Daily News back issues from March 2007:
HFs and PE Face Off on the Court
Mar 01, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - Hedge funds and private equity may beconverging in the marketplace, but their meeting on the basketballcourt might not be so friendly. The Youth Improving Non-profits forChildren, the organization that seeks to improve nonprofits servingkids, will host the ...
Hedge Fund Managers Charged with Insider Trading
Mar 01, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - High-level executives, including acompliance attorney, from Morgan Stanley and UBS gave non-publicinformation to traders, including the managers of three hedge funds,who used the insider tips to net more than $15 million in tradingprofits, according to a civil ...
Documentation Matters: Managing Margin
Mar 01, 2007; ... Documentation Matters is a weekly contributed column on tradedocumentation issues. This is the sixth in a series of weekly columns that providesguidance on the risks a fund may want to address in the course ofnegotiating trading documents. As the prior columns in this serieshave ...
More Hedge Funds Disclosing Data: PerTrac
Mar 01, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - High numbers of new fund launches, theneed to woo investors with performance figures and a major push fromdata gatherers to sign up funds all contributed to a 60% jump in thenumber of funds reporting to databases in 2006, according to a ...
F&C Has $166M Pledged for Event-Driven IPO
Mar 01, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - F&C Asset Management has had 85 million($166 million) pledged to the launch of a closed-end fund of fundstargeting an event-driven strategy that it has just begun marketing.It expects to raise up to 120 million ($235 million) for the F&CEvent Driven Fund and is ...
Worst Day for Hedge Funds Since 2003: HFR
Mar 01, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - Not only did the Dow Jones IndustrialAverage calculation system fail to function, but now data has emergedthat Tuesday [Feb. 27] may have been the worst day for hedge funds inat least four years. Though it is important to note that most managers don't ...
Utah Repeals Its FTD Statute
Mar 01, 2007; ... SALT LAKE CITY (HedgeWorld.com) - Both houses of Utah'slegislature have now passed a bill that repeals failure-to-deliverlegislation passed last year, and officials in Gov. Jon M. HuntsmanJr.'s office indicated he will sign it. The Senate voted for repeal on Friday, 27 to 1, and ...
People Briefs
Mar 01, 2007; ... Cowen Adds Vice Chairman NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - The investment bank Cowen Group Inc.hired Scott Ryles as vice chairman in charge of developingalternative investment strategies for hedge funds. Mr. Ryles will bebased in San Francisco and report to Greg Macolm, Cowen ...
Ewing, Keehn Reelected as NFA Public Directors
Mar 02, 2007; ... CHICAGO (HedgeWorld.com) - The National Futures Association'sboard of directors reelected two individuals to serve two year termsas public directors: Thomas W. Ewing, of counsel at Davis & HarrisLLP, and Silas Keehn.Mr. Ewing served in the U.S. House of Representatives as ...
Private Banking Boosts Schroders' Profits
Mar 02, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - U.K.-based asset manager Schroders,which had 128.5 billion ($251.5 billion) under management as of Dec.31, on March 2 reported pre-tax profits of 290 million for 2006, upalmost 16% on 2005 figures. Underlying profits, adjusted to removethe impact of a one-off ...
Proxy Briefs
Mar 02, 2007; ... Scottish Re Group: Cerberus Deal Approved HAMILTON, Bermuda (HedgeWorld.com) - Scottish Re Group Ltd. (NYSE:SCT), a global life reinsurance specialist, announced that itsshareholders have approved a transaction that will give MassMutualCapital Partners LLC, and an affiliate of ...
Cumulus Funds Propelled by Warm Winter
Mar 02, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - Weather patterns have a huge impact oncommodities markets. Extreme events like hurricanes can interruptsupplies of energy or raw materials, causing the prices of both thecommodities and of the means to transport them to spiral upwards. Butless-obvious events can ...
Reg NMS Shake-Down Cruise Begins
Mar 02, 2007; ... WASHINGTON (HedgeWorld.com) - Exchanges and electroniccommunications networks will begin complying with the "trading phase"of Regulation NMS on Monday [March 5], the Securities and ExchangeCommission announced Friday. The trading phase is designed to identify and work out ...
CBOE Stock Exchange to Launch March 5
Mar 02, 2007; ... CHICAGO (HedgeWorld.com) - Following through on a promise madelast July, the Chicago Board Options Exchange will start tradingindividual equities via its CBOE Stock Exchange LLC subsidiary onMonday [March 5]. The CBSX, as it's known, will start trading Monday morning witheight ...
Commodities Fund Watches as Softs Liquidity Rises
Mar 05, 2007; ... LAUSANNE, Switzerland (HedgeWorld.com) - Liquidity in softcommodity markets is on the rise, according to one manager whose fundfocuses exclusively on such commodities as cotton, sugar and coffee.Increasingly diversified commodity indexes and broader interest insofts are just two of the ...
Fauchier May Be Planning FOF Launch
Mar 05, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - U.K.-based Fauchier Partners, a fund offunds manager that invests around $4.5 billion, is to launch aspecial-situations fund of funds, Financial News reported. Accordingto the information provider, the firm has identified special-situation funds as a potential ...
Albert Hsu Arrested
Mar 05, 2007; ... BOSTON, March 5 (Reuters)--A prominent hedge fund manager who wasexperienced in investing money for charities is expected to bearraigned on charges of attempted kidnapping and sexual assault onMonday, police in Connecticut said. Albert Hsu, a co-founder of hedge fund of funds ...
Book Offers Framework for Intelligent Commodities Investing
Mar 05, 2007; ... CHICAGO (HedgeWorld.com) - The amount of capital invested incommodities indexes jumped by a factor of five between 2001, whenjust $20 billion was invested, and the end of 2006, when the figurehad jumped to more than $100 billion. In spite of last year'snegative performance for most ...
Dutch Central Bank Cites Stability in ABN Matter
Mar 05, 2007; ... AMSTERDAM, March 5 (Reuters)--Dutch central bank chief NoutWellink cannot be considered protectionist for criticizing a Britishhedge fund for suggesting that ABN Amro should be broken up, theDutch banking association said on Monday. "Financial institutions must be distinguished ...
Buffett Blasts Grotesque' HF Fees
Mar 05, 2007; ... OMAHA, Neb. (HedgeWorld.com) - Hedge funds may be popular amonginvestors, but they get their share of bashing. Last year the Germans called hedge funds "locusts." In 2004,Pimco's Bill Gross said they were "risky" and "generally overpriced."Now Warren E. Buffett, the world's ...
Ryan to Fiduciaries: Be Vigilant
Mar 06, 2007; ... OLD GREENWICH, Conn. (HedgeWorld.com) - An official of the U.S.Treasury expanded a bit upon the recent report from the President'sWorking Group on Financial Markets in remarks prepared Tuesday [March6] for the Connecticut Hedge Funds Association. Anthony Ryan, assistant secretary ...
Global Launches Buyout Fund - the ME's First Activist?
Mar 06, 2007; ... KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (HedgeWorld.com) - Global Capital Partners, awholly owned subsidiary of Kuwait-based investment company GlobalInvestment House, has announced the launch of Global Buyout Fund. Thefirm said the new fund will invest in "high-potential companies" inthe Middle East, North ...
Nordic Seeks Partner for Retail HF Offering
Mar 06, 2007; ... COPENHAGEN, Denmark (HedgeWorld.com) - HedgeNordic reports thatDanish firm Nordic Asset Management is looking to form a jointventure with a Danish bank with the aim of offering an onshore fixed-income hedge fund product that can be sold to domestic retailinvestors. "Effectively ...
Blumenthal Wants Regulation on Connecticut Agenda
Mar 06, 2007; ... BOSTON (Reuters)--Connecticut's top law enforcement officialcriticized the state's hedge fund association on Monday for notputting regulation on the agenda at an upcoming forum sponsored bythe group. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, whose state is home toroughly one-third of ...
Regulatory Focus Intensifies on Hedge Funds
Mar 06, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - American legislators and regulatorsare converging on hedge funds from several directions. On a singleday last week, different arms of the government raised the issues ofinsider trading by the funds and pension investments in the funds. This week is the ...
Italian Asset Totals Decline, Hedge Fund Numbers Rise in February
Mar 06, 2007; ... MILAN, Italy (HedgeWorld.com) - Italian assets under managementfell by 4.01 billion euro ($5.25 billion) in February as investorscontinued to display a certain skittishness toward the financialmarkets. According to the Italian asset managers' association,Assogestioni, assets under ...
SuperDerivatives Unveils HF-Specific Product
Mar 06, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - SuperDerivatives, a pricing providerfor options, today [March 6] announced the launch of SD-Funds, a newbuy-side solution for hedge funds and asset managers. SD-Funds is anonline multi-asset derivatives platform that includes all pre- andpost-trade activities ...
Conference Teeter-Totters on Bankruptcy
Mar 06, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - The phrase of the day at a Mondayconference on corporate restructuring was "the fulcrum security," andthe caveat of the day was that finding it can be tricky. Imagine a newly bankrupt corporation as a see-saw with a muchheavier weight at one end than at ...
Brevan Howard Scales Back Fund IPO
Mar 07, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - Brevan Howard Asset Management, theglobal macro fund operator, is scaling back the amount of money itexpects to raise through its initial public offering to a maximum ofabout 800 million euro [$1 billion], a source with knowledge of thefloat said Wednesday ...
Sanders Morris Becomes a DAD
Mar 07, 2007; ... HOUSTON (HedgeWorld.com) - Sanders Morris Harris Inc. a financialservices holding company, has joined the "Designated Adviser forDisclosure" program of Pink Sheets LLC, it announced. New York-headquartered Pink Sheets, the provider of electronicquotation, trading and disclosure ...
Calpine, Over Objections, Gets New Financing
Mar 07, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - The Manhattan bankruptcy court ruledin favor of Calpine Corp.'s petition for new post-petition financing,in the process upholding the authority of a bankruptcy judge to makeequitable distribution of a debtor's assets in ways that may overridecontracted-for ...
Man Stock Eases As AHL Suffers 8.2% Drawdown
Mar 07, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - The share price of Man Group, theworld's biggest hedge fund operator, has slid further after Man AHLDiversified Futures, the firm's flagship systematic fund, reported an8.2% loss during the week of Feb. 27 to March 5. It is thought to bethe fund's second worst ...
Going Public: Is Fortress a Speculative Stock?
Mar 07, 2007; ... Part one in a two-part series NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - The initial public offering ofFortress Investment Group was an overnight success, with the stockprice soaring by 67% the day it went public on Feb. 9. Since then,the excitement calmed down a little, with the predictable ...
Artemis Fund Sees Silver's Shine
Mar 07, 2007; ... SINGAPORE (HedgeWorld.com) - Synonymous with second place, silverwill forever play bridesmaid to its more sought-after and highlyprized sister, gold. But while others line up for a dance with thebride, there are those like Charles Supapodok who see a betterpartner in silver. Mr ....
Pivot Brings Dark Pools to IM
Mar 07, 2007; ... BOSTON (HedgeWorld.com) - Instant messaging long ago ceased to bejust about buddies sending messages back and forth. Increasingly,hard-core traders have been using IM to exchange information and evento make trades via their brokers, using Financial InformationeXchange Protocol, known ...
Bloomberg Presses Access Right
Mar 07, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - Bloomberg News wants to intervene in abankruptcy court proceeding to discover the claims that certain hedgefunds are holding in bankrupt Northwest Airlines, their face valueand what they cost. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan L. Gropper has yet to rule on ...
AIMA to Publish Valuations Guide
Mar 07, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - The Alternative Investment ManagementAssociation is to publish its Guide to Sound Practices on Hedge FundValuation around March 20 in a bid to help managers develop clearpolicies in relation to the valuation process. AIMA's publication of the guide ...
Millionaire Sentiment: The Poll Before the Sell-Off
Mar 07, 2007; ... CHICAGO (HedgeWorld.com) - The investment outlook traced bySpectrem Group's "millionaire investor index" (based on a survey ofhouseholds with $1 million or more in investable assets) rose fourpoints in February, putting it near the top of the "mildly" bullishrange. The index ...
Hedge Funds Withstand Turbulent February: Early Reports
Mar 07, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - Hedge funds that reported theirFebruary performance to the MSCI and Greenwich databases had positivereturns as a group, despite the sharp correction in equity marketslate in the month.The February return for the two indexes was similar, with the ...
Shareholder Pressure on ABN Grows
Mar 08, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - The pressure on ABN Amro has grown, withthree other shareholders joining The Children's Investment Fund inexpressing doubt about the Dutch investment bank's strategy andperformance. Significantly, two of the shareholders voicing concern are ...
Greenlight Principal Steps Down from Sub-Prime Lender's Board
Mar 08, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - In the end the marriage wasn't a veryhappy one, and both parties can almost be grateful that the unionlasted little less than a year. But even after their parting of ways,the relationship between the New York-based hedge fund GreenlightCapital and the San ...
IAM Launches Event-Driven Sub-Fund
Mar 08, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - Integrated Alternative Investments, thefund of funds arm of listed asset manager Integrated AssetManagement, has launched the Integrated Event-Driven sub-fund, thefirst vehicle of its single-strategy range of funds within its multi-strategy platform, Integrated ...
Pensions Push 130/30 Asset Growth: Study
Mar 08, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - Pension plans have shown strong demandfor so-called 130/30 long/short strategies and may be using these asa substitute for long-only equity investments, according to a reportfrom Merrill Lynch. Because long-only equity is the largest component of a ...
Going Public in the U.S.: One Is Not a Trend
Mar 08, 2007; ... Part two in a two-part series NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - Now that the United States has seenits first hedge fund initial public offering, the question that's oneverybody's lips is: Who's next? Or will anyone be next? While theUnited Kingdom is ahead of the United States in this ...
Grassley Touts Regulation on Behalf of Average Joe'
Mar 08, 2007; ... WASHINGTON (HedgeWorld.com) - The juxtaposition is obvious andjarring: By offering a bill that would allow the Securities andExchange Commission to mandate the registration of hedge funds,Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, has set himself at oddswith the President's Working ...
Supervisors Must Watch Collateral, Margin Calls: EU's McCreevy
Mar 08, 2007; ... BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Supervisors should watch closely how banksand brokers manage collateral and margin calls at their hedge fundclients to avoid defaults, the European Union's top financialregulator said Thursday [March 8]. EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy ...
Sen. Grassley Seeks Hedge Fund Registration
Mar 08, 2007; ... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation requiring hedge funds toregister with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wasintroduced on Wednesday by Sen. Charles Grassley, the seniorRepublican on the Senate Finance Committee. The Iowa Republican said it was up to Congress to act ...
Balestra Capital: Playing Defense
Mar 08, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - Staying defensive has sometimes hurtreturns at Balestra Capital Ltd., and some may label the firm'sfounder and portfolio manager, James Melcher, a curmudgeon, but ondays like Feb. 27, 2007, neither Mr. Melcher nor his investors mindvery much. "I guess ...
People Briefs
Mar 08, 2007; ... Global Chairman Resigns KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (HedgeWorld.com) - The investment companyGlobal Investment House has announced the resignation of the firm'schairman, Mr. Anwar Abdullah Al- Nouri, due to personal reasons. Italso announced the election of Maha Khalid Al-Ghunaim as the ...
Returns Slip, but Hennessee Index Stays Positive in February
Mar 08, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - The hedge fund industry has made muchof the fact that equity markets' late February plunge didn't takehedge fund returns along for the fall, and results from the HennesseeHedge Fund Index seemed to bear this out, as both the broad index andthe Hennessee ...
Technology Briefs
Mar 08, 2007; ... Omgeo Offers Trade Matching Solution TORONTO (HedgeWorld.com) - Omgeo is to provide a single tradematching interface, Omgeo Central Trade Manager, for both Canadiandomestic and cross-border securities. Domestic trades are matched through Omgeo CTM and sent directly tothe ...
Brevan Howard IPO Raises $1 Billion
Mar 09, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - BH Macro, the listed feeder fund ofBrevan Howard's global macro fund, has raised 770 million euro($1.012 billion) in its initial public offering, making it the secondbiggest intake of cash ever for direct investment in a hedge fundvehicle. It is the first time ...
Carrousel to Exit Gartmore Trust in Tender Offer
Mar 09, 2007; ... LONDON (Reuters) - Gartmore European Investment Trust saidCarrousel Capital, an activist hedge fund that recently failed in itsattempt to shake up the trust's board, had agreed to sell its sharesin the fund. The $746 million trust, which is run by Roger Guy, said in astatement ...
Bloomberg Wins Bankruptcy Access Right
Mar 09, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - A U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled Friday[March 9] that certain hedge funds holding claims in bankruptNorthwest Airlines will have to disclose information about theirpositions and the cost at which they were acquired, and will not beallowed to do so under seal ....
Collapses Don't Frighten the Super-Wealthy
Mar 09, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - The large losses of the AmaranthAdvisors hedge fund last September and similar failures are unlikelyto deter hedge fund investing by rich individuals who manage theirown portfolios, judging from a survey of the participants in a high-end investors' club called ...
Swiss FOFs: January's Best and Worst
Mar 09, 2007; ... WINTERTHUR, Switzerland (HedgeWorld.com) - The Zurich Universityof Applied Sciences today [March 9] released data concerning theperformance of Swiss-registered funds of hedge funds for January2007. Overall performance was generally positive, with returnsaveraging out at around 1.2%, ...
Final SEC Comments Raise Semantics Issues
Mar 09, 2007; ... WASHINGTON (HedgeWorld.com) - On the last day open to comments onthe Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed anti-fraud andaccredited investor rules for hedge funds, major industry groupsweighing in were mostly comfortable with the new rules, but expressedconcern that definitions ...
New to Nymex: D.E. Shaw Affiliate
Mar 09, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - The D.E. Shaw group announced that theNew York Mercantile Exchange has approved one of its affiliates, D.E.Shaw Plasma Portfolios LLC, for membership. Plasma Portfolios is the managing member of D.E. Shaw PlasmaTrading LLC, which in turn is the managing ...
Futures Fee Comes Around Again
Mar 09, 2007; ... WASHINGTON (HedgeWorld.com) - As it has in years past, thepresidential administration in this year's budget proposal hastargeted futures transactions as a potential new revenue stream: And,as in years past, opposition has crystallized. The proposed fiscal year 2008 funding for the ...
Citi Launches New Hedge Fund Services Unit
Mar 12, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - Fresh from a recent group-widerebranding, Citi has now reorganized its offering to absolute returnfunds with the formation of Hedge Fund Services, a new businessproviding hedge fund clients with a comprehensive and integratedoffering that includes financing, ...
Proxy Briefs
Mar 12, 2007; ... Funds Align for Countrywide Buyout LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - Hedge funds invested in the U.K. realestate company Countrywide plc may see board seats following thesuccessful takeover campaign of the U.S. private equity firm ApolloManagement, which plans to take the company ...
Morgan Stanley buys into Asian hedge fund start-up
Mar 12, 2007; ... HONG KONG (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley has agreed to buy a minoritystake in Abax Global Capital Ltd., a hedge fund start-up that isbeing formed to invest in special situations in Asia, the investmentbank said on Monday (Mar. 12). The size of the stake and value of thedeal, which is being ...
Chamber Pushes Regulatory Reform
Mar 12, 2007; ... WASHINGTON (HedgeWorld.com) - What some believe is the loss ofAmerican capital markets' competitive edge to London or other foreignfinancial centers has become a new preoccupation, not just on WallStreet, but among U.S. corporate leaders and across partisan lines.In response, the U.S ....
Most HF Returns Slipped in February: Dow Jones
Mar 12, 2007; ... NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com) - Merger arbitrage was the strategy tobeat for the second straight month, according to early data onFebruary returns from the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks.Most other strategies in the index saw modest February returns whencompared with the final ...
India L/S Fund Optimistic, but Positioned for Pullback
Mar 12, 2007; ... LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - While they are optimistic about themedium-term future for Indian equities, managers at the long/shortAgra India Fund are staying pretty much on the sidelines at present.After last month's 8%-plus declines in the Nifty 50 and the BSE 500indexes, they believe ...