News

Bear Stearns Cos. today reported its third quarter profits plunged 62% following this summer’s collapse of two of its hedge funds, which Bear blames for $200 million of that drop.

Goldman Sachs is turning its former Cadillac of a hedge fund into a Buick. The firm is reducing its $6 billion Global Alpha fund’s leverage, restricting its size and aiming for less volatile returns.

August returns for hedge funds and commodity trading advisors alike were not pretty, to say the least. But while a pair of Florida-based trend-following heavyweights wilted—in terms of both returns and assets—last month, a notable New York-based countertrend trader showed hedgies and CTAs just what it means to be uncorrelated.

The board of the $13 billion Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico last month authorized the first phase of the system’s portable alpha program.

PERA’s board set the alpha program, which is separate from the system’s current hedge fund strategy, at 5% of total assets and plans to increase it to 10% after 12-18 months, according to Robert Gish, PERA’s chief investment officer.

Daniel Och is willing to part with a slice of his hedge fund, but the founder of Och-Ziff Capital Management won’t be sharing in the decision-making.

In filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, New York-based Och-Ziff—with nearly $30 billion in assets the country’s fifth-largest hedge fund manager—offered details of its planned initial public offering.

Hedge fund assets in Singapore are soaring, and investment banks are rushing to offer their services to them in the city-state. The latest to set up shop there is Deutsche Bank, opening a pair of desks to serve Singapore’s now US$26 billion hedge fund industry.

A fugitive hedge fund manager who was convicted in the U.S. last year of defrauding investors out of $78 million was rearrested yesterday in Greece where he has been hiding from U.S. authorities.

Mark Woodward has joined Blackstone Group as a senior advisor in the firm's private equity group. Woodward will be responsible primarily for sourcing and evaluating software and information technology related transactions, and will be based in San Francisco.

Epoch Investment Partners has hired Emily Baker as a managing director responsible for supporting the firm’s Global Absolute Return and Global Choice Products.

Absolute Capital Management Holdings is trying to stop the bleeding by blocking investors from withdrawing money from eight of its hedge funds, which in total manage $2.1 billion.