ASX Directors Resign After SEC Action Against Hedge Fund (Bloomberg)
Shane Finemore and Russell Aboud resigned from their positions on the board of ASX Ltd. (ASX) after their hedge fund, Manikay Partners LLC, agreed to settle claims of improperly buying shares of companies they had bet against. Aboud said by telephone today that he spoke to ASX Chairman Rick Holliday Smith informing him he would resign. New York-based Manikay agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle the action. The hedge fund was sanctioned by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of an enforcement against 23 firms, the agency said in a statement Sept. 17. Aboud, a member of the board of the ASX, is chairman of the fund.
SEC Goes After Founder Of Formerly $5 Billion Hedge Fund (Forbes)
The Securities & Exchange Commission charged a founder of New York hedge fund firm Vicis Capital that once managed as much as $5 billion, alleging the 44-year-old money manager breached his fiduciary duty by orchestrating conflicted transactions through the hedge fund that benefited him. Shadron Stastney, the CEO of a publicly-traded company and a founder of Vicis Capital, which oversees $230 million, has agreed to pay more than $2.9 million to settle SEC charges that he authorized the Vicis hedge fund to purchase $7.5 million of illiquid securities that Stastney partly owned.
Bennelong Kardinia fund lowers entry point (Money Management)
The Bennelong Kardinia Capital Absolute Return fund has lowered its initial investment amount for retail investors to $20,000 and moved to provide daily liquidity. The move was confirmed this week by the fund’s portfolio manager, Mark Burgess, who claimed hedge funds with absolute return capabilities were proving increasingly attractive to investors. Burgess said that due to their strong performance, absolute return capabilities were increasingly attracting attention in the Australian market and that since its inception in May 2006, the Bennelong Kardinia Capital Absolute Return Fund had returned 14.11 per cent a yer.
Redemption-Hit Arbalet To Close (FINalternatives)
When Jennifer Fan founded Arbalet Capital at the age of 28, she was a rising star in the hedge fund world. Unfortunately for her and for Arbalet’s investors, she proved a shooting star. Arbalet, which once managed almost $700 million, now has less than $200 million. The proximate cause of the commodity hedge fund’s demise is the exit of several large investors, forcing the hand of other investors wary of or forbidden from holding so large a stake in a hedge fund. Among the redeemers was Schroders NewFinance Capital, which had some $200 million invested with Arbalet, which will close over the next couple of months, according to Reuters.
Fed Leaves Hedge Fund Bears Waiting in Bet on Emerging Markets (Bloomberg)
Ray Bakhramov has been waiting almost two years for his hedge fund’s bet against emerging markets to pay off, which spurred a 20 percent loss in 2012 and cost him clients. Even with a slump from bonds to currencies over the last five months, he’s still waiting. Bakhramov, whose $180 million Forum Global Opportunities Fund posted gains this year after shorting South Korean and Turkish government debt and wagering against mining and steel companies reliant on developing economies, remains in the red on his bearish outlook. He says his best returns will come once central banks unwind their record stimulus, something the U.S. Federal Reserve unexpectedly refrained from doing yesterday.
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