» Funds

Private equity-backed online fashion retailer Yoox goes public

Seneso Journal — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:09:58 +0000

Italian online fashion retailer Yoox, which is backed by European venture firm 360° Capital Partners and UK private equity firm Balderton Capital, has begun an IPO that could value it up to €225m, according to reports.

Read the whole story @ AltAssets

Georgia Hedge Fund Fraudsters Sentenced

Seneso Journal — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:51:59 +0000

A Georgia hedge fund fraudster will spend five years in prison for ripping off investors to the tune of more than $2 million.

Gary Hutcheson had faced up to 40 years in prison even after cutting a plea deal with prosecutors. His accomplice, Saundra McKinney Pyles, was sentenced to seven months in prison and seven months home confinement as part of the agreement. The two have been ordered to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution.

Read the whole story @ FINalternatives

Hinde’s Hedge Fund Advances 44% After Dumping Equities for Gold

Seneso Journal — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:51:18 +0000

Hinde Capital Ltd.’s hedge fund gained 44 percent this year after selling its holdings in the biggest mining companies to buy gold.

The Hinde Gold Fund made the switch in October 2008, having previously held equal weightings in equities and gold, according to Ben Davies, co-founder of the fund. He declined to say which stocks the fund had sold.

Read the whole story @ Bloomberg

Hedge Fund Fined For Misleading Options Market

Seneso Journal — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:50:26 +0000

A New York-based hedge fund has settled charges that it misled the Chicago Board of Trade, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.

EMF Financial Products has agreed to pay $4 million to settle the CFTC allegations. The regulator had accused it of hiding the size of its position in U.S. Treasury futures four years ago. While the hedge fund controlled almost $12 billion in contracts, it allegedly told the CBOT—which was conducting market surveillance in advance of the expiration of the September 2005 contract—that it had a cash position of just $200 million.

Read the whole story @ FINalternatives

Banks Wooing Hedge-Fund Clients Again

Seneso Journal — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:57:39 +0000

Banks are starting to cut prices at their prime brokerages as they fight to pick up hedge-fund clients, a segment they had grown wary of during the financial crisis.

The wariness was perhaps best summed up by Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis, who said last year that prime broking was about as sensible an activity to be involved in as walking onto the fast lane of a highway to pick up a small coin. Morgan Stanley, even spoke publicly about cutting back in prime broking, a business that consumes significant amounts of a bank's balance sheet.

Read the whole story @ WSJ

BMO Capital Buys Assets From Paloma Hedge Fund

Seneso Journal — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:57:27 +0000

BMO Capital Markets, the investment- banking business of Bank of Montreal, hired a team and bought assets from Paloma Securities LLC to expand its securities- lending business.

Bank of Montreal added 42 people from the lending unit of the Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund, the Toronto-based bank said today.

Read the whole story @ Bloomberg

Hedge Fund Chief’s NY Indictment Deadline Extended

Seneso Journal — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:44:54 +0000

New York City prosecutors say an indictment can be delayed against one of America’s richest men in a massive insider trading case so negotiations to settle it can finish.

Federal prosecutors notified the court by letter Monday that the deadline for an indictment should be extended by a month while talks continue between the government and lawyers for billionaire hedge fund operator Raj Rajaratnam. A judge granted the extension until Dec. 16.

Read the whole story @ ABC News

In private equity, brand names don’t equal returns

Seneso Journal — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:43:26 +0000

If an investor had just $1 to give to a private-equity firm to invest, he probably would be better off looking outside many of the industry’s brand names, according to the results of a long-running academic study into the industry’s performance.

Read the whole story @ WSJ

Dynamic Hedge Fund Chairman Says Fraud Allegations ‘Unfounded’

Seneso Journal — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:37:33 +0000

Alberto Micalizzi, founder of the hedge fund firm Dynamic Decisions Capital Management Ltd., said allegations that he invested in worthless bonds are unfounded and investors will recover close to 100 percent of their money.

The firm’s main hedge fund, with a net asset value of $550 million as of Dec. 31, is being liquidated in the Cayman Islands after investors raised questions about some of its holdings. The U.K. Serious Fraud Office, which prosecutes white-collar crime, opened a probe into the London-based firm last week after the matter was referred to it by the Financial Services Authority.

Read the whole story @ Bloomberg

US House Hedge Fund Bill Would Cost SEC $140 Million Over 4 Years-CBO

Seneso Journal — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:28:21 +0000

A pending U.S. House bill requiring private fund advisers to register with regulators would cost the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission $140 million to implement over a four-year period, according to a Congressional?Budget?Office?estimate.

Read the whole story @ NASDAQ