Funds Hub
Money managers under the microscope
Morning Line-up: Hedge funds flatline, investors vet banker pay
News and views on the asset management industry from Reuters and elsewhere:
Hedge funds failing to handle choppy markets – Reuters
Spain’s bank rescue hits headwinds – WSJ
Investors turn spotlight on bank staff paycheques – Reuters
Morning Line-Up: Winters’ come back, Pru’s pension, double-dippers
News and views on the asset management industry from Reuters and elsewhere
Ex-JP Morgan Winters starts new fund – FT
Pru in pension top up court case - Guardian
“Double-dippers” in the frame in N.Y. pension debate – Reuters
from Reuters Investigates:
For hedge fund titans, the long and the short of it
Our latest special report profiles one of the more colorful figures in the hedge fund world -- William Ackman. Wall Street Investigations editor Matthew Goldstein teamed up with funds correspondent Svea Herbst-Bayliss, who was in New York this week for the Value Investing Conference.
Here's what Matt has to say about Ackman and one of his rivals.
"Hedge fund managers William Ackman (left) and David Einhorn (right) are fairly good friends and sometimes they find themselves on the same side of a debate over a stock.
But Ackman and Einhorn, who were both featured speakers at this week’s Value Investing Conference in New York, appear to be at odds when it comes to finding opportunities from shorting, or betting against, stocks. Ackman says he doesn’t see many short opportunities in the market, while Einhorn is making a lot of noise with news his Greenlight Capital Management is shorting shares of real estate property developer St. Joe Co.
Einhorn, who gained a lot fame and riches from shorting Lehman Brothers stock, used the conference to explain his rationale for why he thinks St. Joe’s stock is overpriced. Shares of St. Joe are down roughly 20 percent since Einhorn unveiled his short attack.
Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management, meanwhile, is going in an entirely different direction by sinking well over $1 billion in shares of retailer J.C. Penney’s and consumer goods manufacturer Fortune Brands. Ackman is sticking with his activist roots and believes both companies are undervalued and could rise if management takes steps to overhaul their businesses.
Cheyne hedge fund spots RBS opportunity
M&A is on the up again and hedge funds are getting ready – last week we revealed Cheyne Capital had raised over $100 mln for an event-driven fund.
The fund will concentrate on ‘hard’ news (as opposed to rumours of deals), but, as suggested in their name, such funds can look at a wider range of events than just M&A, including restructurings, debt refinancings, asset sales, share buybacks and so on.
In Cheyne’s case, it has spotted what it thinks is a great opportunity in Royal Bank of Scotland debt.
Co-manager Michel Massoud explains:
“In RBS’s tier 1 instruments we’ve found two that had embedded in them the option, at the discretion of the holder, to be redeemed at par if the bond is not called at its call date.
“We bought the bond at an average of 97 and we’ll get the coupon until it is redeemed. It’s a 16-17 percent unlevered annualized return for an investment that we think is very safe.”
Morning Line-up: City recruitment, UK banks’ funding crunch, Cem Habib
News and views on the fund industry from Reuters and elsewhere:
City recruitment to go on despite slow-down fears - FT
British Banks’ funding gap – Daily Telegraph
Cem Habib leaves Cheyne Capital – Reuters
Morning Line-Up: Insider trading fine, love on AIM, BA pension deal
News and views on the fund industry from Reuters and elsewhere:
Ex hedge fund manager fined £50 K for insider trading - Reuters
Easydate lists on AIM - Scotsman
BA’s pension deal with trustees – Financial Times
Morning Line-Up: Madoff’s hidden $9 bln, Austerity Budget, new commodity fund
News and views on the fund industry from Reuters and elsewhere:
Madoff’s hidden $9 billion - Telegraph
UK spending cuts, tax rises in store from Chancellor – Reuters
Former Citi-trader sets up $1 bln for commodity hedge fund- Reuters
Morning line-up: Pequot, celebrity Ponzi scheme, Buffett’s subpoena
News and views on the fund industry from Reuters and elsewhere:
Pequot settles out of court on insider trading allegations- Reuters
WARREN BUFFET also plays DERIVATIVES
Mr Buffet said once that DERIVATIVES were massive destruction weapons.
He appointed again, that DERIVATIVES were the main cause of current financial collapse.
Mr Buffet said once he believed in the LONG TERM investments, in the Fair value of the assets, in the intrinsic business management…
Mr Buffet is said to have been investing heavily in DERIVATIVES, selling them in the short term, and without considering whether he invested in APPLES or in PEARS…
So, Mr BUFFET …. Welcome to the club !!!
Bye, bye to your credibility… to your independence… to your fundamentals…
Maybe it is caused by the age. Once you get elder, you have less time to win, and if you are losing considerably, the best and fastest way to recover is the same you criticised many times.
Bye, bye, … Mr Buffet….
Now, I feel bad … not because of you, but because of the money I spent buying your books, and the time spent reading them…
I will buy now the BERNARD MADOFF´s new one, relating his memories. At least, this will not be full with more lies or dressed truths…
In some cases, TRUTH stays where the LIES are known.
Mr BUFFET, this is not a good ending session for your incredible investments record. But, people do not know that your father was politician, that he was already a trader… and at that time, with a father politician and trader,… everything is easier….
I prefer Mr Soros history, or even Bernard Madoff´s one… where reality is more visible.
BM is a villain of Wall Street because of a question of timing… because he was a hero for many years, and nobody noticed… better said, nobody asked…
Jose Luis Revilla Escudero
Chairman & CEO
WWShares, Inc
-Global Wealth management-
http://www.worldwideshares.blogspot.com
from DealZone:
In man vs machine, GLG has Manly appeal
Hedge fund firm Man Group apparently pricey deal to buy GLG Partners gives Man – the world’s biggest listed hedge fund -- better access to the large and lucrative U.S. market. It also counts as a small win for the human race in its apocryphal war for investors' funds with cheaper, faster and -- many would argue -- far more dangerous algorithmic trading machines known as black boxes.
The $1.6 billion cash-and-shares deal represents a heady 55 percent premium to GLG's closing price on Friday. Clearly some investors are worried it's a little too rich. It has so far driven the shares of Man – which had already lost about a fifth of their value since mid-April -- down by a little more than 8 percent.
London-based Man has long been seen as needing more inroads into the U.S. market to take on industry leader JP Morgan. As Joel Dimmock and Laurence Fletcher report, the purchase would also dilute Man's reliance on its flagship black box fund AHL which badly lagged rivals last year. What do you do when the black box fails? Start investing in people again.
It is easy to see how the deal would have to be rich, since it pays up for talent that it needs to keep interested. A $500 million payout in shares, locked up for three years, ensures GLG principals Noam Gottesman, Pierre Lagrange and Emmanuel Roman don’t take the money and run. The message needs to be just as clear for the rest of GLG’s talent, which has numbers for super-rich clients and sovereign wealth funds.
