Silver Creek Hedge Fund Hires New Director

Silver Creek Capital Management LLC, a leading manager of funds of hedge funds with approximately $6.5 billion in assets under management, today announced that Steven H. Bloom, founder and Managing Partner of Sagamore Hill Capital Management LP, has joined the firm as Senior Managing Director.

In this role, Mr. Bloom will oversee Silver Creek’s Early Advantage Fund, a multi-manager fund that invests in emerging hedge fund managers, and will assist with all aspects of the firm’s investment process. Based in Silver Creek’s New York office, Mr. Bloom will also be a senior member of the firm’s investment committee.

“We are very excited to bring someone of Steve’s caliber on to our investment team,” said Eric E. Dillon, co-Founder and Managing Member of Silver Creek. “We look forward to leveraging Steve’s deep industry knowledge and broad experience to identify uniquely promising emerging hedge fund managers.”

Mr. Bloom has extensive experience in hedge fund management. He was the founder and CEO of Sagamore Hill Capital Management LP, previously a multi-billion dollar multi-strategy global hedge fund, where he was the head portfolio manager, responsible for overall fund management and the development of numerous fundamental and arbitrage investment strategies.

Silver Creek is a fund of hedge funds management firm with offices in Seattle and New York, whose team has been managing funds since 1994. Silver Creek manages a variety of multi-manager investment products designed to deliver superior, risk-adjusted, absolute returns.

Hedge Fund Sentiment Survey Shows Technology as Best Investment

VanthedgePoint Group Inc. announced the results of its second annual Emerging Hedge Fund Manager Sentiment Survey.

When asked where to invest in the U.S. stock market, hedge fund managers said that Technology (41.0%), Financial Services (31.2%), Consumer Goods (26.2%), Food & Beverage (21.3%) and Defense (21.3%) will be the best performing sectors in 2007.

57.4% of emerging hedge fund managers indicated they are largely "neutral" on the U.S. economy for 2007. Approximately one-third are "bullish" on the economy and U.S. equities. They believe a continued "Real state market slowdown" (29.5%) and "inflation" (21.3%) will play the biggest role in how the U.S. economy will fare this year.

Over half of all respondents manage hedge funds with less than $10 million in assets under management, while over 85% currently manage less than $100 million. In addition, emerging hedge fund managers indicated that the most difficult aspect of running a hedge fund business is "raising capital/marketing".

In 2006, the Emerging Hedge Fund Manager Sentiment Survey results turned out to be quite accurate. Last year, respondents predicted increasing energy costs and a real estate market slowdown, both of which slowed the U.S. economy in 2006. They correctly predicted that Technology, Raw Materials, Financial Services and Defense would be among the top performing sectors in the U.S., and they narrowly missed the mark by indicating China would be the best performing international market.

VanthedgePoint Group, Inc. is an integrated financial services holding company focused on delivering products and services to emerging hedge funds. VanthedgePoint offers customers a comprehensive solution that includes U.S. and international equities, options and futures execution along with equity finance and operations outsourcing.

Hedge Fund Officials

A new trend is being seen in Washington is of some former high-ranking officials that have been reported to be testing the hedge fund waters. Former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Richard Breeden, is now a hedge-fund manager, complete with $500 million under management, a Cayman Islands registry, and an office in hedge-fund capital Greenwich, Conn. According to an article in the New York Times, he "has no investing experience." but, "Mr. Breeden is now perhaps the most senior former government official ever to run a hedge fund."

Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, also of no investing experience, launched the emerging-markets hedge fund Albright Capital Management, with $329 million in seed money from a Dutch pension.

In October, mammoth hedge fund/private-equity firm DE Shaw appointed Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers as a part-time managing director, and Cerebus Capital, another mammoth hedge-fund/private-equity firm, named departing Bush Treasury Secretary John Snow as chairman. As more big institutional investors such as pension funds allocate capital to hedge funds, we should expect more such career switches.

Emerging Market Hedge Funds are in Full Swing Studies Show.

Hedge funds that specialize in emerging markets rose 20.49% in 2006, according to new data, and mergers and acquisitions in emerging markets reached a record value of $635.4 billion in 2006 via 10,995 deals, according to data company Dealogic. China was the busiest emerging market with deals worth $104.3 billion, an increase of 69% on 2005. Russia and South Korea followed with $98.5 billion and $42.3 billion worth of deals respectively.

The MSCI Emerging Markets index rose 29.2% last year, Oliver Schupp, president of the index said in a statement, "Record highs in global markets and mergers and acquisition activity along with a stronger than expected earnings season, a pause in the continual increasing of interest rates by the Federal Reserve, high energy prices and volatility fluctuations were positive contributors to hedge fund performance in 2006."

The average emerging market fund beat out all other individual hedge fund strategies, according to numbers published by New York-based Credit Suisse's Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index. Hedge Fund Research Inc. said the average hedge fund gained 12.99%.

Amarid Hedge Fund Launches New Movie Making Fund

Simon Fawcett, chief executive of hedge fund Aramid Capital Partners, announced that they are spearheading the launch of The Aramid Entertainment Fund, a hedge fund with a strategy of financing independent British films.

Aramid was formed with three other film finance experts, namely Tim Levy of the UK's future films, David Molner from Los Angeles firm Screen Capital and Thomas Adamek from Stonehenge Capital.

The hedge fund team has in the past financed films including "Kill Bill 2", "The Queen", "Girl with a Pearl Earring", and "Bend it Like Beckham". According to the Times Online, the new Aramid Entertainment Fund is planning on backing Manolete, a biopic of Spain’s most famous bullfighter. The hedge fund, which was launched last October, expects the film to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Aramid is expected to raise well above the £150 million originally targeted by the end of this year, as hedge fund interest in film financing picks up speed in Britain. Experts are saying that hedge funds are increasingly interested in asset-backed lending, such as film and television financing, because it offers an opportunity to diversify their investments.

The hedge fund works by offering “bridge finance” to UK producers, the hedge fund offers credit to film companies based on the tax rebates that they will receive when the film is complete. Under a new tax scheme to encourage film-making in Britain, producers can gain tax credits depending on how much of a film is produced in the UK. It does take time to receive the benefit in cash, however, which is where the hedge fund intends to come in and provide finance to bridge the gap.

A more common tax-based method of financing is for investors to lend money to finance films, then offset the cost of making the film against their personal tax liabilities. Aramid demands a minimum investment of $50,000 and targets a 20% yearly return for investors.