Hedge Fund News – Phil Falcone Australia, Icahn Navistar Activist

Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, is used to scooping up piles of investors’ money with a forklift. This year, a spoon will suffice. Through the third quarter of 2011, Mr. Gross’s Pimco Total Return Fund had attracted inflows of $183.5 million, according to data compiled by fund tracker Lipper at The Wall Street Journal’s request. The fund lured $17.6 billion in new money last year, $57.7 billion in 2009 and $20.4 billion in 2008.

Cerberus Capital Management CBS.UL and Chatham Lodging Trust (CLDT.N) have reached a tentative agreement to buy bankrupt Innkeepers USA Trust (INKPQ.PK) at a lower price than in an earlier deal that fell apart, a source close to the talks said.

T&D Asset Management Co., with about $27 billion in assets, closed its Japan-focused hedge fund because of higher-than-expected trading costs and returned money to clients, according to four people familiar with the matter. The T&D Japanese Equity Long & Short Fund shut at the end of September after starting in June 2010 with about 700 million yen ($9.1 million) from T&D Asset, the fund management arm of Japanese insurer T&D Holdings Inc., the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.