Ontario pension tsar’s harsh hedge fund lesson (FT)
When Ron Mock became president and chief executive of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in January – one of the world’s largest pension funds – his appointment raised more than a few eyebrows. Not just because Mr Mock, who is a 13-year veteran of the $140.8bn Canadian pension scheme, has a background in the somewhat controversial area of hedge funds, but because the hedge fund company he once presided over collapsed in 2000 with losses of more than $125m.
Hedge Funds Run by Women Outperform Those Run by Men (TheAtlantic)
This morning, the Wall Street Journal reported on funds that choose to tie their fates to the performance of companies led by women. Barclays’ Women in Leadership Total Return Index, which consists of American companies with a female CEO or whose proportion of female board members is at least 25 percent, is one of number of new funds that aims to capitalize on the finding that companies with female leaders tend to outperform those where women are relatively absent. (Amusingly and depressingly, even if Barclays were based in the U.S., it wouldn’t qualify for its own fund, due to its lack of female leaders.)
Astenbeck Nears 20% Returns (Finalternatives)
Astenbeck Capital Management started 2014 off on the wrong foot, but those winter losses are a distant memory after its fifth-straight up month. The oil hedge fund, led by former Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) star trader Andrew Hall, rose nearly 20% in the first half, it told investors. The firm, which has lost money in two out of the last three years, including last year, credited “improved marketing and trading” activity for the turnaround. Astenbeck, which has $3.4 billion in assets under management, is up 19.1% through June.
Marcato Capital Adds to Pressure on InterContinental Hotels to Sell Itself (NYTimes)
The hedge fund Marcato Capital Management said on Monday that it had hired the investment bank Houlihan Lokey as a financial adviser, as it seeks to put more pressure on InterContinental Hotels Group to sell itself. InterContinental, the British owner of the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands, would possibly be an attractive target for an American hotel operator seeking to engage in a so-called inversion, where the company reincorporates overseas to avoid higher corporate taxes in the United States and free up money trapped in foreign entities.
Evercore acquires ISI, remaining 40% of its equities business (PIOnline)
Evercore Partners agreed to acquire International Strategy and Investment Group, a research and trading business. In an SEC filing Monday, Evercore said it would also acquire the 40% of its own institutional equity business it currently does not own from hedge fund manager River Birch Capital Partners and several employees of Evercore’s institutional equity business. Evercore said it will issue 8 million shares, with as much as 70% of the payout tied to five-year performance targets, which would value the deal at about $440 million.
Hedge funds eye a profit from European bank research retreat (Reuters)
As Europe’s big investment banks and brokerages scale back their research efforts, particularly towards small and mid-sized companies, some hedge funds and other specialist players spy an opportunity. If the major players aren’t ferreting out investment ideas among Europe’s thousands of non blue-chip companies, figuring the effort is too costly and time-consuming at a time of cutbacks and rationalisation, other participants see a chance to capitalise on the resultant gap in the market.
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