more]Europe investments by ESG funds to rise by $1.2tn From Bloomberg: The letters E, S and G have started to gain traction among investors in recent years as diversity issues and a Swedish teenage climate activist dominate headlines, showing how environmental, social and governance concerns h

Activists: Icahn suffers Occidental legal blow as Buffett buys in, Icahn declares HP stake and says Xerox merger is 'no brainer', Activist Jana discloses stake in takeover target Instructure... [more]Icahn suffers Occidental legal blow as Buffett buys in From FT: Activist investor Carl Icahn was dealt a blow in his campaign against the management of US shale driller Occidental Petroleum, where he has been trying to force his way on to the board in the wake of its deal to buy rival Ana

News Briefs: Here's what hedge funds pitched at the Sohn London conference, Women need to 'get rich' and fund other women to encourage more entrepreneurs, says AllBright co-founder Debbie Wosskow... [more]Here's what hedge funds pitched at the Sohn London conference From Bloomberg: Hedge fund bears regained a dose of confidence at an annual gathering of industry managers in London on Thursday. While most of the bets at the Sohn investment conference were long, three were short ideas

And, finally: Gin challenge anyone?... [more]From BizarreNews: The makers of a South African gin infused with elephant dung swear their use of the animal's excrement is no gimmick. The creators of Indlovu Gin, Les and Paula Ansley, stumbled across the idea a year ago on a safari after learning that elephants eat a variety of fruits and flowers