Hedge Fund DG Partners Hires Marketing Lead to Raise Assets (Reuters)
LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Hedge fund firm DG Partners has hired Richard Blake, previously head of business for trader Greg Coffey’s Kirkoswald Asset Management, to lead a new fundraising drive outside of the U.S. DG Partners currently runs $1.4 billion across its strategies, but Blake told Reuters it has capacity to run up to $8 billion. The firm has human-led and computer-driven macroeconomic and trend-following strategies, including a joint venture with Brevan Howard.
Sears Snags New Financial Lifeline as Losses Continue, Sources Say (CNBC)
U.S. department store operator Sears has reached a deal for a fresh financial lifeline totaling roughly $100 million from hedge fund Brigade Capital Management, as it tries to stabilize after bankruptcy, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Sears’ billionaire owner Eddie Lampert rescued the retailer from liquidation in a $5.2 billion takeover during bankruptcy proceedings a year ago. The company’s unabated need for new funding underscores Lampert’s challenges in turning it around.
Preqin and First Republic Update: US Venture Capital in 2019 (Preqin)
Activity in the US venture capital space generally withstood the macroeconomic challenges of 2019. Looking back at the year with First Republic Bank, we find that the annual aggregate value of venture capital deals for US-based companies reached a new peak of $109bn in 2019, with more late-stage mega financings boosting the deals market. Although US-based venture capital funds secured close to the same amount of capital as in 2018, an unexpectedly sluggish Q4 waylaid 2019’s potential to post a record fundraising total. US-based micro venture capital funds, though, did enjoy a record-breaking year, securing $8.4bn through 282 fund closures.
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Gold Prepares for Next Bull Cycle (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After returning 23.6 percent in 2019, precious metals-focused hedge fund Pacific Precious gained an additional 5.5 percent year-to-date through February 19. The fund’s B share class is up 6.1 percent year-to-date. The fund has benefited from its exposure to gold and other precious metals, which are reaching higher price levels as investors chase safe-haven investments because of the spread of the coronavirus. “Subdued growth, falling interest rates and increased central bank stimulus form a good breeding ground for rising gold prices,” explains Mattias Gromark, who is responsible for managing Pacific Precious.
Opti Capital Management Appoints MD for Tech Sector Investment (Hedge Week)
Shubho Ghosh has joined hedge fund Opti Capital Management as a Managing Director focusing on technology sector investment and research in equities and convertible arbitrage. Ghosh is a tenured investor and has held the roles of Sector Head, TMT at Schonfeld Strategic Advisors and Senior Investment Analyst at Millennium Management – Catapult Capital. Ghosh has also worked for Fred Alger and UBS during his Wall Street career.
Andurand’s Oil Hedge Fund Tumbles 8.4% After Two Years of Losses (Bloomberg)
Losses at Pierre Andurand’s hedge fund deepened in January as fears of the coronavirus hurting global economic growth roiled commodity markets and squeezed the demand for oil. His Andurand Commodities Fund, one of the oil market’s last remaining hedge funds, slumped about 8.4% last month, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The losses marked the fund’s biggest monthly decline since October 2018 when the fund had plunged 21%, an investor letter shows.
Hedge Funds Record Slowest Growth in Inflows on Higher Tax (Economic Times)
India’s hedge fund industry has witnessed the slowest half-yearly growth in investments made during the July-December period of 2019. Assets grew 7.7 per cent in the second half of 2019, as products were impacted by increasing tax burdens. An additional surcharge introduced by the government for wealthy investors and companies has increased the capital gains tax payable by investors of alternative investment funds (AIFs) to 43 per cent for the fiscal year started in April 2019. If the same investors use other routes such as portfolio management scheme (PMS) or mutual funds, the tax outgo could reduce to as low as 30 per cent.
