Hedge funds, with a combined $1.9 trillion in assets, posted the largest drop in investments since 2000 in July and August numbers could be worse, according to the TrimTabs BarclayHedge Fund report. Withdrawals for all hedge funds totaled $32 billion in July. Funds that invest in hedge funds saw $55 billion in redemptions in July, equal to nearly 5 percent of their estimated assets, the report said. The drop in investments “likely sparked the dislocation in the equity markets in the summer,” the report said.
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HSBC’s agreement to buy a majority stake in Korea Exchange Bank is putting the South Korean banking sector under even more pressure to consolidate, amid growing prospects of privatisation and sales. HSBC said on Monday it would buy 51 percent of the country’s sixth-largest bank by assets from U.S. private equity firm Lone Star for $6.3 billion.
**The Nasdaq says potential suitors have until the end of the week to express interest in its 31 percent stake in the London Stock Exchange but has not yet received any offers and says the deadline is not a hard one, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Citing two people familiar with the matter, the Journal said about a half-dozen institutions were mulling a bid as of early last week, and some had talked with Nasdaq representatives.
**Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli is considering buying Campbell Soup Co.’s Godiva Chocolatier brand, its chief executive told the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper.
Godiva, originally a Belgian chocolate-maker, could attract a price of more than $1 billion.
**Aiming to grow its business in Arab markets, Franklin Templeton Investments has bought 25 percent of Dubai’s Algebra Capital Ltd. Algebra expects the value of assets in the professionally managed funds in the Middle East and North Africa to triple over the next five years to more than $200 billion.