Macquarie to Shut Singapore Infrastructure Fund on Outlook (Bloomberg)
Macquarie Group Ltd. (MQG) plans to shut its Singapore-listed infrastructure fund after selling assets including a port and highway in China because it doesn’t expect its share price to reflect the value of its holdings. Macquarie International Infrastructure Fund (MIIF) will distribute excess cash as a special dividend and divest three assets following a review by its adviser CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. (CIMB) The fund has about S$60 million ($49 million) in cash, according to Chairman Chiang Meng Heng.
30 Under 30: Hedge Fund Gadfly Turns Biotech Entrepreneur (Forbes)
Martin Shkreli, the 29-year old founder of MSMB Capital in New York, is best known to investors as an activist who battled billionaires and entrenched drug industry executives through blog posts, shareholder letters, regulatory filings, and even an attempted hostile takeover. But now Shkreli says that he is giving the fund’s money back to investors to focus on a new effort: a startup, called Retrophin, of which he is chief executive. The company is getting ready to start a clinical trial of its most advanced drug, code-named RE-021, in the first quarter of 2013. Shkreli is optimistic, based on conversations with the Food and Drug Administration, that this single study might be enough to obtain accelerated approval for the medicine in the U.S.
3 New York City pension funds to add up to 15 hedge funds (PIOnline)
Three of New York City’s five public pension funds are seeking to add as many as 15 hedge funds for direct allocations to reduce price swings in stocks and improve investment returns. The New York City Employees’ Retirement System, New York City Police Department and New York City Fire Department, which have a combined $70 billion in assets, are searching for event-driven funds, commodity trading advisers, and global macro and relative value managers, according to Seema Hingorani, head of public equities and hedge funds at the city comptroller’s office.
Trading places: Schonfeld woos talent from shuttered funds (NYPost)
Trading kingpin Steven Schonfeld is ready to turn the hedge-fund industry’s insider-trading pain into his gain. The head of the $2 billion Schonfeld Group, looking to double his firm’s size, previously scooped up top-notch talent from the shuttered Galleon Group and is ready to grab top traders from the recently closed Diamondback Capital Management. Both funds closed after executives got snared in US Attorney Preet Bharara’s massive insider-trading probe.
AIMA responds to the final implementation text of the AIFMD (Opalesque)
The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund association, has responded to the publication of the final text of the implementing measures of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers’ Directive (AIFMD) by the European Commission. The publication of the final text marks the conclusion of the current EU-wide legislative process and will shift the focus to a national level, with EU member states required to transpose the Directive into their national laws. Depending on the nature of their operations hedge fund firms may have to comply as early as July 2013 while many existing EU managers may have until July 2014 to apply for AIFMD authorisation.
More Boards Publicly Back Besieged CEOs (WSJ)
When the chief executive comes under fire, corporate boards are increasingly proclaiming their support for the embattled leader—even though the endorsement might be short-lived. During 2012, the boards of several big companies, including Procter & Gamble Co., PG +0.06% Research In Motion Ltd., RIM.T -1.39% PepsiCo Inc., PEP +0.23% News Corp NWSA +1.74% ., Credit Suisse Group AG CS +1.83% and Veolia Environment SA, took the unusual step of issuing statements backing their CEO. Rallying around a besieged chief can calm employees, lift a depressed stock price and borrow time so that he or she can deliver on a risky strategy. Management experts say the trend shows, in part, how boards are coping with harsh criticism from vocal hedge-fund investors.
