Other Voices: Private equity ends 2020 on a high... [more]By: Ian Bagshaw | Oliver Brahmst | Daniel Yeh Global private equity dealmaking continued its dramatic return to form in the fourth quarter, posting a strong finish to the year. Total deal value in Q4 came to US$336.5 billion, a 40% increase on the same quarter in 2019, while volume climbed 12% t

Investors redeemed $58bn from hedge funds in 2020... [more]Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Investors removed an estimated $9.74 billion from hedge funds in the final month of 2020, said eVestment. YTD redemptions are estimated to be $58.76 billion. The total estimated industry AUM sits at $3.360 trillion. Since 2008, only once have net flows been positive

Investment earnings generate 71% of public pension revenue... [more]Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: For the fiscal year 2020, earnings on investments accounted for 71% of public retirement system revenues, according to a survey. The share of revenues that comes from investment earnings edged up from 69 percent a year earlier, while the employer contribution dipped

2020 CTA Challenge: And the winner is AG Capital Investments... [more]Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: The global macro investment firm AG Capital Investments' Discretionary Global Macro Program secures the #1 spot in the 2020 CTA Challenge, beating out the other 114 participating Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) programs for the year. According to a press stateme

Hedge fund JW Asset Management was up 146% in 2020, Einhorn's fund-of-funds trounced S&P 500 last year with 26% gain, Speedo billionaires notch 530% gain in a year, Formidable vows to stay course after hedge fund's 83% 2020 gain... [more] Hedge fund JW Asset Management was up 146% in 2020 From Institutional Investor: Now this is what you call high performance.Two of JW Asset Management's funds - the "B" shares of JW Partners and the similarly managed JW Opportunities Fund - produced a 146 percent gain last year, according

New adventures for hedge fund rogue Homm in $200m Swiss fraud trial... [more]From Bloomberg: A German hedge-fund manager who fended off U.S. extradition over an alleged $200-million fraud is finding legal troubles closer to home. Florian Homm's trial on charges of fraud, criminal mismanagement, money laundering and forgery was due to begin in a Swiss court on Tuesday.

New Launches: Ex-Tiger Global Partner's Cat Rock is launching a new fund, Pioneer Point Partners achieves first close for $608m sustainable infrastructure fund, Santander AM launches fund tapping future of society, tech and planet, ActivumSG raises $669m for European distressed real estate opportunities... [more] Ex-Tiger Global Partner's Cat Rock is launching a new fund From Institutional Investor: Following strong performance in 2020, an ex-Tiger Global Management partner is raising money for a new fund. Alex Captain's Cat Rock Capital recently told clients in its fourth-quarter letter that it

Multi-strategy hedge funds: Equity in a different shade?... [more]From All About Alpha: Investing in hedge funds is challenging as both strategies and fund structures are complex. Almost all strategies are cyclical, although not all are on the same cycle. For example, statistical arbitrage tends to perform best when volatility is high, however, that represents a p

5 biggest quant funds in the world... [more]From Insider Monkey: Below are the 5 biggest quant funds in the world. 5. Renaissance Technologies: Quant pioneer Renaissance Technologies saw one of the biggest losses in its history from its three funds open to outside investors. Renaissance Institutional Diversified Alpha fund and Renaissa

Institutional Investors: KIC targets 25% alternatives allocation by 2027, Texas County commits to opportunistic real estate, S. Korea's State pension fund earns big from equity investments in 2020, San Luis Obispo County hunting for private markets consulant... [more] KIC targets 25% alternatives allocation by 2027 From Asian Investor: The CIO of the sovereign wealth fund outlined his investment strategy for alternative assets, and how he plans to leverage technology at a webinar hosted by AsianInvestor. Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) plans

Investing: Short-squeezed hedge funds are now getting hit on their bullish bets too, Hedge funds and data companies are closely tracking the infamous WallStreetBets Reddit forum, , Solar stocks propel Asia hedge funds to supersized gains, Evotec shares rise amid speculation Melvin Capital closing short positions... [more] Short-squeezed hedge funds are now getting hit on their bullish bets too From Bloomberg: With a full-blown retail raid targeting their short books, many of the stocks hedge funds are bullish on are suddenly in trouble, too. That has prompted the industry to cut their risk appetite at the

SPACs: ETF industry is embracing SPACs with open arms, As SPACs hunt targets, they could disrupt VC world, Hedge fund's second SPAC Hudson Executive Investment II prices upsized $225m IPO, SPAC hrenzy has some Wall Street investors worrying about a bubble, SPACs: The challenge and opportunities for investment banking... [more] ETF industry is embracing SPACs with open arms From CNBC: The ETF industry is embracing SPACs with open arms. The third exchange-traded fund based on special purpose acquisition vehicles launches Tuesday. Created by Morgan Creek Capital Management and Exos Financial, the Morgan Creek-Ex

People: Elliott hedge fund trader Lyon to join Fortress-backed startup, NN IP hires from Allianz and ASI for senior roles in sustainable and impact equity team... [more] Elliott hedge fund trader Lyon to join Fortress-backed startup From Bloomberg: Tom Lyon, a senior trader at Paul Singer's Elliott Management Corp., is joining a startup credit hedge fund, according to people familiar with the matter. Lyon will join $200 million Carronade Capital Ma

Crypto: With Yellen confirmed, Treasury moves forward with stalled crypto monitoring rule, Crypto investment funds sent false signals, U.S. authorities allege, American Cancer Society starts 'crypto only' donation fund... [more] With Yellen confirmed, Treasury moves forward with stalled crypto monitoring rule From Coin Telegraph: The United States Treasury Department's now-infamous proposal to require information on crypto transfers from exchanges to self-hosted wallets is back in motion. Per a Tuesday ann

Property: EQT inks deal to buy real estate manager... [more]From PIonline.com: Private equity firm EQT agreed to acquire real estate manager Exeter Property Group in a $1.8 billion deal. EQT's real assets capability currently has €19.3 billion ($23.5 billion) in assets. Exeter is a value-add logistics and industrial space U.S. and European real es

U.S.: Chamath Palihapitiya, Silicon Valley SPAC king, wants to be governor of California, Sovereign wealth, public pension giants caught up in U.S.-China tech fight... [more] Chamath Palihapitiya, Silicon Valley SPAC king, wants to be governor of California From Institutional Investor: Chamath Palihapitiya, Silicon Valley mogul turned SPAC kingpin, wants to add a new title to his CV: governor of California. "It's on," Palihapitiya tweeted late Monday night, a

Europe: Britain starts work on post-Brexit asset management sector... [more]From Reuters: Britain set out options on Tuesday for increasing the global attractiveness of its 9.9 trillion pound ($13.59 trillion) asset management sector after Brexit put European Union retail fund investors out of reach. The finance ministry said in a public consultation paper that ideas

Asia: Why foreign investors are eyeing Indonesia's SWF, China's mutual fund AUM nears $3.1tn milestone... [more] Why foreign investors are eyeing Indonesia's SWF From Asian Investor: The country's budding sovereign wealth fund needs foreign investment, but may struggle to offer levels of return. Would-be investors may instead invest to support geopolitical priorities. Indonesia is betting its

PE/VC: Number of listed firms being taken private accelerated in the UK last year... [more]From PE News: A trend in recent years of listed companies being taken private has accelerated during the coronavirus crisis, according to research by the accountancy and business consultancy BDO. The research found that private equity firms completed £21.1bn of deals for UK listed busine

Study: Structured product returns fall in 2020 despite continued success... [more]From Investment Week: Structured products had their worst year since 2004, despite more than two-thirds (69.4%) providing investors with positive returns and just 6.8% returning a loss, a report from Lowes Financial Management has revealed. Last year was a volatile one for stockmarkets, in par

ESG: BlackRock sets out 2021 net-zero support commitments, Malaysia's top pension fund sees ESG as 'vaccine for any crises', Dot-com era stock valuations bring bubble fears to ESG funds... [more] BlackRock sets out 2021 net-zero support commitments From IPE: BlackRock will be publishing a temperature alignment metric for public equity and bond funds, where market data is sufficiently reliable, as part of a series of actions to help investors with their climate change-related goal

News Briefs: Public funds press BlackRock on political spending, World economic growth 'a race between a mutating virus and vaccinations' - IMF, World's biggest wealth fund builds tool to fix investment errors... [more] Public funds press BlackRock on political spending From PIonline.com: Nearly two dozen fiduciaries of public retirement plans and others expressed concern over BlackRock's internal practices and stewardship stances on companies' political spending and lobbying activity. In a letter

And, finally: A classic false pretence of virtue... [more]From The Smoking Gun: Esequiel Robles, 40, was caught after a traffic stop in Williston, North Dakota, with methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia on Jan. 14. The Smoking Gun reported that Robles was on probation for narcotics possession at the time, following a 2019 conviction for meth possession.