HMHQ NetworkAll Comments
Comment: It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it...
Wed, 01 July 2009
Mike Stepek, a partner in Geneva office of Hogan & Hartson, examines the contrasting approaches of Switzerland and of the EU and US toward direct regulation of the hedge fund industry. 
Comment: Pause for reflection
Mon, 29 June 2009
At first sight, it might seem deeply inappropriate for two sectors of the global fund industry to have held their biggest and most high-profile get-togethers this month in Monaco. The very location seems redolent of the past decade's excesses of which the financial industry is now seeking to purge itself.
Comment: Europe strikes a blow for funds' freedom
Fri, 19 June 2009
The European Union is not in wildly good odour with the continent's fund industry at the moment. Managers are up in arms about what they see as a misconceived and damaging draft Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers, while the financial sectors and governments of several member states have reservations about the proposed system of EU-wide regulation that the union's political leaders are currently discussing in Brussels.
Comment: Does the EU need more financial regulation?
Mon, 15 June 2009
Some members of the financial industry in the UK are up in arms at the European Commission's plans to create a new layer of financial supervision at EU level that could, at least in theory, overrule national regulations. Given the intrusive and bureaucratic nature of the Commission's proposals for oversight of alternative fund managers, you can understand their wariness of any new blueprints for the industry coming out of Brussels. But this...
Comment: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Fri, 05 June 2009
Charlie McCreevy, the European Commissioner responsible - albeit reluctantly - for the draft EU Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers, has announced plans for tighter regulation of custodians of Ucits funds with the aim of ensuring that they do a better job of protecting investors' assets.
Comment: Funds of hedge funds defy predictions of extinction
Fri, 29 May 2009
Funds of hedge funds were widely predicted to become one of the principal casualties of last year's annus horribilis for the hedge fund industry. While most hedge fund indices reported average declines in 2008 of up to 20 per cent, fund of funds benchmarks did even worse.
Comment: The impact of Bermuda's new anti-money laundering regime on fund operators and administrators
Thu, 28 May 2009
Kathleen Moniz (pictured) and Elliot Hubbard of law firm Conyers Dill & Pearman explain the implications for fund management and administration businesses of the new anti-money laundering rules introduced in Bermuda at the beginning of this year.
Comment: Does Ucits already do the trick?
Fri, 22 May 2009
Last month the European Commission rolled out its draft Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, which is designed to bring order and regulation to the supposedly chaotic and stability-threatening hedge fund and private equity sectors. Among a range of measures that have aroused the ire of virtually the whole alternative fund industry, the draft directive includes a provision for something resembling a 'passport' for private placements...
Comment: Regulation and tax pose dilemma for alternative managers
Sun, 17 May 2009
Will a combination of the UK's plans to increase taxation of the income and pension contributions of its wealthiest residents and the European Union's proposals to impose strict new regulation on hedge fund managers and private equity firms result in leading alternative investment players leaving for more welcoming domiciles?
Comment: Complex and costly ETFs struggle to win investors' attention
Fri, 08 May 2009
Exchange-traded funds have enjoyed a good run with investors over the past few years. Even when markets and the funds they track have declined in value over the past 18 months, asset numbers have held up respectably in both North America and Europe. Investors appear to be heeding the message of ETF providers that most actively-managed mutual funds underperform their benchmarks and that ETFs can offer at least comparable returns with...
Comment: Regulate in haste, repent at leisure
Fri, 01 May 2009
When a piece of legislation is so roundly criticised on all sides as the European Commission's proposed Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers, attacked by the alternative fund industry as bureaucratic and punitive and by Europe's socialists, as well as the French government, as toothless and ineffective, one might assume that its draftsmen have got the balance right. Alas, that may well not prove to be the case.
Comment: Alternative fund proposals set to prompt new EU bickering
Thu, 30 April 2009
Hedge fund managers are set to face a new layer of regulation at European Union level, amid a global regulatory clampdown on the financial industry in response to the financial crisis of the past 18 months.
Comment: Will airline stocks prove pearls after swine flu?
Wed, 29 April 2009
With extremely low valuations that are getting further battered by news - and rumours - about swine flu, airline companies are probably in their worst shape in memory - no small feat for probably the world's least profitable industry.
Comment: Madoff still causing a stir
Tue, 28 April 2009
Four months after Bernard Madoff admitted to defrauding thousands of investors of an amount that, including non-existent profits, could total as much as USD65bn, the ripples of the scandal continue to reverberate across the global financial services industry.
Comment: Private equity leader TPG grapples with tough times
Mon, 27 April 2009
TPG, the firm formerly known as Texas Pacific Group, has overtaken the Carlyle Group to become the largest private equity group in the world, according to Private Equity International.
Comment: Who's afraid of EU alternatives regulation?
Fri, 24 April 2009
The Alternative Investment Management Association is already up in arms about the European Union's planned Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, even though the draft legislation is not due to be unveiled until next Wednesday. But Aima executive director Florence Lombard has already seen enough for her to describe the draft directive as "flawed".
Comment: Och-Ziff makes hay as prop desks lick their wounds
Thu, 23 April 2009
Hedge funds are seeing less activity from the competing proprietary trading desks of investment banks, making it easier for them to capitalise on investment opportunities, according to Daniel Och, founder of Och-Ziff Capital Management. "The proprietary trading desks at banks are substantially less active," he told the Financial Times.
Comment: Permira's fundraising hurdle may be a boon
Wed, 22 April 2009
Private equity firm Permira has received some welcome news with the announcement by SVG Capital, the biggest investor in its funds, that following a strategic review SVG intends to continue its relationship with the firm.
Comment: Hohn keeps giving despite trickier times for TCI
Tue, 21 April 2009
The hedge fund industry's best known - and sometimes most controversial - charitable donor continues to deliver impressive performance for worthy causes despite a few unaccustomed setbacks for his fund management business.
Comment: KKR sees value in Indian spirits
Mon, 20 April 2009
US private equity major Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is reported to be interested in picking up a minority stake in Vijay Mallya's United Spirits group, primarily by acquiring treasury stocks that would give it a 14.8 per cent stake in the Indian company.