LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Lansdowne Partners, one of
Europe’s biggest hedge fund firms, is to rename its flagship
$7.5 billion UK Equity fund, reflecting its overseas investments
and allowing it to invest in emerging markets, a source close to
the firm told Reuters.

The fund, run by Stuart Roden and Peter Davies, will be
renamed the Lansdowne Developed Markets fund in April.

LONDON (Reuters) – Investor demands to pull out of hedge funds rose from an all-time low last month but remain at a historically subdued level, data from hedge fund services firm GlobeOp shows, in a sign investors are not deserting the sector despite last year’s mediocre returns.

The GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator, a monthly snapshot of clients giving notice to withdraw their cash as a percentage of GlobeOp’s assets under administration, was 3.14 percent in February.

LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge funds are cranking up their bets in equities and credit in 2012′s buoyant markets in the belief that the euro zone, U.S. and Chinese economies will fare better than many were fearing last year.

Many funds think the European Central Bank’s long-term refinancing operations (LTRO), which flooded markets with 489 billion euros (409 billion pounds) of cheap cash in December and provide more this month, are a turning point in propping up the region’s battered banks.

LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Hedge funds are cranking up
their bets in equities and credit in 2012′s buoyant markets in
the belief that the euro zone, U.S. and Chinese economies will
fare better than many were fearing last year.

Many funds think the European Central Bank’s long-term
refinancing operations (LTRO), which flooded markets with 489
billion euros ($644 billion) of cheap cash in December and
provide more this month, are a turning point in propping up the
region’s battered banks.

LONDON (Reuters) – Used to criticism for caring only about short-term profit, hedge funds are now being faulted for a failure to think short-term enough after losing out badly in last year’s volatile markets.

A series of bad bets by hedge funds which were not able to keep up with markets roiled by the euro zone debt crisis pushed the industry as a whole down 5.2 percent last year, according to Hedge Fund Research.

LONDON, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Britain launched an
unexpected investigation into its Serious Fraud Office on
Wednesday, reviving questions over the future of an agency
criticised for dropping several high-profile cases.

The review will focus on how Britain’s main agency for
hunting down major financial crimes and corruption goes about
selecting and pursuing cases, a spokeswoman for the government’s
legal advisor said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge funds are buzzing around Glencore’s (GLEN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) bumper $41 billion takeover of miner Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) after a lean year for European M&A, but are finding their usual bets tricky in the face of the eye-watering cost of shorting Glencore’s shares.

After a lull in European M&A deals in 2011, merger arbitrage managers are licking their lips at the prospect of a tie-up, which will see Glencore pay 2.8 shares for each Xstrata share and which has already met some shareholder opposition.

LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Star European hedge fund
managers including Crispin Odey and Pierre Lagrange were among
the top performers in an upbeat January for the industry, as the
European Central Bank’s cash boost for battered banks fuelled a
stock market rally.

Shrugging off a disappointing 2011, in which the average
hedge fund lost around 5 percent according to HFRI, managers
profited from gains in most assets as investors bet a solution
could be found for the euro zone’s deepening debt crisis.

LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. buyout firm TPG Capital agreed a 508 million pound ($802 million) takeover of hedge fund administrator GlobeOp (GO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) as the first step in building a presence in the business of servicing the $2 trillion hedge fund industry.

TPG is offering 435 pence per share in cash for London and New York-based GlobeOp, which administers $173 billion in client assets and which last month kicked off a strategic review to try and boost its share price.

LONDON (Reuters) – Nervous hedge funds managers are stress-testing their portfolios and searching for ways of protecting themselves against their worst nightmare — a potential break-up of the euro zone.

With talks on restructuring Greece’s debt mountain still deadlocked, and the exit of one of more countries from the euro seen as a small but definite possibility, funds are modeling scenarios ranging from a 50 percent slump in European stocks or a 45 percent fall in the oil price to a 30 percent rise in gold.