Investment bank North Street Group acquires fund administrator Hedge Fund Solutions (Opalesque)
North Street Group, a capital markets and investment banking firm, today announced the acquisition of Hedge Fund Solutions, LLC, a New York based Alternative Asset Service Provider. Additionally, North Street Group announced the name change and rebranding of Hedge Fund Solutions, LLC to North Street Global Fund Services, LLC. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Hedge Fund Solutions offers industry leading fund administration for both emerging and established alternative asset managers. “The strategic acquisition of Hedge Fund Solutions, LLC allows North Street to enter the alternative asset management space and expand its service offerings,” said Alex Mascioli, Managing Partner of North Street Group.
Let’s Get Serious: Investors Demand Hedge Fund Commitment (ai-CIO)
Institutional investors are demanding more commitment from their hedge funds, asking them to take fewer partners and create stronger relationships, research has claimed today. The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) Investor Steering Committee noted pensions and other large asset owners wanted hedge funds to partner with a smaller crowd and work more strategically together. In this regard, the committee also reported that institutional investors were using hedge funds as a tailored addition to a portfolio, rather than allocating to them as a specific, stand-alone asset class.
Jim Rogers: Yen’s ‘Collapse Very Dangerous’ (MoneyNews)
The dollar hit a four-year high of 103.31 yen Friday, and legendary investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, doesn’t think that’s a good thing. “The [yen], which is one of the major currencies of the world, has collapsed 27 percent in no time,” Rogers told Yahoo. “It’s a very, very dangerous move.” The dollar has gained 25 percent against the yen since Dec. 4, trading early Wednesday at 102.99 yen The yen has dropped as Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pursued fiscal stimulus and appointed a central bank governor willing to implement a massive easing program.
A Quick Ackman-Icahn Scoreboard Check In The Battle Over Herbalife (BusinessInsider)
A quick scoreboard check in the battle of billionaire hedge fund titans Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn over nutrition supplement seller Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)… From New York Post’s Michelle Celarier: Ackman, who once had a paper profit of $480 million, is now down $10 million, according to calculations by The Post. Icahn, on the other hand, is up $228 million, calculations show. Ackman, who runs $12 billion Pershing Square Capital, publicly said back in December that he’s shorting more than 20 million shares of Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) with a price target of $0. He believes the company is a “pyramid scheme” and the FTC will be induced to investigate.
Unhedged Commentary: Why Training the Sell Side is So Important (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
Last year, while presenting to MBA candidates at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, I asked students what industry and specialty they intended to pursue after graduation. Consulting, investment management and marketing were areas of interest. Private equity was hot and investment banking remained a sought after destination. But not a single student, by a show of hands, indicated an interest in sales and trading. I suspected there would be less interest than there was a few years ago, but this was truly surprising. So what exactly is going on here? …What hedges should have worked but did not? What outside-the-box thinking proved effective? Wall Street professionals, having endured a dramatic environment for market risk over the past several years, can equip their younger colleagues with tools that better prepare them and clients for the next crisis.
