Tiger Global, one of the world’s best-performing hedge funds, ended the third quarter with strong gains, leaving the fund up 22.4 percent for the year, two people familiar with the numbers said on Wednesday. The roughly $6 billion fund, run by Chase Coleman and Feroz Dewan, has been the darling of the investment community for its string of strong returns at a time when the average hedge fund is delivering only low single-digit returns.
Simmons secures US alliance with New York funds boutique (LegalWeek)
Simmons & Simmons has secured a boost in the US by sealing an alliance with funds specialist outfit Seward & Kissel. The non-exclusive alliance will focus on the firms’ hedge fund and asset management practices in London, New York and Hong Kong. Seward, which has offices in New York and Washington DC, also has a referral relationship with Norton Rose. Both firms will continue to work with their other referral firms.
Dow Jones Credit Suisse Core Hedge Fund Index up 0.47 per cent in September (HedgeWeek)
The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Core Hedge Fund Index closed up 0.47 per cent in September as five of the seven index component strategies reported positive results for the month. Long/short equity (2.43 per cent) and event driven (1.46 per cent) were the top performers while emerging markets (-0.37 per cent) and managed futures (-2.72 per cent) were the two strategies to finish the month in negative territory.
A Hedge Fund Has Physically Seized This Argentine Navy Ship (BusinessInsider)
ARA Libertad, a training ship owned by the Argentine navy. And now it’s been seized. By a hedge fund. While it was docked in Ghana. Why? Because Argentina is in a long legal battle with the hedge fund Elliott Capital Management, which has been trying for years and years to get Argentina to pay a 2001 bond it owes in full. Because it’s recently won a court judgment saying that Argentina owes it money, it was able to get an injunction from the government of Ghana saying it’s entitled to pay the ship.
Focus on hedge funds: Investors should look beyond daily liquidity, counsels FRM’s Luke Ellis (Investmenteurope)
Illiquid positions are still common in the hedge funds space and can be useful for investors, according to Luke Ellis, chief executive and CIO of Financial Risk Management, a newly acquired part of Man Group. Ellis (pictured), who runs fund of hedge funds investments for the group, said it was more efficient for investors not to be tied into the idea of needing daily liquidity. Frequent liquidity was like having a deposit account, and implies similarly low returns, he said.
Australian regulator issues hedge funds guide for improving disclosure (Opalesque)
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) released “Regulatory Guide 240 – Hedge funds: Improving disclosure” in September. This guide offers benchmarks and disclosure principles related to the issue of Product Disclosure Statements (PDS). According to ASIC, this guide is for those involved in the issue and sale of hedge funds. It sets out the regulator’s guidance for improved disclosure to investors to help them understand and assess these products.
Small cap star ramps Mattioli Woods stake as RDR approaches (CityWire)
Small cap hedge fund manager David Newton, manager of the Helium Special Situation fund, has ramped up his investment in pensions administrator and investment manager Mattioli Woods. Newton upped his investment in the company from 850,000 shares to 955,000 worth just over £2 million at a share price of 210p, down 14.29% over the past year. The Helium Special Situations fund typically invests in under researched small and micro caps where it believes that the market has fundamentally misunderstood the embedded value in a business.
Canada’s hedge fund industry has ‘tremendous room for growth’ (Opalesque)
Canada’s hedge fund industry has tremendous room for asset growth and this will continue to be a strength for Canadian funds going forward, said Chris Dopp, Senior Vice President at exchange group Eurex, one of the sponsors of the latest Opalesque Canada Roundtable. The other sponsor was Kaufman Rossin Fund Services, an independent full-service provider of specialized administration services to the global financial community. The Roundtable took place in the offices of Deloitte in Toronto, Canada in September.
SEC charges hedge fund managers with defrauding investors (Opalesque)
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today separately charged a pair of hedge fund managers and their firms with lying to investors about how they were handling the money invested in their respective hedge funds. The charges are the latest in a series of actions taken by the SEC Enforcement Division and its Asset Management Unit against hedge fund-related misconduct in the markets. In a complaint filed against Lion Capital Management, the SEC charges that San Francisco-based hedge fund manager Hausmann-Alain Banet and his firm stole more than a half-million dollars from a retired schoolteacher who thought she was investing her retirement savings in Banet’s hedge fund. Banet led the teacher to believe that his hedge fund would invest in the stock market using a long/short equity investing strategy. Instead, Banet brazenly took the teacher’s investment totaling $550,000 and used it to pay unauthorized personal and business expenses, including his home mortgage, office rent, and staff salaries.
IndexIQ To List Hedge Fund ETF Thursday (Nasdaq)
IndexIQ, the Rye Brook, New York-based fund provider known for its alternative strategies, is rolling out Thursday, Oct. 4, its latest take on hedge fund replication, with an equities ETF that employs a market-neutral strategy. The IQ Hedge Market Neutral Tracker ETF (NYSEArca:QMN) is the first ETF to serve up a broad multi-asset class fund-of-funds portfolio that’s designed to replicate the returns of a group of hedge funds employing a market-neutral strategy.
Louis Dreyfus to sell energy trading business: FT (Reuters)
Louis Dreyfus Group LOUDR.UL and the hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) are selling their jointly owned energy trading business to an investor group, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The deal is expected to help fund an expansion plan by Louis Dreyfus in its core agricultural trading business, while a new ownership structure for LDH Energy, the company that will be sold, should help it raise capital and fund its own expansion, the newspaper said. It didn’t give terms for the deal.
Dan Loeb’s Newest Analyst Was An NFL Quarterback (BusinessInsider)
Billionaire hedge fund hot-shot Dan Loeb hired a former NFL quarterback as an analyst, according to Third Point’s latest quarterly letter. “We are pleased to welcome Greg Zolman to Third Point, where he will focus on Technology, Media & Telecom,” Loeb wrote in the letter to investors. Zolman played three seasons in the NFL playing for the Indianapolis Colts, Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis Rams and Buffalo Bills. He also spent a season with NFL-Europe playing for Rhein Fire, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Bigger hedge funds deliver better returns and attract more assets (MoneyWeb)
The Novare Investments South African Hedge Fund Survey for 2012 found that industry assets as at 30 June this year had reached an all-time high of R33.6 billion as the shift towards larger hedge fund managers with longer track records continued. Although 14 new hedge funds were launched, the increase in industry assets came mainly from already established funds’ performance, rather than from new capital flows which survey participants said stood at only R461 million.
Segantii Capital Appoints New COO (HedgeFund)
A former partner at European firm BlueCrest Capital Management has been hired as the chief operating officer of a Hong Kong-based hedge fund. HFMWeek reported that Nigel Hellewell, who left BlueCrest in June after more than four years, is the latest senior hire at Segantii Capital Management.
Lansdowne Launches Long-Only Fund For Flagship Managers (Finalternatives)
Lansdowne Partners has added a long-only fund to the portfolio of its top hedge-fund managers, Peter Davies and Stuart Roden. The London-based hedge fund launched its Developed Markets Long-Only Fund on Monday, Financial News reports. The new fund will invest only in the largest and most-liquid stocks. Davies and Roden have been running the strategy since January as a managed account, with US$350 million from an American institutional investor. The managers believe the new fund will profit over the next decade, which Davies and Roden say will see material flows over that period.
Will Hedge Fund Bain Capital’s Tax Strategies play a role in the first Presidential Debate? (HedgeCo)
Wednesday evening, all eyes will be on President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney, as they face off in one of the most contested presidential races in memory. The topic of the first debate will be domestic issues and at the top of that list is the economy and taxes. On the eve of the first debate, the New York times published an article that once again brought the focus onto Mitt Romney and his hedge fund wealth. The article details the complex offshore holdings owned by Bain Capital, and states that “the inevitable result is that elite investors like Mr. Romney are able to increase their fortunes in ways unavailable to most taxpayers.”
George Soros Invests in Ethanol in Mozambique (ValueWalk)
The non-profit Soros Economic Development Fund, supported by controversial billionaire George Soros, has announced that it will invest some USD 6 million in an ethanol cooking project in Mozambique. The project will seek to reduce the negative environmental and human impacts of charcoal cooking in African nations while also building a large and sustainable industry that should provide decent paying jobs and income across the continent. Unlike most traditional charities and aid organizations, the Soros Economic Development Fund seeks both financial and social benefits by making investments in self-sustaining businesses, instead of providing grants. SEDF often takes a stake in the project it invests in. This investment will be in exchange for a 19% stake in Cleanstar Mozambique, which is running the Ethanol project.
Why Jim Rogers Still Loves Agricultural Commodities (DBA, MOO, POT) (ETFDailyNews)
Given all of the turmoil in markets this year, we have seen a number of investors change their positions on statements made in the past. Jim Rogers, for example, has now stated that he is looking into investing in Russia after snubbing the country for his entire investing life. But there is one thing that Rogers is still as bullish as ever on, agricultural commodities. …PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund (NYSEARCA:DBA): One of the most popular commodity ETFs, DBA is designed to reflect the performance of the most popular agricultural commodities by investing in a broad basket of futures contracts. The fund has over $1.9 billion in assets and trades nearly 1.2 million times each day. Market Vectors Agribusiness (NYSEARCA:MOO): This ETF invests in a basket of stocks that derive at least 50% of their revenues from the agriculture industry. One of the most appealing features of MOO is its diversity, as the fund invests over 60% of its assets abroad [see also 50 Ways To Invest In Agriculture].
Nouriel Roubini Says Too Big To Fail Banks Are Worse Than Before (MarketOracle)
Nouriel Roubini and Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, sat down with Tom Keene and Sara Eisen on “Bloomberg Surveillance” this morning to talk the global economy and U.S. politics. Roubini said that too big to fail banks are “worse than before” and the only solution is for them to “break up.” Bremmer said that if Obama wins the election, it is “not primarily because Romney is a horrible candidate,” but because of three people: John Roberts, Angela Merkel and Ben Bernanke.
SEC Charges Boston-Based Dark Pool Operator for Failing to Protect Confidential Information (SEC)
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Boston-based dark pool operator eBX LLC with failing to protect the confidential trading information of its subscribers and failing to disclose to all subscribers that it allowed an outside firm to use their confidential trading information. According to the SEC’s order instituting a settled administrative proceeding, eBX operates the alternative trading system LeveL ATS, which it calls a “dark pool” trading program. Dark pools do not display quotations to the public, meaning that investors who subscribe to a dark pool have access to potential trade opportunities that other investors using public markets do not.
SEC Charges Repeat Violator in South Florida with Fraudulently Offering Investments Tied to Oil Drilling Projects (SEC)
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has obtained an emergency court order to freeze the assets of a South Florida man who has been charged with fraudulently offering investments in oil drilling projects. The SEC’s complaint unsealed today in federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla., alleges that Joseph Hilton made numerous misrepresentations to investors while selling limited partnership units in two oil drilling projects earlier this year through his firm Pacific Northwestern Energy LLC. Hilton falsely told potential investors that Pacific acquired its wells from Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), and he overstated Pacific’s experience in the oil and gas industry and the historical accomplishments of its drillers. Hilton raised approximately $789,000 from investors.
