Swedish Energy Hedge Fund Drops Oil, Emissions (Finalternatives)
Sweden’s Shepherd Energy is quitting oil and emissions trading, which have cut into its returns this year. The firm’s energy hedge fund boasted gains of 8.6% on its electricity book. But that figure fell to 1.22% when losses on oil and emissions are factored in. The firm plans to focus its attention on the Nordic power market. “Our best performance comes from trading power,” fund manager Arne Oesterlind told Bloomberg News. “Excessive price movements have prompted us to withdraw from trading oil, while narrow price ranges and too little volatility for emission permits have caused us to pull out.”
The people who give the prize to the world’s smartest economists have turned to hedge funds for help (QZ)
After averaging returns of 1.5% to 2% annually over the last decade, the foundation that awards for the Nobel Prizes is looking for a few good hedge funds to help it boost returns. The decision comes after the Nobel Foundation decided to cut the size of the cash prizes it bestows on winners down from 10 million to 8 million kroner, or about $1.2 million. The fund finds itself in a situation faced by plenty of investors dealing with low interest rates. Of course there are also pitfalls in handing over your money to some of the “smart guys” that run hedge funds. For one thing, their performance on the whole hasn’t been much better than the Nobel Foundation’s in recent years.
Och-Ziff fund assets rose to $32 bln in November (MarketWatch)
Hedge-fund manager Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC OZM -0.11% said its four main funds rose modestly last month, increasing assets it manages to $32 billion as of Dec. 1. The net increase of $200 million since Nov. 1, which takes into account both price appreciation, capital inflows and redemptions, brings Och-Ziff’s assets closer to its 2007 peak of $33.4 billion. The hedge-fund manager suffered hefty redemptions during the financial crisis since it didn’t limit investor withdrawals, as some other funds did.
Lasry ‘Shocked’ By Hedge Fund Industry’s Antipathy For Obama (Finalternatives)
Nearly a month after the U.S. presidential election, Avenue Capital Group’s Marc Lasry remains mystified that most of his colleagues didn’t join him in backing the winner. While the majority of hedge fund managers backed President Barack Obama four years ago, most of them switched sides this year, including Third Point’s Dan Loeb, whose enthusiasm for the president in 2008 was matched by his antipathy for him this time around. But in spite of widespread financial backing from hedge funds for Obama’s rival, former Bain Capital chief Mitt Romney, the president won reelection rather comfortably.
Hedge fund ODD best practices launched by Rothstein Kass (HedgeWeek)
Designed to improve the ODD process for both managers and investors, the guidelines are the result of a two-day working group where investment managers, institutional investors and a team of Rothstein Kass experts engaged in open discussions to identify the inefficiencies in the ODD process and create best practice guidelines for the industry. The ODD guidelines are the first formal publication from the Rothstein Kass Institute, a thought leadership “think tank” designed to provide actionable information and insights to the alternative investment and broader financial services communities.
Icahn gives up bid for truck maker Oshkosh (Postcrescent)
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is giving up his bid to buy truck maker Oshkosh after less than 25 percent of the company’s shares were tendered before his offer expired. Oshkosh Corp. shares fell more than 4 percent in Tuesday trading. Last week, Icahn made it clear that he would walk away from his bid that valued the company at about $3 billion if the threshold wasn’t met. The tender offer expired on Monday, with about 22 percent of the shares tendered.
No payback for Singer this year (NYPost)
Paul Singer’s last-ditch attempt to get cash from Argentina this year has failed. A motion by Singer’s hedge fund, Elliott Management, requesting that the South American country put up a security deposit of $250 million by Dec. 10 was denied by a federal appeals court yesterday. “Since we will not have a big payment for ages (if ever), this looks like a huge blow to [Elliott’s] strategy,” said sovereign-debt expert Anna Gelpern.
Prosecutor wants Ganek, too (NYPost)
Another hedge-fund heavyweight may get slimed in Uncle Sam’s long-running insider-trading probe. The government is seeking permission to name Level Global co-founder David Ganek a co-conspirator in the unfolding insider-trading trial against his former partner, Anthony Chiasson. Prosecutor Antonia Apps, in a memo to Judge Richard Sullivan yesterday, said there is “substantial circumstantial evidence” showing that Ganek “did in fact know that [information on tech companies] came from sources inside those companies.”
