Hedge Fund News: Fortress, Massachusetts Hedge Fund Insider Trading Case

Fortress Said to Start Asia Macro Hedge Fund Run by Levinson (Bloomberg)
Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG), the buyout and hedge-fund firm run by Daniel Mudd, started an Asia-focused macro hedge fund that it aims to grow to $500 million, three people with knowledge of its plan said. The Fortress Asia Macro Fund has started trading with the firm’s own money and that of a few clients, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The fund is set to attract more money starting in April, when investors make their allocations, the people said. Gordon Runte, a New York-based spokesman, declined to comment.

Massachusetts Hedge Fund Faces State Insider Case (WSJ)
Massachusetts’s securities regulator moved to shut down a small Cambridge hedge fund Wednesday after charging it and its manager with using an expert consultant to obtain inside information on two pharmaceutical companies. In an administrative complaint, William Galvin, the Secretary of the Commonwealth, charged James Silverman and his fund, Risk Reward Capital Management, with using the expert-network firm Guidepoint Global to get inside information on clinical trials that helped him to “score dramatic returns” for his fund, which had $24 million of assets as of November.

Dymon, Run by Ex-Citadel Manager, to Grow Asian Macro Fund to $700 Million (Bloomberg)
Dymon Asia Capital, which started a hedge fund in 2008 with capital from Tudor Investment Corp., plans to grow its Asian macro fund by 40 percent to $700 million by the middle of the year before closing it to new cash again. The Singapore-based firm has increased assets to about $500 million since January, when it re-opened its Dymon Asia Macro Fund to investors after it outperformed the industry, said Chief Executive Officer Danny Yong. The hedge fund had stopped taking in money from outside investors a year ago to cap assets at $320 million, said Yong, who previously set up and ran Citadel LLC’s Asia macro trading business. The Dymon Asia Macro Fund gained about 4 percent this year, after returning 15.2 percent in 2010 and 16.3 percent in 2009.

Clive Fund Bounces Back In January (FinAlternatives)
Clive Capital’s flagship hedge fund jumped 4.9% in February on the heels of a flat January. The $5 billion commodities and energy hedge fund is now up 5% this year, Bloomberg News reports. The fund rose by double-digits last year, and impressive feat, given that it was down about 4% through the middle of 2010. The average hedge fund rose about 1.4% last month and is up 2% on the year.