Profits crumble at Paulson Europe (eFinancialNews)
The European arm of Paulson & Co., the hedge fund run by manager John Paulson, renowned for his profitable prediction of the sub-prime crisis and subsequent under-performance, has seen its profits collapse. Profits for Paulson Europe fell to £3.7m for the year ended March 31, 2012, an 86% fall from the same period in 2011, when the fund made a profit of £26.5m, according to accounts filed this week in Companies House. Turnover was down 64% to £13.3m, down from £37m a year previously. Unsurprisingly, profit available for the firm’s four members dropped dramatically, down from £26.5m in the 12 months ended March 2011, to £3.7m in the year to March 31, 2012. The highest paid member received £1.4m, down from £15m.
Sunrise Capital Partners’ Managing Director Jason Gerlach will serve as President of the California Hedge Fund Association (CHFA) in 2013. CHFA, a non-profit, member-based organization, was founded to foster growth and development of the hedge fund community in California through advocacy of sound business practices, and the sponsorship of events, resources, and educational programs designed to improve both delivery and understanding of alternative investment programs. Gerlach and Sunrise have played an integral role in the founding and growth of CHFA. Gerlach’s election to the presidency of the organization was made by the CHFA board of directors, effective January 1, 2013.
David Harding reports hedge fund loss in 2011 (Telegraph)
The former trader, who read physics at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, saw his $10bn (£6.2bn) Winton Futures Fund lose 3.5pc last year. Mr Harding, said by some to be the hedge fund hero on which the lead character in Robert Harris’s best-selling Fear Index was based, has devised software programmes to trade markets, setting up banks of computers to follow trends in markets often at high speed.
Ex-Barclays Trader Ek Hires Mancebo for Europe Hedge Fund (BusinessWeek)
Ulf Ek, a former power trader at Barclays Plc and Amaranth Advisors LLC, has made his first hire at hedge fund Northlander Commodity Advisors LLC. Luis Adrian Mancebo Lomeli joined Northlander in London this month, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the appointment hasn’t been made public. Mancebo was a power and energy trader at Vattenfall AB, the Nordic region’s biggest utility, Constellation Energy Group Inc. and Sempra Energy (SRE), and most recently a property developer in South America, one of the people said.
Dell chief biz gobbler Johnson flees for hedge-fund Blackstone (ChannelRegister)
‘Tis the season for executive management changes. David Johnson, the mergers and acquisition chief that Michael Dell lured away from IBM, is leaving Round Rock to return to the Empire State. Johnson was responsible for architecting Dell’s expansion into services, storage, and software after leaving Big Blue. A Dell spokesperson confirmed to El Reg that Johnson has left the Texan IT giant and is taking an executive position at Blackstone Group, a private equity and hedge fund giant. His new employer was founded in 1985 and has at least $150bn of assets under management and had revenues of more than $3.65bn in 2011.
JPMorgan’s Staley to Join BlueMountain Capital (NYTimes)
The former head of JPMorgan Chase’s investment bank is leaving to join a hedge fund that profited by going against JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) in a bet on corporate debt that left the bank with a multibillion-dollar loss. The executive, James E. Staley, a longtime lieutenant of the bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, said on Tuesday that he would join BlueMountain Capital Management, one of the hedge funds on the other side of the “London whale” trade. The $12 billion fund later embarked on another series of trades with JPMorgan that helped the Wall Street bank clear out its positions.
Ex-SAC analyst named 20 alleged insider traders (FT)
Wesley Wang, a former analyst for the $14bn hedge fund SAC Capital, has named 20 people who traded on inside information, including some subjects of the US government’s wide-ranging investigation who are yet to be charged, according to prosecutors. Mr Wang, who last year pleaded guilty to passing on illegal tips while working at SAC and another hedge fund, Whitman Capital, is due to be sentenced on Wednesday. Pointing to the possibility of further arrests, prosecutors say in a letter to Judge Jed Rakoff, of the Southern District of New York, who will carry out the sentencing: “The full extent of Wang’s information and co-operation remains to be realised.”
