Opalesque Roundtable: Activist investing heats up in South Africa... [more]Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Activist investing is becoming more popular with hedge fund managers in South Africa and they are using machine learning to help diligence companies. Delegates at the recent Opalesque South Africa Roundtable say that fragmentation in the South African economy

63% of institutional investors feel senior execs don't understand blockchain... [more]Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: 63% of respondents believe that senior business executives at large established businesses have a poor understanding of blockchain technology, said a small industry poll. A survey of institutional investors by the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) revealed t

Performance: Small Japan hedge fund turns 0% yield to double digit return, Concerns over hedge fund performance are short-term, Dorset Energy fund's big bet on oil rebound pays off... [more]Small Japan hedge fund turns 0% yield to double digit return From Bloomberg: A small Japanese hedge fund has managed to clamber its way to double-digit annual returns despite focusing solely on the country's zero-yielding government bond market. Amulet Capital Management Co. enjoyed

Institutional Investors: University of California moves bulk of cash into alternatives, Hedge funds get key role at $140bn Swedbank money manager, $14.8bn Danish benefits fund manager issues call for more capital, Two Dutch funds commit to venture capital fund... [more]University of California moves bulk of cash into alternatives From PIonline.com: The University of California endowment, Oakland, shifted a significant portion of its cash holdings into alternatives. At its televised meeting, Edmond Fong, senior managing director overseeing absolute r

New Launches: Point72's top quant Michael Graves to start hedge fund, Zynga founder is raising $700m for new investment fund, Bond firm Sky Harbor unveils short maturity sustainable HY fund, Barings unveils pair of Ucits fund mirrors amid Brexit uncertainty, Axa Venture Partners raises $150m early-stage fund... [more]Point72's top quant Michael Graves to start hedge fund From Business Insider: A former top quant manager at Steve Cohen's firm is launching his own fund. Michael Graves, who was a portfolio manger at Point72 Asset Management's Cubist unit for nearly a decade, resigned from the firm in 201

Macro hedge fund Atreaus to shut after raising $2bn... [more]From Bloomberg: Macro hedge fund Atreaus Capital is calling it quits, becoming the latest firm to succumb after years of poor performance. The hedge fund will shut its New York and London offices and stop trading in its main money pool, according to an investor letter seen by Bloomberg. The Atr

Paulson & Co. founder may leave hedge funds behind to start family office... [more]From PIonline.com: Billionaire John Paulson said publicly for the first time he may convert his hedge fund into a firm that solely manages his fortune, joining other high-profile names who made the change. Mr. Paulson, 63, said he will probably make a decision over the next couple of years. He m

Arconic: Seven hedge funds could've gotten hit the hardest hit as Arconic plunged, Arconic sale founders as Grenfell liabilities loom, Arconic no longer pursuing sale over price disagreements, shares tank... [more]Seven hedge funds could've gotten hit the hardest hit as Arconic plunged From Business Insider: The aluminum-products maker Arconic plunged 16% Tuesday after its board of directors said the company is no longer for sale. But seven hedge funds could have lost hundreds of millions of dollar

People: Jupiter to replace chief executive Maarten Slendebroek, BNP Paribas AM adds strategist to mixed assets and quant team... [more]Jupiter to replace chief executive Maarten Slendebroek From FT: Andrew Formica is to take over as chief executive of Jupiter Fund Management, replacing Maarten Slendebroek from March 1, in an accelerated change of management at the UK investment company. Jupiter said on Tuesday it "ha

Crypto: Coinbase rolls out further institutional support for bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin, What we learned in 100 crypto talks with institutional investors, Crypto hedge fund: BTC transaction volume in 2018 was 6x higher than PayPal, One of the world's largest crypto exchanges looks to go public in the US through a reverse merger, LSE trading tech to power new HK crypto exchange... [more]Coinbase rolls out further institutional support for bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin From Forbes: Coinbase, the U.S. bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange best-known for boasting it was signing up 50,000 retail accounts per day during the 2017 bitcoin bull run, is widening its support for i

U.S.: Investors in debt-laden companies face messy workouts, Wall St backlash sinks plan to transform swaps market... [more]Investors in debt-laden companies face messy workouts From FT: At the time, it appeared life-saving surgery for Toys R Us. In 2016, a trio of private equity firms that had paid almost $7bn for the toy retailer 11 years earlier offered owners of about $600m of unsecured bonds new debt that

Europe: Hedge funds hunt for Brexit bargains, Fund managers failing to rein in 'out of control' fatcat pay at UK companies, MPs told... [more]Hedge funds hunt for Brexit bargains From Bloomberg: That most bargain-hungry of corporate shoppers, Elliott Management Corp., might be about to put a chunky stake in a British retailer into its basket. Paul Singer's activist hedge fund is looking at plans to acquire a big holding in elec

Asia: Japan's Mizuho teams with China state tech fund to discover startups, Chinese tariffs slowing global economy... [more]Japan's Mizuho teams with China state tech fund to discover startups From Nikkei: Japan's Mizuho Bank will become the first foreign bank to partner with Chinese state-owned investment fund Zhongguancun Development Group, which backs startups in such fields as artificial intelligence.

Tech: How is artificial intelligence and blockchain changing the face of asset management?... [more]From Forbes: Asset management has a rich and traditional past that has helped build many people's fortunes over the years; many of the world's uber-rich have their backgrounds in hedge funds and other forms of smart asset management. However, like everything at this juncture in time, there is a

Outlook: Davos bankers try to put brave face on gloomy outlook, Charlie McElligott says S&P 500 Index set to head lower, Here's why hedge-fund billionaire Dalio says the next downturn is what 'scares me most', Billionaire hedge fund manager Klarman issues dire warning on global economy... [more]Davos bankers try to put brave face on gloomy outlook From Reuters: The International Monetary Fund has cut its global growth forecasts for the second time in three months. Central banks in the U.S. and Europe are reversing a decade of ultra-loose monetary policy. Trade tensions between W

Activists: Hedge funds push for overhaul at eBay, Busy activists navigate tricky currents, Ashland settles proxy fight with hedge fund Cruiser Capital... [more]Hedge funds push for overhaul at eBay From Business Standard: Hedge funds Elliott Management and Starboard Value have taken stakes in eBay Inc and are pushing for changes including the sale of some of the e-commerce company's businesses. In a letter to the company's board, Elliott asked e

News Briefs: SkyBridge's Anthony Scaramucci on opportunities in credit, real estate, The insane story of how an early quant investor went rogue, Inside Millennium Management: The portfolio managers' hedge fund,Can crowdsourcing mitigate a dearth of data scientists for banks... [more]SkyBridge's Anthony Scaramucci on opportunities in credit, real estate From Bloomberg: SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci discusses his outlook for hedge funds in 2019 and why his opportunity zone fund uses a "more unique structure." He said: "Unfortunately, we're having a seism

And, finally: Drama in Bridgeport, CT... [more]From Newsoftheweird: Isaias Garcia, 30, of Garland, Texas, pleaded guilty in a Bridgeport, Connecticut, courtroom on Jan. 10 to reduced charges stemming from a bizarre kidnapping scheme last April. Garcia had abducted a 21-year-old Fairfield man and was demanding $800 in ransom, the man's aunt and f