Profits crumble at Paulson Europe (eFinancialNews)
The European arm of Paulson & Co., the hedge fund run by manager John Paulson, renowned for his profitable prediction of the sub-prime crisis and subsequent under-performance, has seen its profits collapse. Profits for Paulson Europe fell to £3.7m for the year ended March 31, 2012, an 86% fall from the same period in 2011, when the fund made a profit of £26.5m, according to accounts filed this week in Companies House. Turnover was down 64% to £13.3m, down from £37m a year previously. Unsurprisingly, profit available for the firm’s four members dropped dramatically, down from £26.5m in the 12 months ended March 2011, to £3.7m in the year to March 31, 2012. The highest paid member received £1.4m, down from £15m.
Sunrise Capital Partners’ Managing Director Jason Gerlach will serve as President of the California Hedge Fund Association (CHFA) in 2013. CHFA, a non-profit, member-based organization, was founded to foster growth and development of the hedge fund community in California through advocacy of sound business practices, and the sponsorship of events, resources, and educational programs designed to improve both delivery and understanding of alternative investment programs. Gerlach and Sunrise have played an integral role in the founding and growth of CHFA. Gerlach’s election to the presidency of the organization was made by the CHFA board of directors, effective January 1, 2013.
David Harding reports hedge fund loss in 2011 (Telegraph)
The former trader, who read physics at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, saw his $10bn (£6.2bn) Winton Futures Fund lose 3.5pc last year. Mr Harding, said by some to be the hedge fund hero on which the lead character in Robert Harris’s best-selling Fear Index was based, has devised software programmes to trade markets, setting up banks of computers to follow trends in markets often at high speed.
Ex-Barclays Trader Ek Hires Mancebo for Europe Hedge Fund (BusinessWeek)
Ulf Ek, a former power trader at Barclays Plc and Amaranth Advisors LLC, has made his first hire at hedge fund Northlander Commodity Advisors LLC. Luis Adrian Mancebo Lomeli joined Northlander in London this month, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the appointment hasn’t been made public. Mancebo was a power and energy trader at Vattenfall AB, the Nordic region’s biggest utility, Constellation Energy Group Inc. and Sempra Energy (SRE), and most recently a property developer in South America, one of the people said.
Dell chief biz gobbler Johnson flees for hedge-fund Blackstone (ChannelRegister)
‘Tis the season for executive management changes. David Johnson, the mergers and acquisition chief that Michael Dell lured away from IBM, is leaving Round Rock to return to the Empire State. Johnson was responsible for architecting Dell’s expansion into services, storage, and software after leaving Big Blue. A Dell spokesperson confirmed to El Reg that Johnson has left the Texan IT giant and is taking an executive position at Blackstone Group, a private equity and hedge fund giant. His new employer was founded in 1985 and has at least $150bn of assets under management and had revenues of more than $3.65bn in 2011.
JPMorgan’s Staley to Join BlueMountain Capital (NYTimes)
The former head of JPMorgan Chase’s investment bank is leaving to join a hedge fund that profited by going against JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) in a bet on corporate debt that left the bank with a multibillion-dollar loss. The executive, James E. Staley, a longtime lieutenant of the bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, said on Tuesday that he would join BlueMountain Capital Management, one of the hedge funds on the other side of the “London whale” trade. The $12 billion fund later embarked on another series of trades with JPMorgan that helped the Wall Street bank clear out its positions.
Ex-SAC analyst named 20 alleged insider traders (FT)
Wesley Wang, a former analyst for the $14bn hedge fund SAC Capital, has named 20 people who traded on inside information, including some subjects of the US government’s wide-ranging investigation who are yet to be charged, according to prosecutors. Mr Wang, who last year pleaded guilty to passing on illegal tips while working at SAC and another hedge fund, Whitman Capital, is due to be sentenced on Wednesday. Pointing to the possibility of further arrests, prosecutors say in a letter to Judge Jed Rakoff, of the Southern District of New York, who will carry out the sentencing: “The full extent of Wang’s information and co-operation remains to be realised.”
BUTTERFIELD FULCRUM INTRODUCES INVESTOR TRANSPARENCY REPORTING (Melodika)
Butterfield Fulcrum, a leading independent hedge fund administrator and service provider to the alternative investment industry, has announced the launch of Investor Transparency Reporting, a new product and service offering. Investor Transparency Reporting (also known as Administrator Transparency Reporting) gives hedge fund investors visibility into the fund’s portfolio investments while maintaining the investment manager’s desire for confidentiality surrounding their portfolio management strategy.
Dislocations, lack of capital and volatility make opportunities for Asian investors in 2013 (Opalesque)
Joseph Pacini, Head of Alternative Investment Strategy Group for BlackRock Asia Pacific is cautiously optimistic that 2013 will be a year of better opportunities than recent events might have suggested. BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) is a $3.7 tln business globally, with $115bn globally in alternatives, $30bn in single strategy funds and just under $20bn for hedge fund advisory. In Asia, there is some $22bn in alternatives, over 50% of which is in single strategy hedge funds or hedge fund advisory.
Hedge Funds post December gains as fiscal cliff averted (CPIFinancial)
The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gained +1.3 per cent for the month, bringing FY 2012 performance to +6.2 per cent, according to HFR, the established global leader in the indexation, analysis and research of the global hedge fund industry. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index posted gains in six of the year’s final seven months, approaching the index’s record high value. Event Driven led industry strategy performance gains for December with strong contributions from a dynamic M&A environment, accessible credit markets and tightening high yield credit spreads, as the HFRI Event Driven Index gained +1.63 per cent.
Aramid’s Lawsuit Against Fortress Moves Forward (HollywoodReporter)
A judge has ruled that Aramid Entertainment’s lawsuit against Fortress Investment Group, Relativity Media and others — the lawsuit Aramid described as concerning “one of the greatest heist stories ever told in the movie business” — can continue. In the suit filed last February, Aramid — a Cayman Islands hedge fund — claimed it lost at least $44 million in connection with a slate film financing agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Aramid claimed Fortress used confidential information to make the deal with Sony, which virtually destroyed the hedge fund’s investment.
Bridgewater Taps Northern Trust for Hedge Fund Servicing (WatersTechnology)
Bridgewater Associates has selected Northern Trust for hedge fund servicing as it tries to improve its middle- and back- office processes. Northern Trust will provide Westport, Conn.-based Bridgewater—which manages about $140 billion—with services for replicating various administrative processing, trade processing, valuation, daily profit and loss (P&L), real-time reporting, cash management, foreign exchange (FX) services, investor and fund accounting, and collateral management services. Northern Trust will provide these services with the help of undisclosed third parties.
‘Dr. Doom’ sees possible 10% gold correction (MoneyControl)
“Dr. Doom” Marc Faber told CNBC on Tuesday that he owns gold even though the precious metal may be heading south. “I don`t think [gold] will go up right away, and we maybe have a correction of 10 percent or so on the downside,” the publisher of The Gloom Boom and Doom Report said in a “Squawk Box” interview. “But I see that governments will print money … so I want to have gold as an insurance policy.”
CVR Refining could raise up to $520M in IPO (Equities)
CVR Refining LP on Tuesday said it expected that its initial public offering could raise as much as $520 million. The Sugar Land, Texas-based company is a refining subsidiary of CVR Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CVI), a fuel and fertilizer maker controlled by activist investor Carl Icahn. CVR Refining plans to sell 20 million common units representing limited partner interests for between $24 and $26 each. The banks managing the deal may buy 3 million more units, bringing total potential proceeds to $598 million.
Palmer Square takes stake in Fountain Capital (PIOnline)
Palmer Square Capital Management will acquire a majority interest in Fountain Capital Management in a deal that will close later this year. Terms were not disclosed, but Christopher D. Long, Palmer Square’s president and a managing director, said in an interview that the remaining ownership stake of Fountain Capital will remain with the partners of the firm.
Hedge Fund Said Raising Bonuses Amid U.S. Insider Probe (HereIsTheCity)
SAC Capital Advisors LP is raising bonuses for its portfolio managers by 3 percentage points to help retain employees as the U.S. government’s insider-trading probe moves closer to Steven A. Cohen’s $14b hedge fund, according to a person familiar with the matter. …The firm’s portfolio managers are typically paid an annual bonus of about 15% to 25% of the profits they generate from their investments, according to another person.
