Wednesday, May 23, 2012
One year ago
»» The Robin Hood Foundation raised $47.4 million at its star-studded annual gala, which featured performances by Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett.
The New York City poverty-fighting organization, which boasts such hedge fund board members as Steve Cohen, Paul Tudor Jones and Dan Och, held this year’s gala last week at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The event, which raised $57 million, included performances by Rihanna and Neil Young. Among the attendees were John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital, Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital Management and Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management.
See more about Robin Hood: Ray Dalio makes $10 million challenge grant • Paul Tudor Jones: “I have had trouble sleeping this year” • Black Eyed Peas rock Central Park for charity • David Tepper joins Robin Hood board, mulls donating majority of fortune
Five years ago
»» Oaktree Capital found plenty of demand for a groundbreaking security sale in which the firm raised $880 million from institutional investors by using the special 144A exemption from the Securities Act of 1933 to sell 15% of itself without having to register the offering. A year later, a professor of law at the University of Arizona composed a whitepaper on the subject, The Birth of Rule 144A Equity Offerings, which “details the burgeoning Rule 144A trading market.”
The Los Angeles firm, which manages $2.35 billion in hedge funds and $77.85 billion overall, listed itself publicly last month on the New York Stock Exchange, but had less success. It raised $380.2 million, reportedly 27% less than it had originally sought.
An Oaktree spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
»» AM Investment Partners co-founders Mark Friedman and Adam Stern celebrated a surge in volatility following a sell-off in Chinese stocks, because their $750 million fund used the options market to profit from the gyrations.
Assets grew to as much as $1 billion in two strategies in 2009 as the pair bet that the transition to President Barack Obama would make for a jumpy market. But amid an unremarkable stretch for arbitrage funds, investors slowly redeemed and AM decided to liquidate its remaining $200 million in December 2011, Friedman told AR. “The world had changed,” he said, referring to automated trading that executes transactions faster than any human could ever calculate.
Friedman is now director of trading and operations at $1 billion Touradji Capital Management. Stern is now managing director of investor relations at Crescent Capital, a $6.3 billion Los Angeles asset manager. He did not respond to a request for comment.
See also: Big Apple convert fund to make long/short push • AM Investment adds portfolio manager • Gotham firm hires quartet
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
One year ago
»» Dan Loeb’s Third Point told partners it would close to new investment at midyear following a rapid rise in assets. At $7.2 billion, up from $2.3 billion less than three years earlier, the firm said it was “grateful for the support from both new and long time investors.”
Third Point’s size continued to balloon, ending the year at $8.5 billion, according to AR’s Billion Dollar Club. The firm did close to new investment in July, but raised an additional $800 million for a new private reinsurance vehicle in the fourth quarter.
Third Point has not only made the headlines this year with its battle to influence Yahoo, but has also made some money for its investors. The offshore fund, which was flat in 2011, is up 6.5% for the year through the end of April, compared with a 7.05% rise for the AR Event Driven Index. Third Point now manages $9 billion and remains closed to new investments, according to a person familiar with the firm.
Third Point spokeswoman Elissa Doyle declined to comment.
See also: Third Point picks up AR Award • Loeb’s Third Point bets on Yahoo revival
»» The fourth annual SALT Conference in Las Vegas attracted thousands of hedge funders to hear such speakers as SAC Capital’s Steve Cohen and Omega Advisors’ Leon Cooperman.
Cooperman was on hand again for this year’s event, which was held at the Italian-themed Bellagio. See AR’s coverage of the event: SALT attendee allegedly hits massive blackjack payday • Macro bears square off with micro bulls • Maroon 5 rocks SALT • Paul Singer strikes back, says size no enemy of performance • Gotham, JANA, Omega, T2 push US stocks
Five years ago
»» Dow Kim, co-president of Merrill Lynch’s global markets and investment banking division, planned to leave the firm by yearend to establish his own hedge fund.
Kim named the multistrategy firm Diamond Lake Investment Group, and expectations were high in those heady pre-2008 days as talk flew of a potential $6 billion launch. But Kim lost the expected backing of Merrill Lynch and predictions were lowered to $500 million.
Finally, in August 2008 Kim abandoned plans for the fund after Credit Suisse and two Asian banks pulled their commitments.
Kim could not be reached for comment.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
One year ago
»» Platinum Partners was profiled in AR for its unusual investment process, which had led Mark Nordlicht’s firm to finance plaintiffs in personal injury cases, convenience stores in Chinese post offices, and handheld bomb-detection devices, among other deals.
Platinum has since continued to show strong performance. Its Value Arbitrage strategy, a perennial contender at the annual AR Awards, has done particularly well. The fund gained 21.03% last year (data here), compared with a 0.08% rise for the AR Multistrategy Index. In addition, the firm has grown from $930 million to $1.1 billion in the past year, said Platinum president Uri Landsman.
See also: Platinum Partners proves its mettle • Honoring the best in a volatile year
»» Michael Hintze was rebuilding CQS, the London hedge fund powerhouse that was hit hard in the 2008 financial tumult. Assets were back up to $10.5 billion ($6.3 billion in hedge funds), from $6 billion directly after the crisis.
The firm’s hedge fund growth has continued, and it now manages $6.7 billion in hedge fund assets, according to the latest HedgeFund Intelligence global Billion Dollar Club ranking. Overall, CQS now manages $11.5 billion. Its flagship $1.9 billion asset-backed securities fund is up 3.98% for the year through March, compared to a 2.30% return for the AR Fixed Income Index. That fund was soft-closed last year.
CQS was not immediately available for comment
See also: CQS’ Hintze attends royal wedding
Five years ago
»» In his first public speech since retiring four months prior, notable short seller David Rocker embarked on a new crusade to reform the legal system. “Litigation is a disaster whether you win or lose,” Rocker said at the CFA Institute Annual Conference of financial analysts and portfolio managers in New York this week.
Rocker had been under attack for expressing negative views on companies he was shorting, including Overstock.com. In late 2008, he paid $5 million to settle Overstock’s claims. A year later, he was back on the offensive, urging Congress to set aside its rhetoric against short sellers, whom some have blamed for exacerbating the financial crisis.
“As individuals may be expected to act in their self-interest, the short seller is the only market participant who can provide the investing public with an alternative perspective to balance the otherwise overwhelmingly bullish information coming into the marketplace,” Rocker told AR last year.
He did not immediately return a request for comment.
See also: Rocker’s passion for shorting • The Rocker files: A thickening plot
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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Peter Agnes
(Photo: LinkedIn)
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One year ago
»» Peter Agnes, former head of the credit opportunities group at Barclays Capital, joined Caxton Associates as a portfolio manager.
Agnes joined just months before Caxton founder Bruce Kovner announced he was retiring after 28 years running the firm. He turned over control to longtime chief investment officer Andrew Law, who had been credited with helping the firm turn a profit in 2008 (see AR’s February cover story on Caxton’s leadership transition here).
Law’s first months at the top have been mixed. Caxton lost 7% of its assets over 2011, according to the latest AR Billion Dollar Club rankings, and now manages $9.3 billion as of January 1. Its $7.2 billion flagship macro fund squeezed out a 0.70% gain last year, compared with a 1.17% rise for the AR Macro Index. It is up 1.7% through this year through April 20, according to a person familiar with the firm.
A Caxton spokesperson declined to comment.
See also: Caxton among lobbyists at the Fed • Caxton founder Kovner donates $20M to Julliard • Caxton, Carlson, others hit fundraising trail
Five years ago
»» Atlantic Asset Management hired Chris Sutter, formerly of Blue Sky Capital, as vice president of sales for alternatives as it looked to grow beyond its traditional long-only fixed income specialty into the hedge fund space.
Sutter did not last long, moving on a little over a year later to Donald Brownstein’s Structured Portfolio Management. In 2009, he was elevated to head of marketing and investor relations for the award-winning residential mortgage backed securities-focused shop, which managed $1.08 billion on January 1 of that year. It now has $3.05 billion in hedge fund assets.
Sutter did not respond to a request for comment.
»» Paul Tudor Jones planned to host a fundraiser for presidential candidate Barack Obama at his Greenwich, Connecticut estate, an event that reportedly boasted George Soros among its more than 500 eventual attendees.
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Paul Tudor Jones
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Obama, of course, won the election in 2008. Jones’ support, however, proved short-lived. In 2010 he reportedly was among those urging New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, to take on the incumbent president. When that failed, he became a major donor to presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, campaign filings show.
A Tudor spokesperson declined to comment.
See also: Obama’s vanishing hedge fund moneymen • Obama courts hedgies
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
One year ago
»» Andrew Grossman, who was previously a senior trader of then-$2.49 billion Baltimore firm Chesapeake Partners Management, prepared to launch a hedge fund by July with the help of former Chesapeake analyst Michael Levitt. The duo launched LG Capital Management, based in Owings MIlls, Maryland, that August, and it now manages more than $20 million in an event-driven strategy, according to a person familiar with the firm. Levitt serves as portfolio manager.
LG is up 7% this year in the first quarter and produced a positive return in 2011, according to the person, putting it ahead of most event-driven funds (the median event driven fund in the AR database fell 5.21% in 2011, and was up 1.40% in the first quarter, according to early estimates).
Grossman did not respond to a request for comment. Event-driven Chesapeake has since dropped off AR’s Billion Dollar Club ranking.
Five years ago
»» Global hedge funds shot past $2 trillion in assets for the first time, up more than 25% from the previous year, according to HedgeFund Intelligence.
That was before the turmoil of 2008 resulted in a regression to $1.8 billion the next year. It was not until 2011 that hedge funds clawed back above $2 trillion, buoyed by two years of strong performance.
HedgeFund Intelligence will release its global hedge fund asset survey this Thursday in the annual Global Review.
»» BlueMountain Capital Management launched a new closed-end credit fund, one of a number of long-time-frame strategies from Andrew Feldstein’s then-$4.5 billion firm.
Dubbed BlueHorizon II, the instrument bought $88 million of synthetic CDO tranches. It opened and closed to investment in March 2007. With a ten-year lockup, the fund is barely halfway through its lifespan, and a BlueMountain spokesperson declined to comment on its performance.
The now-$6.4 billion firm’s more mainstream flagship credit strategy was up 3.3% through the first two months of 2011, compared with a 2.83% return for the AR Credit Index during the same time period.
See also: The credit correlation king • Credit hedge funds fish for gains