Other Voices: Private equity's new trend: selling to themselves... [more]By: Andreas Hinsen, Loyens Loeff The decline in global M&A activity during the Covid-19 pandemic, combined with the ongoing lack of attractively priced targets, led to a rise in an alternative exit scenario for private equity firms: selling their portfolio companies to themselves, typically by c

BlackRock raises $4.8bn for renewable power fund... [more]Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: American multinational investment management corporation BlackRock Inc. has raised $4.8 billion for a new fund to invest in renewable power assets around the world - almost double its initial target. The total for the firm's GRP III was almost three times the s

ESG considerations to play growing role in fund domiciliation decision-making... [more]B. G., Opalesque Geneva: Investors are known to influence domiciliation decisions as they prize stability and jurisdictional reputation. While that remains true today, recent events have had some impact on such decisions. IFI Global and Jersey Finance have just published a new research repor

Hedge funds extend gains to continue strong 1Q... [more]Opalesque Industry Update - Hedge funds advanced in March for the sixth consecutive month despite acceleration in realized equity market volatility, completing a strong 1Q 2021. Recent strong performance has been driven by exposure to out-of-favor, deep value equities, as well as by optimism ove

Lone Pine, Candlestick, and Holocene among the big-name hedge funds hit hard in March, Assets have tanked at two of the world's biggest short sellers, Hydrogen Fund CEO sees early bets rewarded with higher returns... [more] Lone Pine, Candlestick, and Holocene among the big-name hedge funds hit hard in March From Business Insider: March was not pleasant for many hedge funds. Big-name managers like Lone Pine, Holocene, Candlestick, Suvretta, and more lost money as industry-wide alpha - or returns beyond th

Quants are getting ready to pounce on China's commodity boom... [more]From Bloomberg: Trend-following hedge funds in Europe and the United States are waiting in the wings as China opens up its futures markets in everything from coal and soya beans to silver. These quantitative traders are looking to ride the momentum of hard and soft commodities in the world's second-

New Launches: Amundi launches Just Transition for Climate fund, Index Ventures launches $200m seed fund, China's Hosen Capital hits $800m hard cap for third US dollar fundraise, Shackleton launches fifth venture secondaries fund... [more] Amundi launches Just Transition for Climate fund From Bloomberg: Amundi has launched a European fixed income fund that will support energy transition. The Just Transition for Climate fund is managed by Alban de Fa?, head of fixed income ESG investing, and Dany da Fonseca, credit portfo

Credit Suisse tightens hedge fund limits amid Archegos fallout... [more]From Bloomberg: Credit Suisse Group AG is tightening the financing terms it gives hedge funds and family offices, in a potential harbinger of new industry practices after the Archegos Capital Management blowup cost the Swiss bank $4.7 billion. Credit Suisse has been calling clients to change mar

Institutional Investors: Alecta plans to step up big-ticket investments in unlisted equity, Texas County commits to third China-focused venture fund... [more] Alecta plans to step up big-ticket investments in unlisted equity Sweden's largest pension provider has huge scope in allocation policy to expand unlisted, but progress depends on opportunities available. Alecta is working to make more large-sized investments in unlisted equity in Euro

Investing: A secretive SpaceX investor has scored a 75% stock gain in the past 3 weeks, Apple's stock price doesn't reflect the 12% upside offered by its growing autonomous-vehicle ambitions, UBS says... [more] A secretive SpaceX investor has scored a 75% stock gain in the past 3 weeks From Business Insider: A SpaceX investor has seen its stock price surge 75% in the past three weeks for no apparent reason. International Holdings' market capitalization has soared to a record $43 billion as a

SPACs: Investors see $90bn SPAC craze fizzling in the next year, US regulator turns spotlight on rosy SPAC projections, SPACs drive March M&A record, but other infotech players are still buying, Blank-check ETFs keep coming even as SPAC fever cools down... [more] Investors see $90bn SPAC craze fizzling in the next year From PE News: Investors overseeing almost $13tn in assets say the frenzy around Spac listings will slow over the coming 12 months, predicting a spate of high profile failures will suppress appetite for so-called blank-cheque comp

People: Goldman hires ex-UBS banker to double wealth business in mideast... [more]From Bloomberg: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. hired a UBS Group AG banker to run its private wealth management unit for the Middle East and North Africa, as part of a strategy to expand its business catering to rich clients. Gabriel Aractingi joined the U.S. bank earlier this month as head of privat

Crypto: Investors earmark further cash for bitcoin allocations, DeFi's money markets are finally luring in institutional investors, Bitcoin ETF coming 'in a year or two,' analyst says as SEC mulls applications, Crypto asset flows bounce back grasping $4.5bn in Q1 2021... [more] Investors earmark further cash for bitcoin allocations From PIonline.com: Some 85% of European investors and managers with an existing bitcoin exposure plan to increase their investments over the next two years. A survey of 50 institutional investors and 50 wealth managers with a c

M&A: Fund administrator TMF Group acquires compatriot US firm Venture Back Office, Future Planet Capital buys VC firm Midven... [more] Fund administrator TMF Group acquires compatriot US firm Venture Back Office TMF Group, a provider of global administrative services - including fund accounting and administration - has today completed the acquisition of Venture Back Office (VBO), a US based third-party provider of so

Property: China garnishes global investor hunger for Apac property... [more]From Asian Investor: A new piece of research by the Urban Land Institute and PwC says global investors are keen to pour more funds into the region, due to its economic strength and good demographics. Booming inflows of investment across Asia's real estate sectors, and particularly into China and

U.S.: Investment giants lobby to avoid antitrust scrutiny, Oracle's Larry Ellison buys Palm Beach mansion for $80m... [more] Investment giants lobby to avoid antitrust scrutiny From WSJ: Asset managers are fighting a proposal from U.S. antitrust authorities to tighten scrutiny over how these firms influence the way businesses operate and, in turn, the prices of everything from airline tickets to food. In

Europe: UK investors flood to equity funds in March, Axa bets $952m on demand for offices - report... [more] UK investors flood to equity funds in March From Funds Europe: UK investors added record levels of capital to equity funds in March as they bet on the post-Covid economic recovery, according to the latest data from funds transaction network Calastone.In total, UK investors committed a

Asia: Tiger stalks startup street again, leaves a trail of unicorns, How a Chinese billionaire family is quietly expanding its empire in Hong Kong... [more] Tiger stalks startup street again, leaves a trail of unicorns From Mint: Tiger Global Management, the New York-based investment firm known for its audacious bets in little-known companies, has led the funding rounds of three of the six startups that turned unicorn this week, resuming i

PE/VC: Buyout targets in Europe fetch higher prices as competition heats up, Korea's private equity market hindered by chaebols'... [more] Buyout targets in Europe fetch higher prices as competition heats up From City Wire: Prices paid to acquire European companies are expected to increase in the next 12 months as competition for targets heats up. Valuations were expected to fall to reasonable levels due to the impact

ESG: Green, greener, greenest..., 2 standards better than 1 when it comes to ESG reporting , Wall Street math shows ESG funds can ride the value stock boom... [more] ESG: Green, greener, greenest... From Funds Europe: When the EU's landmark Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) came into force on March 10, it was widely welcomed and hailed as a 'game-changer' in the fight against greenwashing.A core component of the bloc's green agenda,

News Briefs: How billionaires got so rich in 2021, Hedge fund Balyasny on quant and tech hiring spree... [more] How billionaires got so rich in 2021 From Forbes: There are a record-smashing 2,755 billionaires in the world, according to Forbes' 2021 World's Billionaires list. How did they make their mega-fortunes? By doing everything from starting hedge funds and tech companies to breeding pigs a

And, finally: A strange way to wake up... [more]From UPI: A deer crashed through the windshield of a Virginia school bus and landed on a student who was taking a nap during the morning commute. Powhatan County Public Schools shared footage from the vehicle's onboard camera, which captured the 6 a.m. Thursday incident. The student was not inju