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1 Jul 2009

Brummer & Partners Asia Hedge Fund Launch

Swedish hedge fund manager, Brummer & Partners, is expanding its offering of hedge funds by launching Karakoram, a new long-short Asia fund today.

The Fund will take both long and short positions in liquid equities on Asian markets such as Hong Kong, China, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The Fund will base its positions on fundamental equity research, complemented with transaction-focused macroeconomic-analysis.

The new Fund’s aim is to consistently deliver a positive return for its unitholders, regardless of stock market performance in general, with a better risk-adjusted return than that of traditional equity portfolios.

Domiciled in Singapore, Ee Toh Chia is the Managing Director and a Partner of the Fund management company and is responsible for the management team. Ee Toh has 15 years of experience from Asian capital markets and has been involved in the management of the Zenit Fund’s Asian holdings since January 2008.

Karakoram has approximately SEK 300 million ($39 milllion) in assets under management. As Karakoram is a Bermuda-based fund a minimum investment of one million kronor ($131,000) is required. Brummer Multi-Strategy will initially invest a small proportion of its fund capital in the Karakoram Fund.

Hedge Fund Survey On Obama Regulations

A survey by RSM McGladrey, a financial services consultancy, found that hedge fund managers are surprisingly ready to work with SEC regulators to cooperate with authority, despite wide-spread wariness about over-excessive regulation from the Obama administration.

However, the Obama financial regulatory plan was a top concern with 75%, fearing that further regulation will go too far and stifle the market’s recovery.

The survey polled more than 100 hedge fund managers during the last month and focused on hedge fund industry sentiment toward the Obama administration regulation.

Nearly half of the respondents (42%) thought that the SEC should be given more regulatory authority than it currently has. Slightly less (37%) felt that the hedge fund industry should be subject to more direct regulatory authority.

Fund managers are also optimistic about the industry’s prospects, according to the survey. 60% believe the current environment provides more investment opportunities than challenges. An overwhelming majority (69%) see the U.S. economy returning to positive growth by Q2 2010.

Hedge fund managers' opinion on the Public Private Investment Program (PPIP), showed nearly 80% of fund managers believe there can be a successful market for toxic assets, such as underwater mortgage backed securities. However, only 33% of the funds speculated that they would be at all interested in purchasing these securities in the future, raising some concerns about the level of private investor participation.

The full report is available for download on the RSM McGladrey Web site.

UCITS Fund Launch By FX Concepts

New York-based currency manager FX Concepts is launching a new Luxembourg-domiciled fund investing in its flagship Global Currency Program (GCP). The fund has been set up in conjunction with Deutsche Bank.

“Investor interest in active currency strategies has been very strong this year, and we’re delighted to make our Global Currency Program available to investors in UCITS format” said John R. Taylor, Chairman and CEO of FX Concepts. The new fund offers daily liquidity and has a €25,000 minimum ($35,000). Investments are fully collateralized and ring-fenced in accordance with the UCITS III directive. The fund will offer share classes in Euro, US Dollars, Sterling and Yen.

“In the current financial climate, investors are looking for strategies which offer maximum liquidity and transparency”, says Daniel Szor, Managing Director and head of FX Concepts’ London office. “FX fits these criteria very well, and now clients can participate through a fund which offers daily liquidity and minimized counterparty risk”.

The Global Currency Program invests in a diversified portfolio of 20-25 currency positions chosen from a universe of over 30 currencies. The program targets annualized returns of 10-15% with low volatility and has a track record of over eight years.