Dyal Capital buys stake in multistrategy hedge fund manager Halcyon (PIOnline)
Halcyon Asset Management sold a 20% passive minority stake to Dyal Capital Partners. Halcyon’s four active partners — managing principals John M. Bader, Kevah Konner, Thomas B. Hirschfeld and Joseph W. Hill — said they will collectively invest more than 80% of the after-tax profits from the sale in the firm’s multistrategy hedge funds for a minimum of three years, according to a letter to Halcyon clients that was obtained by Pensions & Investments. “We are delighted at this opportunity to align our interests further with those of our clients,” the partners wrote in their letter.
New York Appeals Court Precludes Attempted End Run Around Morrison (Mondaq)
A New York appellate court recently issued a decision favorable to securities issuers whose shares trade on non-US exchanges. The court held that certain hedge fund plaintiffs – whose federal securities fraud claims earlier were dismissed pursuant to the US Supreme Court’s decision in Morrison – could not pursue a new state court suit that was based on nearly identical allegations as the original federal suit. The decision comes in Viking Global Equities, LP v. Porsche Automobil Holding SE, where the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, held that the hedge fund plaintiffs’ claims should be dismissed pursuant to forum non convenience doctrine because the claims were more appropriately resolved in Germany, where the dispute was centered.
New hedge fund bucks trend with fees cut (FT)
One of the UK’s fastest-growing hedge funds is slashing its fees, in a move that it hopes will spark a rethink of the industry’s notoriously high charges. The new Core Macro fund being set up by Cambridge-based Cantab Capital will employ similar trading strategies as funds from Man Group, Winton Capital and BlueCrest, three of the world’s biggest hedge funds that manage $100bn between them, but at half the cost to investors.
Morgan Creek’s Yusko out as CIO of Endowment Fund (Reuters)
Hedge fund investor Mark Yusko, who once headed the University of North Carolina’s endowment fund, has stepped down as investment chief of his $3.5 billion joint-venture Endowment Fund, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The Endowment Fund, which was designed to replicate how successful institutions like Yale University invest, was founded by Morgan Creek Capital, the investment firm Yusko founded in 2004, and Salient Partners, a Houston-based investment firm.
Yale May Buy More Hedge Fund Investments After Favoring Cash (FA-Mag)
Yale University, the second-wealthiest college, may increase its holdings of hedge funds after cutting them last year and shifting into cash, according to a report from the investments office run by David Swensen. Yale, whose $19.3 billion endowment is second in size only to Harvard University’s, may boost hedge fund investments to 18 percent of its portfolio after cutting them to 14.5 percent in the year that ended in June, according to the report posted to the investments office website. The university also increased its target for private equity and real estate holdings.
Ex-Citadel managing director’s structured credit hedge fund secures seed deal (HedgeFundsReview)
Continuum Investment Management expects to launch its maiden hedge fund on February 1 with close to $100 million in assets, including $85 million in seed capital from fund of hedge funds manager Grosvenor Capital Management. The fund will take a multi-strategy approach to investing in structured credit markets, focusing on pre-payment and credit-centric trades in residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities (RMBS and CMBS) and other asset-backed securities.
Performance pushes hedge fund assets to record in 2012 (PIOnline)
Aggregate single and multistrategy hedge fund assets rose to a record $2.25 trillion as of Dec. 31, up 12.5% from a year earlier, according to year-end analysis from Hedge Fund Research. The net growth of hedge fund assets was driven to a huge extent by performance gains, which totaled $209.9 billion across all strategy categories in the year ended Dec. 31. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite index returned 6.22% in the 12 months ended Dec. 31.
