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By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London: A roundup of last week’s hedge fund launches, closures, index performance, trends, regulatory, legal and financial events pertaining the alternative investments world.

Last week, we heard of fund launches from Creditor Liquidity Solutions, L&G, Alpstar, LODH Gestion and Mascot Capital.

Jayhawk Capital liquidated its U.S.-focused hedge fund; five funds run by Lancelot blamed Petters as they filed bankruptcy; and Toronto-based Epic shuttered its flagship hedge fund following a 43% loss.

Highbridge denied reports that it was closing several funds and said it was going to build a new European unit. It was later reported that Highbridge had fired 10% of its NYC staff and was planning further cuts in Europe and Asia.

Citadel, which largest hedge fund had lost 35% YTD, denied rumours that it had approached the US government for aid and that the Fed was probing the firm. Citadel eventually announced plans to wind down its $1 billion FoHFs and shift the capital to a seeding business.

On the M&A scene, hedge fund manager Absolute Alpha begun talks with a number of Australian-based global equities managers with a view to purchasing their funds, and RREEF bought a minority stake in the real estate hedge fund Rosen Real Estate Securities.

Wolkswagen’s shares more than doubled on Monday when Porsche (the famed half-car maker, half-hedge fund) announced an unexpected stake increase to 74%. Hedge funds, rushing to cover short positions, were forced to buy stock from a shrinking pool of shares in free float. Many short-sellers faced great losses: funds including Greenlight and Odey A. M. admitted to having big short positions in VW - and Highbridge, Marshall Wace and Citadel denied reports of large losses.

Porsche eventually offered to sell 5% of its VW shares to help hedge funds settle their short exposu......................

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