LONDON (Reuters) – Lansdowne Partners, one of Europe’s biggest hedge fund firms, has sold its $850 million stake in Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) as part of a move out of investment banks burdened by regulation and into retail banks, a source close to the situation said.

London-based Lansdowne, which manages $16 billion in assets and which has a large position in Lloyds Bank (LLOY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), sold its stake in Goldman at the beginning of the year, the source told Reuters on Monday.

LONDON (Reuters) – New European hedge fund launches are starting life with more client capital than ever, data from EuroHedge showed on Wednesday, as investors put their faith in a select band of managers they think can guide them through choppy markets.

The average size of offshore hedge funds launched in Europe during the first six months of this year was $116 million, almost double the $65 million seen in the first half of last year and higher than in any previous six-month period, the data group said on Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge funds are once again turning their attentions to flotations as a way of cashing in on resurgent interest in the $2 trillion industry, despite a poor year for IPOs and a chequered track record for the listed hedge fund sector.

With choppy markets and fears over the euro zone debt crisis persuading many managers to keep investment bets off the table, owners of hedge funds that have prospered in the wake of the credit crisis have instead been looking at ways of capitalizing on their success, executives say.

LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) – Hedge funds are once again
turning their attentions to flotations as a way of cashing in on
resurgent interest in the $2 trillion industry, despite a poor
year for IPOs and a chequered track record for the listed hedge
fund sector.

With choppy markets and fears over the euro zone debt crisis
persuading many managers to keep investment bets off the table,
owners of hedge funds that have prospered in the wake of the
credit crisis have instead been looking at ways of capitalising
on their success, executives say.

LONDON (Reuters) – Italian bond yields could hit recent highs again if a second bailout fails to solve debt-laden Greece’s problems, says hedge fund LNG Capital, which recommends shorting countries such as Italy and Spain and which is also short European bank debt.

Italian yields, which hit euro-era highs above 6 percent this week on fears of contagion from Greece, could touch those levels again in the next two weeks if a European deal on a second Greek bailout doesn’t solve the problem, CIO Louis Gargour said.

LONDON (Reuters) – The Financial Services Authority has raided the offices of London-based fund firm Castlestone Management as part of an investigation, after receiving a complaint about the firm.

FSA staff entered the firm’s offices, located near London’s upmarket Sloane Square, at 9am local time on Wednesday, the firm said.

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) – Britain’s Financial Services
Authority has raided the offices of London-based fund firm
Castlestone Management as part of an investigation, after
receiving a complaint about the firm.

FSA staff entered the firm’s offices, located near London’s
upmarket Sloane Square, at 9am local time on Wednesday (0800
GMT), the firm said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge fund clients’ demands for their money back fell to a record low this month, data showed on Wednesday, suggesting investors view these freewheeling portfolios as one of the best ways to ride out the euro zone debt crisis.

The GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator — a monthly snapshot of clients giving advance notice they want their money back as a percentage of GlobeOp’s assets under administration — fell to 2.08 percent.

LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge fund firm Man Group (EMG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is to buy exposure to the estates of defunct U.S. bank Lehman Brothers from funds run by its GLG unit for $355 million, in an effort to clean up the funds’ holdings and make them easier to sell to new investors.

GLG — bought by Man Group last year for $1.6 billion — was using Lehman as its main prime broker at the time of the U.S. bank’s collapse at the nadir of the credit crisis in 2008, and Monday’s move means Man will benefit or bear the risk of any change in the value of the claims.

LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) – Fund firm F&C Asset Management
faces a bill of up to 14 million pounds ($22.4 million)
after losing a high court battle with two fund managers over a
hedge fund joint venture laid low by the credit crisis.

F&C had been trying to stop Francois Barthelemy and Anthony
Culligan exercising a put option that would force F&C to buy
their combined 40 percent stake in the F&C Partners joint
venture, whose funds made big losses during the nadir of the
crisis and which is now being wound down.