BlueMountain’s Flagship Fund is Losing Money so Far this Year Even as the Rest of the Industry Surges, and it’s Just the Latest Blow for the Hedge Fund (Business Insider)
The turn of the calendar to 2019 has not been kind to Andrew Feldstein‘s BlueMountain Capital. BlueMountain’s flagship fund, Credit Alternatives Fund, lost nearly 4% in the first quarter before rebounding slightly in April, according to an investor letter obtained by Business Insider. As of the end of April, the fund was still losing money. The roughly $19 billion firm has also cut two of its three equity strategies this year, and a large investor in the firm’s business believes the manager’s growth prospects have ” declined significantly.” This streak of bad news is all happening while the hedge fund industry enjoys the best start to a year in a decade.
Hedge Funds Post Positive Returns in April, Highlighting the Strong Industry-wide Performance (Opalesque.com)
Hedge funds continued to make substantial gains in April, said a latest report from Preqin. Preqin’s All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark returned +1.67%, beating March’s +0.62% return. This pushes the YTD figure to +6.98% and the 12-month return to +2.82%. All fund structures had their fourth consecutive month of positive returns, highlighting strong industry-wide performance. Although equity strategies (+1.97%) came second to event driven strategies (+2.00%) among all top-level strategies tracked by Preqin, they are in the lead with the highest YTD figure (9.29%).
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Mariner Investment Group Appoints Co-CIO and Head of Liquid Market Strategies (Hedge Week)
Mariner Investment Group, a global alternative asset manager and subsidiary of ORIX Corporation USA (ORIX USA), has appointed Edward G (EG” Fisher III, as co-Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and head of liquid market strategies. Mariner founder Bill Michaelcheck will assume the role of co-Chief Investment Officer and continue with his responsibilities as lead portfolio manager for Mariner’s flagship multi-strategy hedge fund as will Matt Shulman in his role as deputy portfolio manager.
Hedge Funds Start to Figure Out Socially Responsible Investing (Bloomberg)
As almost $31 trillion has flowed into investment funds and strategies that emphasize good governance and socially responsible business practices, hedge funds have largely found themselves left out. They’re starting to find a way in. Nearly 30% of hedge funds say they’re using ESG considerations to inform investment decisions, according to Preqin research released this month — the first time the data provider put the question to hedge fund clients.
Hedge Funds Ramp Up Bets Against Jupiter Fund Management (CityAM.com)
Hedge funds have increased their bets against Jupiter Fund Management making it one of the most shorted UK companies. The asset manager’s shorted stock has increased to 10.55 per cent, more than that of struggling firms such as AA and Marks & Spencer, from 7.37 per cent at the beginning of April. At the beginning of this year Jupiter’s short position was 2.54 per cent, according to the latest data from Shorttracker. Marshall Wace, GLG Partners, Wellington Management Company, Point72 Asset Management and Melqart Asset Management have all increased their bets against the company in the last two months.
