LONDON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Assets run by hedge fund-style
portfolios regulated in the EU soared 150 percent in the year to
June, data shows, as clients hunted for ways to make money in
choppy markets despite concerns these funds do not always live
up to their name.

Absolute return fund assets run in a Ucits structure –
often viewed as more regulated, transparent and liquid than
hedge funds based in offshore centres such as the Cayman Islands
– totalled $115.7 billion at end-June, according to Hedge Fund
Intelligence (HFI).

LONDON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Top executives at Man Group
snapped up shares in the world’s largest listed hedge
fund manager on Thursday, a day after a surge in client outflows
and a drop in assets wiped a quarter off its market value.

Man, which last year bought rival GLG to diversify its
business, surprised markets on Wednesday with news that clients
had withdrawn a net $2.6 billion in assets over the three months
to end-September, much higher than analysts had forecast.

LONDON (Reuters) – Man Group (EMG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest listed hedge fund manager, said clients withdrew money over the summer months at the fastest pace since early 2009 amid “relentless volatility” in world markets, knocking its fragile recovery.

Man Group shares traded 19.3 percent lower at 193.4 percent at 1131 GMT after the firm said clients pulled out a net $2.6 billion in the three months to end-September, with its GLG unit particularly suffering.

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Man Group hopes to
benefit from investors’ search for safe havens amid a deepening
euro zone debt crisis, as the world’s largest listed hedge fund
manager bids to hang onto clients it only recently began to lure
back.

Clients finally started to return in 2011 following two
years of outflows, and markets are eager to see if investors
have stuck with the London-based blue chip’s funds after a
summer which saw the MSCI World index of stocks
plunge 15.2 percent since end-June and several other core assets
also take a battering.

LONDON (Reuters) – The recent sell-off in gold may not be enough to make some hedge funds with long-term bull positions change their views that the metal is still one of the best bets for profit in a perilous global economy.

Gold has dropped around 11 percent since the start of last week as liquidity-strapped investors scrambled to convert gold into cash amid fears over Greece’s near-bankruptcy, likely hitting a number of hedge funds which have profited from its bull run in recent years.

LONDON (Reuters) – Dexia’s emerging markets debt fund is betting on weakness for South Africa’s rand and the Australian dollar and sees Asian currencies as more resilient given the vulnerability of commodity-linked currencies to a slowing global economy.

George Farre, who runs the 100 million euro Long-Short Emerging Market Debt fund, pointed to recent appreciation of the rand, which has risen from less than $6.70 last month to $7.40, despite “very, very low” consumer confidence and slowing growth in South Africa.

LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge funds have been jettisoning fixed-income bets that profited them this summer in favour of currency carry trades, after Switzerland’s move last week to cap the soaring franc made it more attractive to short sell, fund firm Signet said.

Robert Marquardt, founder of the fund of hedge funds firm, said managers feel short bets on fixed income have run their course and were now looking at borrowing euros and Swiss francs, where rates look set to remain low, to buy emerging market currencies.

LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Hedge funds have been
jettisoning fixed-income bets that profited them this summer in
favour of currency carry trades, after Switzerland’s move last
week to cap the soaring franc made it more attractive to short
sell, fund firm Signet said.

Robert Marquardt, founder of the fund of hedge funds firm,
said managers feel short bets on fixed income have run their
course and were now looking at borrowing euros and Swiss francs,
where rates look set to remain low, to buy emerging market
currencies.

LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) – North Korea and South Korea are
on a long path to reunification, according to UK hedge fund
Toscafund, which increases the attraction of South Korea’s
currency, stocks and bonds.

In a research paper to be released on Wednesday, Toscafund
chief economist and partner Savvas Savouri argues regime change
in North Korea, supported by China, is likely and would be
widely supported by North Koreans.