Waratah Launches Liquid Alternative ESG Fund (Hedge Week)
Waratah Capital Advisors has launched the firm’s second liquid alternative mutual fund, the Waratah Alternative ESG (AESG) Fund. The new offering will operate pari-passu with the OM fund, providing high net worth (HNW) retail investors and their advisors with direct access to a diversified portfolio composed of long and short equity positions where Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) factors are integrated, and emphasised into the investment thesis. Liquid alternatives provide portfolio construction tools which offer the potential for added diversification and risk-adjusted returns. The Waratah Alternative ESG Fund integrates ESG factors and considerations into fundamental investment analysis to reduce inadvertent and direct ESG related risks as well as to identify new ESG related investment opportunities such as water technology, battery materials, renewable energy and plastics innovation.
Hedge Fund Sounds Alarm on Korea’s $100 Billion Bio Stocks (Bloomberg)
For those investors lucky enough to have invested in South Korea’s health care sector, now may be the time to reassess the risks. James Lim, a senior analyst at the $3 billion California-based hedge fund Dalton Investments LLC., is warning that retail investors could pull out of the nation’s equity market on unforeseen events such as an earlier-than-expected curb in the Covid-19 pandemic or a lifting of a short-sell ban. Drug-related shares are especially vulnerable because hopes for a virus cure have made them expensive, according to Lim.
Down Market Slamming AQR But Firm Keeps Faith in Future (Pensions&Investments)
Value manager AQR Capital Management is experiencing its worst drawdown since the global financial crisis as markets continue to pummel value managers. AQR’s assets under management fell 23.1% to $143 billion in the quarter ended March 31 and were down 36.2% from $224 billion as of Dec. 31, 2017, the previous peak provided to Pensions & Investments, from a combination of performance losses and client withdrawals. AQR Capital Management LLC, Greenwich, Conn., said in emailed comments that the firm’s value focus was a significant contributing factor in the decline.
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The Fed Bought Debt in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Coca-Cola, Walmart, and McDonald’s in Its First Spree of Corporate Bond-Buying (Business Insider)
The Fed bought $428 million worth of corporate bonds in its first foray into company debt as part of its response to the coronavirus, snapping up debt in household names like Coca-Cola, AT&T, and Berkshire Hathaway in the process. A transaction list disclosed Sunday shows the Fed’s first round of company bond purchases, showing that the central bank bought debt in some 86 different companies as it fights to keep corporate America afloat amid an unprecedented economic shutdown. The transactions shows the Fed piled in $5.7 million into Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the energy subsidiary of Warren Buffett‘s conglomerate. It also bought almost $6.5 million of McDonald’s debt, and $2.2 million in Southwest Airlines.
CARN Makes New Hire (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Norwegian asset manager CARN Capital is expanding its investment team with the hiring of Melanie Brooks, who most recently worked as Head of ESG Risk Monitoring at Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM). Brooks will be joining the team at Oslo-based CARN Capital in September. CARN Capital manages long/short fundamental equity fund CARN Long Short, which seeks to invest in companies with strong economic characteristics and sustainable business models that align with solving the Sustainable Development Goals. “There are two things we want to be good at in CARN; fundamental equity analysis and sustainability analysis. We believe that goes hand in hand. Melanie will further strengthen our team in both areas,” CARN Capital writes in an announcement on LinkedIn.
Hedge Funds Rushing to Get Out of Bearish Stock Bets (Newsmax)
Fast-money hedge funds are rushing to cover their bearish U.S. stock bets even as the equity rally threatens to break down. Speculative investors bought a net 206,227 S&P 500 Index E-mini contracts in the week to June 23, the most since 2007, according to the latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. Net short positions in the contracts were at their highest in almost a decade as the U.S. equity rebound pushed the benchmark back toward record territory.
How COVID-19 Could Drive ESG Adoption in the Real Estate Industry (Preqin.com)
As the pandemic increases the need for social infrastructure and the importance of defensive allocation options, investor interest in impact real estate investment could rise. In recent years, private real estate fund managers have increasingly adapted their frameworks to consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria in response to LP demand. The number of new fund manager signatories to ESG/impact investing frameworks increased every year between 2014 and 2018, reaching a record high of 37 in 2018, as the chart above shows. Despite a fall in new signatories the following year, adoption is still widespread with 427 signatories in total as of November 2019.
