Hedge Fund News: Richard Chilton, Thomas Steyer & AQR Capital Management

Three Things This Hedge Fund CEO Doesn’t Want To Hear In An Interview (BusinessInsider)
Richard Chilton has been on Wall Street since 1978. In that time he’s built his hedge fund, Chilton Investments, into a firm with about $4 billion assets under management. To do that, he’s had to learn to sniff out who will make an excellent employee… and who will not. In a recent interview with Skiddy von Stade, the CEO of the finance career site OneWire, Chilton shared the questions he asks to find out if the person in front of him has the stuff to work at his fund.

CHILTON INVESTMENT COMPANY

Can Europe’s low growth and high unemployment go on forever? (IrishTimes)
The hedge fund industry is characterised by many things, not least by change. One well known City of London analyst recently described different generations of hedge fund managers in terms of army officers who got their commissions in very different ways. There is a world of difference between an officer who received his promotion on the battlefield and one who got his while commanding a desk. So it is with hedge funds: anyone who thrived during the 2000-2003 great technology meltdown and also performed well during the financial crisis has proved his worth in battle.

‘Risky Business’ Report Aims to Frame Climate Change as Economic Issue (WSJ)
Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, ex-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, a hedge-fund billionaire and major Democratic donor, are linking arms Tuesday to release a report, Risky Business, that argues U.S. companies should treat climate change as any other business threat. The report, which says climate change could cost the country billions of dollars over the next two decades, is the product of a bipartisan group of former cabinet officers, lawmakers, corporate leaders and scientists.

Asness Touts Passive Investing Titan Bogle (Finalternatives)
Vanguard Group’s Jack Bogle is no fan of hedge funds, but one prominent hedge fund manager is a big fan of his. AQR Capital Management’s Clifford Asness says he touts Bogle, one of the pioneers of passive, index-based investing—and not his own hedge fund—to family members seeking investment advice. “The average relative asking for advice, I say, ‘Have you heard of this man Jack Bogle? He’s a very nice man,” Asness told the Morningstar Investment Conference in Chicago.

Goldman Sachs hires senior fixed income traders (eFinancialNews)
Andrea Casulli, previously a managing director and head of linear rates at UBS, and Garry Naughton, ex-Deutsche Bank European head of government bond trading, started at the bank last week, according to the UK’s Financial Services register. Both have joined as co-heads of its European government bond trading business, based in London. The pair will replace Nick Bhuta, former head of government bond trading, who left the bank to join hedge fund Tudor Capital earlier this year. For both Casulli and Naughton, the move is a homecoming of sorts.

More positive sentiment among hedge funds: Pro (CNBC)

Napier Park To Leave Citi HQ (Finalternatives)
Napier Park Global Capital is cutting another tie with former parent Citigroup. The hedge fund, spun off last year as the bank moved to come into compliance with new U.S. regulations limiting alternative investments activities, will leave Citi’s New York headquarters this summer. Napier Park will head four blocks south, from 399 Park Avenue to 280 Park Avenue, where it has signed a 10-year lease for 25,000 square feet of space. Napier Park’s neighbors in its new home include Blue Mountain Capital and Promontory Financial Group.

Fast growth of liquid alternatives fuels hedge fund fee discussion (Opalesque)
Liquid alternative funds continue to show fast growth, said hedge fund information provider Infovest21. In its latest report, Infovest21 said in 2013, net flows for alternatives were $40bn, up from $14.6bn in 2012. So far this year through April, net flows are at $11.6bn. Lois Peltz, president of Infovest21 and author of the report, said, “Liquid alts are still very early in the game. Fees have to get lower and track records need to get longer so that target date or stand-alone options are comfortable adding liquid alts as an option. Lower fees and longer track records will make it easier for DC professionals to be objective when considering it for their portfolio.”

Hedge Fund Manager Balboa Gets 4 Years In Prison (HedgeCo)
A portfolio manager for the now collapsed hedge fund Millennium Global Investments has been sentenced to 4 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release, The Wall Street Journal reports. Michael Balboa, a London-based hedge fund manager, was convicted in 2013 for providing fake valuations on Nigerian warrants at the height of the financial crisis. The scheme generated millions of dollars in management and performance fees for which he earned as much as $6.5 million, prosecutors said.

Investors Strike Hedge Fund Partnerships (Funds-Europe)
Investors are seeking a more active engagement with hedge funds, says Michelle McGregor-Smith, the chief executive of British Airways Pension Investment Management, in a report that claims partnerships lead to better access to knowledge and more value for money for investors. McGregor-Smith, who is also chair of the investor steering committee at the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), makes the comment in an AIMA/Barclays report that finds that investors are increasingly striking partnerships with hedge funds, which AIMA says reflects a closer collaboration taking place between the hedge fund industry and its investor base.

Three Tech Managers Leave Point72 (Finalternatives)
Point72 Asset Management has suffered its first major exodus of traders since the former SAC Capital Advisors became a family office in April. Three traders left the $10 billion firm’s Boston office over the last week, The New York Times reports. Telis Bertsekas, Nina Huges and Michael Valentine were all technology traders; Bertsekas and Hughes co-managed several hundred million dollars for SAC and then Point72, and Hughes was one of just a handful of women to serve as portfolio managers at the firm. It is unclear what the trio’s plan is, although the Times reports that Bertsekas and Hughes are expected to join another hedge fund and to continue working together.

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