…a civil court order to freeze some of its assets and ban it from trading in the city. The hedge fund was accused of insider trading in the shares of China Construction Bank and Bank of China in 2009.
Lansdowne Boasts US$4 Billion European Short Book (FINalternatives)
Lansdowne Partners, which manages US$12.4 billion, is short as much as US$4 billion in European equities, ValueWalk reports. The hedge fund is short at least 27 such companies. Among the names present in Lansdwone’s short book are gas engineering company Air Liquide, information technology company Amadeus IT Holding, engineering company Atlas Copco, retailer H & M Hennes & Mauritz, publisher Pearson, engineering company Sandvik and supermarket company Tesco. Most of those shorts are worth in excess of US$200 million.
Chenavari Said to Target $1 Billion Europe Direct Lending Funds (Bloomberg)
Chenavari Credit Partners LLP is raising as much as $1 billion for its European direct lending funds as banks cut loans to small and medium-sized companies and real estate developers, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Chenavari, whose assets under management soared almost 100 times to $3.75 billion from $40 million five years ago, is seeking to deliver net annual return of about 12 percent for the strategy, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
Hedge fund group sues over Cayman reforms (Financial Times)
One of the biggest hedge fund service businesses on the Cayman Islands has tried to block sweeping reforms to make the tax haven, the world’s main centre for hedge funds, more transparent. The Caymans is home to more than 9,400 hedge funds, sheltering assets worth an estimated $2.2tn, and has faced increasing calls from investors and governments for an overhaul of its regulation. A company linked to DMS Management, the largest provider of hedge fund “fiduciary services” – the hiring of independent directors to sit on fund boards – has filed a suit against the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, seeking to stop the regulator from “taking any decision” on a range of transparency and corporate governance reforms proposed earlier this year.
France back in hedge funds’ sights as economy stutters (Reuters)
Hedge funds are restoring bets that French bond prices will fall, speculating the country’s gamble on increasing public spending to boost economic growth will fail. With President Hollande’s approval ratings at the lowest of any modern French leader and March jobless claims at an all-time high, some funds think the country’s bond yields should trade closer to those of Italy and Spain than Germany. “The most interesting bet to make in Europe is in France. I still feel in France that the risks are really underpriced,” said Philippe Gougenheim, CEO of Swiss-based Gougenheim Investments, who has recently gone long German bunds and short French bonds using futures.
