This Vulture-Fund Billionaire Is the GOP’s Go-To Guy on Wall Street (MotherJones)
When Republicans make their pilgrimages to Wall Street for money to help take back the Senate next year, there may be no hotter ticket than a party at Paul Singer‘s. The 69-year-old hedge fund billionaire’s co-op apartment at the Beresford, a hulking Italian Renaissance building on Central Park West whose celebrity residents have included Jerry Seinfeld, Glenn Close, and Helen Gurley Brown, can draw scads of high-finance players. The haul for a dinner event has been known to run to $1.4 million, and Singer himself has no trouble writing a $1 million check to a super-PAC.
Allianz adds to Asian fund management (eFinancialNews)
Pan Yu Ming left Allianz GI in 2010 to manage an Asian hedge fund but rejoined this week to take over the lead manager role of the Asian equities fund, according to the fund’s factsheet. The £36.2 million fund had been managed for the last three months by Raymond Chan, Allianz’s CIO for Asia Pacific equities, according to FE Analytics. He will become deputy manager following the return of Pan Yu Ming. Chan manages Allianz GI’s investment staff in Asia. Pan Yu Ming will also take over the management of the offshore Allianz Tiger fund, according to FE Analytics, with Chan again in a deputy management role.
SAC’s Forceful Ways Shown in Massachusetts Citi Case (NYTimes)
The hedge fund was so desperate for an upper hand that four of its employees pleaded with a Wall Street analyst one morning to reveal private insights. Clamoring, too, for a peek inside a Taiwanese company that manufactures Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) smartphones, a fifth employee of the same hedge fund e-mailed the analyst to seek a conference call “today urgent.” The analyst, a Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) employee in Taiwan, gave in and offered a preview of his research.
Elliott Advisors’ earnings rise as firm eyes modest expansion (CityAM)
LONDON-BASED hedge fund adviser Elliott Advisors UK (EAUK) has said its turnover was steady last year, following several turbulent years in the wake of the financial crisis. EAUK, whose sole client is the activist US hedge fund Elliott Management, said revenues in 2012 fell from £52.6m to £50.7m and profit after tax rose from £1m to £1.6m. While the Companies House accounts do not reflect the hedge fund’s investment performance, EAUK predicted “modest growth in staff numbers” this year, having expanded from 42 to 47 employees during 2012.
Stanley Fink’s Hedge-Fund Revival Sours as Losses Mount (Bloomberg)
Stanley Fink, who oversaw a 10-fold increase in Man Group Plc (EMG)’s assets under management during his seven years as chief executive officer, is finding it harder to keep investors at his latest hedge-fund firm. Losses and client redemptions have reduced assets at International Standard Asset Management Ltd.’s main hedge fund by almost half over the past 18 months to $585 million, Fink, the firm’s CEO, said in an interview yesterday. London-based ISAM has responded by changing some of its management, examining why the fund hasn’t performed as well as expected and increasing the number of markets it invests in, he said.
Jim Rogers: An ‘even worse catastrophe’ is coming (CNBC)
Jim Rogers has a two-word message for U.S. investors: “Be careful.” “The U.S. is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world,” Rogers told CNBC.com Wednesday night by phone from Singapore. “We may well have a big, big rally in the U.S. stock market, but it’s not based on reality. I would encourage investors to know you’re in a fool’s paradise, be careful, and when people start singing praises, say, ‘I’ve been to this party before, and I know know it’s time to leave.'” For Rogers, the author of “Street Smarts: Adventures on the Road and in the Markets,” it is only a matter of time until the U.S. stock market runs into devastating problems due to the Fed’s quantitative easing program and the prevalence of similar stimulative programs around the world.
What to look for in a hedge fund? (YouTube)
Government Shutdown Impact on Hedge Funds (Forbes)
The impact of the October 1 shutdown of the federal government on hedge funds is now playing out in slow motion. While the SEC remains open due to its ability to self-fund for a few weeks, its sister agency, the CFTC has shut down. These are the agencies that provide oversight to the securities and commodities markets that hedge funds trade in. Additionally, these agencies support the rule-making, registration and examination systems that are backbone to the integrity of the hedge fund industry.
Hedge Funds Used Obscure Bond Bet to Win in GM Bankruptcy (Bloomberg)
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s bankruptcy, which wiped out shareholders and left taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars, is generating a new wave of profit for hedge funds that supersized their claim by betting on an obscure pool of GM debt issued in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. A settlement reached last week proposes giving Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG), Elliott Management Corp. and other holders of GM Nova Scotia notes a $1.55 billion bankruptcy claim on $1.07 billion in debt. Holders of that same pool of debt had earlier received $367 million in cash.
Citigroup fined US$30m for tip-off to big clients (ChannelNewsAsia)
Massachusetts on Thursday fined Citigroup $30 million for improperly releasing market-sensitive information on an Apple supplier to large clients including hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors. In December 2012 Taiwan-based Citigroup Global Markets analyst Kevin Chang divulged to a handful of clients a lowered production forecast for Apple iPhones and iPads made by supplier Hon Hai a day before the research was published, the state said. The publication of the revised forecast suggesting lower demand for Apple products helped to propel a 5.2 percent drop in Apple’s share price over a two-day period.
SS&C buys Prime Management hedge fund administration business (PIOnline)
SS&C Technologies Holdings acquired Prime Management Ltd., a hedge fund administrator focusing on the insurance-linked securities market with $6 billion in assets under administration, confirmed Bill Stone, SS&C’s CEO. Terms were not disclosed. The deal closed on Wednesday; it was not preannounced, Mr. Stone said. Prime will become part of the SS&C GlobeOp fund administration business, which will have $550 billion in AUA, Mr. Stone said.
HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index up 0.96 per cent in September (HedgeWeek)
Hedge funds posted gains in September with the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index up 0.96 per cent and the HFRX Market Directional Index up 2.23 per cent. The HFRX Event Driven Index posted a gain of 2.10 per cent for September, led by gains in special situations and activist exposures. The index leads all strategy indices with a YTD gain of 10.87 per cent.
Recommended Reading:
Billionaire Stephen Mandel Just Took a 5.3% Stake in Pandora
