More institutional investors thump down U.K. investments post-Brexit, says survey... [more]Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: The proportion of institutional investors planning to increase exposure to U.K. assets has fallen to 15% in Q4 2018 from 21% in the Q3, according to a quarterly survey by State Street Corporation. According to the latest Brexometer index, a measure of institutional

Alternative investment manager Crestline Investors closes Specialty Lending Fund II strategy with $800m... [more]Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: The credit-focused institutional alternative asset manager Crestline Investors announced closing of Crestline Specialty Lending Fund II (SLF II) by Crestline's Direct Lending unit with over $800m in equity capital commitments. The SLF II strategy ill follow the

US institutional asset managers and hedge fund managers move towards outsourced trading: Study... [more]Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: 71% of survey respondents among US institutional asset management and hedge fund professionals currently employing outsourced trading services describing themselves as "extremely satisfied" with their providers, revealed a study. A new report by Greenwich Associates

Hedge funds pivot back to stocks, raising leverage from 2018 low... [more]From Bloomberg: The smart money is finally warming up to U.S. equities after turning defensive in the past few months. Hedge funds' gross leverage, a measure of the industry's risk appetite, climbed 2.5 percentage points to 234.5 percent as of Nov. 29 from a one-year low reached 10 days earlier, cli

New Launches: Mezzanine Management closes biggest fund to date on $300m, Activant Capital to raise $250 mln for third venture fund, Abry Partners targets $2.1bn for ninth flagship fund, 21 Invest France reaches $262m final close for fifth fund, Paris boutique launches fund targeting industrial revolution 4.0... [more]Mezzanine Management closes biggest fund to date on $300m From Altassets: CEE-focused Mezzanine Management has closed its fourth fund on EUR264m ($300.48m) of capital commitments, representing its largest vehicle to date. Mezzanine secured commitments for the fund from 20 limited partners

Fund Closures: French boutique founder shuts bond fund as low rates bite... [more]From City Wire: The founder of Paris-based boutique Oaks Field Partners has closed one of his longest-running funds after investor interest in classic bond funds fell. Oaks Field Partners closed the OFP Euro Sovereign Bond fund at the start of December following a decline in assets under management.

Daniel Och takes another step back from the hedge fund empire he built... [more]From WSJ: Billionaire investor Daniel Och is ceding a big chunk of his ownership in Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC following a period of upheaval for the biggest publicly traded hedge-fund firm in the U.S. Och-Ziff said Thursday that Och-Ziff's founder and several former managing director

Sears: Lampert's hedge fund makes bid for Sears stores and assets, Sears' chairman wants to buy the company for $4.6bn... [more]Lampert's hedge fund makes bid for Sears stores and assets Edward Lampert, the chairman and biggest creditor of Sears Holdings Corp., has made an offer to buy the retailer's stores and other assets out of bankruptcy court in a bid to keep control of the struggling chain. Mr. Lampert's

Investing: Fed up with Facebook, US fund managers look for alternatives, Fund protege of Carl Icahn: Invest in companies you believe in and leave stock trading to computers, Dan Loeb sells Baxter International shares at strong gain... [more]Fed up with Facebook, US fund managers look for alternatives From Reuters: Concerns about Facebook's declining profit margins and battered reputation have prompted 93 US mutual funds to completely sell out of their positions in the company so far in 2018, exacerbating a roughly 35% decl

Institutional Investors: San Mateo County allocates $70m to 2 funds, Institutional Investors urged to take holistic approach to portfolio's climate-change risk, New Mexico commits $100m to Blackstone real estate fund... [more]San Mateo County allocates $70m to 2 funds From PIonline.com: San Mateo County Employees' Retirement Association, Redwood City, Calif., agreed to allocate $70 million to two managers, said an announcement on the $4.3 billion pension fund's website. At its Tuesday meeting, the SamCERA

People: Two Sigma just appointed a Harvard neuroscientist as chief of staff, Matthew Harrison joins BNY Mellon from Trading Apps, Co-CIO of bonds quits French group to join BNP Paribas AM, European small cap team exits Kempen amid relocation... [more]Two Sigma just appointed a Harvard neuroscientist as chief of staff From eFinancial Careers: The venture capital arm of hedge fund Two Sigma Investments just hired a chief of staff with a rather unique background. Juliette Han started at Two Sigma Ventures earlier this month. Han com

Crypto: Cryptocurrency index fund follows Warren Buffett's playbook, but with a $1m bet against the S&P, Surge of institutional investors leads Binance to offer sub-accounts, Poloniex opens up to institutional investors, Crypto investors face tax confusion countdown, Malta halts operation of unlicensed crypto exchange... [more]Cryptocurrency index fund follows Warren Buffett's playbook, but with a $1m bet against the S&P From CNBC: A cryptocurrency asset manager is mimicking the playbook of one of the industry's most notable critics: Warren Buffett. Morgan Creek Digital is recreating Buffett's famous $1 million

Comment: It's the worst time to make money in markets since 1972... [more]From Bloomberg: Market statisticians are falling over each other in 2018 to describe the pain being felt across asset classes. One venerable shop frames it this way: Things haven't been this bad since Richard Nixon's presidency. Ned Davis Research puts markets into eight big asset classes - ever

Europe: Hedge funds smell more blood in British building, Bond funds shed $2bn in October amid worst retail outflows since EU referendum... [more]Hedge funds smell more blood in British building From Bloomberg: A British construction company launches a shock share sale to strengthen its balance sheet, pointing out that this is a preemptive move against business headwinds in 2019 and beyond. The market is having none of it. The

Outlook: Increasing M&A, ESG and fund closures: Moody's key changes to asset management in 2019... [more]From Investment Week: Moody's Investors Service has predicted a number of developments will take place across the asset management industry including further M&A, increasing ESG adoption and the closure of mutual funds. The group, in its asset management outlook for 2019, gave the industry a "stable

Opinion: JO Hambro's Reutter: 'the markets are bonkers'... [more]From Financial News: Rachel Reutter, a senior fund manager at JO Hambro Capital Management, has sounded a warning on unsustainable debt levels at UK companies, and strongly criticised corporate managers over-eager to borrow. Reutter made her observations on management and markets while speaking at t

Legal: Raj Rajaratnam settles bankruptcy lawsuit over 2010 Galleon payments, Widow of hedge fund executive who took his own life after losing $50 million in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, sues his psychiatrist... [more]Raj Rajaratnam settles bankruptcy lawsuit over 2010 Galleon payments From WSJ: Raj Rajaratnam has agreed to pay $350,000 to settle a civil lawsuit over payments he received while his hedge fund Galleon Group was being wound down following his arrest for insider trading. The December 2

Activists: Activist investors are spending more and shifting their strategies, Engaged capital goes activist on Del Frisco's, Livermore supports Paulson's Detour Gold board nominees, Siris, Elliott near Travelport acquisition... [more]Activist investors are spending more and shifting their strategies From WSJ: Activist investors, spending more cash than ever, are shifting their attention to new targets and honing their strategies. That is the conclusion of a new report from financial consulting firm Deloitte. Activ

News Briefs: Here's how much quants get paid at hedge funds, Steve Cohen needs some big returns for Hannukah... [more]Here's how much quants get paid at hedge funds From eFinancial Careers: There may be no better time than the present to be a quant. Hedge funds and banks are not only hiring PhDs right out of school to research and mine datasets, but also to build algorithms and strategies that directly i

And, finally: Criminal of the Week... [more]From Newsoftheweird: Suspected car prowler Isaiah John Gellatly, 31, of Vancouver, Washington, was going about his business late on Nov. 19 when Happy Valley police were called, according to Fox12 News. Responding officers found Gellatly lying fully reclined in the driver's seat of a Honda Accord ma