Monroe Capital terminates, sues managing director over alleged confidentiality violations (Pensions & Investments)
Warren Woo was terminated as managing director of Monroe Capital over “serious violations of company policies relating to confidentiality and appropriate use of information systems,” Theodore L. Koenig, president and CEO of Monroe Capital, said in a statement the company e-mailed to Pensions & Investments. A lawsuit filed June 19 by Monroe Capital and related firms against Mr. Woo alleges he took “confidential, proprietary, and critical information and trade secrets from Monroe” to assist a competing firm he was helping to form, Breakaway Capital, a private equity firm. The suit is pending in U.S. District Court in Chicago before Judge Milton Shadur.
Toronto manager Stephenson plans to launch C$40 mln hedge fund (Reuters)
John Stephenson, a prominent Toronto-based money manager, said on Wednesday he plans to launch his own hedge fund, a vehicle he thinks will be best-placed to take advantage of potential volatility in stock markets trading near record highs. A former executive at First Asset Investment Management, Stephenson expects his first product to be a C$40 million ($36.86 million) North America-focused fund. He hopes to follow that up with other offerings and sees the money manager playing an activist role in corporations over time.
What Happens When the Vulture Funds Start Circling (Wall Street Journal)
The standoff between Argentina and some hedge funds playing out in New York federal court this month isn’t the first time Wall Street has faced off with a sovereign debtor. Argentina’s 13-year dispute with the group of creditors opened a new chapter on June 16 when the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the hedge fund holdouts and denied the country’s appeal of a lower-court decision. The holdouts, led by Elliott Management-subsidiary NML Capital, are demanding full repayment before permitting the country to compensate other lenders who had accepted the terms of prior restructurings.
Bitcoin Auction Draws Wall Street, Silicon Valley Bidders (Bloomberg)
Buyers from Wall Street to Silicon Valley are lining up to bid on a cache of bitcoins worth about $17 million, underscoring the interest in the digital currency even after its boom and bust. Pantera Capital Management, a San Francisco hedge fund backed by Fortress Investment Group, and SecondMarket Inc., a New York brokerage, are among those seeking to buy bitcoins from the U.S. government at an auction scheduled for June 27. A broad swath of interested parties, from individuals to institutional investors, have requested information from the U.S. Marshals Service, which is handling the sale.
Japanese investors to maintain hedge fund allocations, says survey (HedgeWeek)
Japanese investors plan to maintain the size of their hedge fund allocations this year, according to a survey by AIMA Japan and Eurekahedge. The survey of more than 130 investors with over USD3.8 trillion in assets revealed that the average percentage of their alternative investment portfolio going to hedge funds will remain the same for 2014 as for 2013, at 72.5 per cent. The survey follows strong recent performance by Japanese-investing hedge funds and funds of funds, which were up about 28 per cent on average in 2013.
