Blackstone Makes Multiple Commodity Bets

Chidem Kurdas

Blackstone Group raised $2.4 billion for its second hedge fund seeding vehicle and started to deploy the capital in the past months. So far, $200 million has gone to two managers. One of them is a commodity manager. 

Hedge Fiction: Murder, Mayhem, Prosopagnosia

Chidem Kurdas

Reading The Gods of Greenwich by Norb Vonnegut made me feel sorry for Steven Cohen. He is featured in this novel as the familiar “Stevie” who runs SAC Capital in Stamford. A main character, a hedge fund manager who collects art, “wants to become Stevie Cohen”. This is presumably meant to give real hedge fund color to this garden-variety crime caper.

The book contains one amusing character. But not a lord of the market—-rather, an angelic-looking blond nurse named Rachel. She comes across as the sharpest thinker and ablest operator among the whole cast. An RN in her day job, Rachel has a second career as a contract killer. 

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Another Middle Market Lender to Go Public

A number of managers are raising funds to make middle-market company loans, a niche seen as attractive in part because some of the hedge funds that used to be in the business retrenched or stopped operating after the crisis of 2008.

Pine River Among Favored Managers

Those funds of funds that survived the shakeout searched for new investments in 2010. What are the favorites? One of the names one hears is Nisswa.  

Former Fortress Partners Plan IPO

Garrison Investment Group, a  specialist in debt, structured finance and real estate, is preparing to float a credit investment vehicle on the NASDAQ market.

Funds Like KKR

The public shares of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. have attracted major hedge funds. And there is an interesting tale about why the stock is widely seen as a good bet.

Resilience Despite Japan, Mideast Crises

Chidem Kurdas

There were dramatic reversals in hedge fund asset growth over the past five years in response to certain incidents, as documented in the new capital movement index series from fund administrator GlobeOp.  Have recent events – political turmoil in the Middle East, nuclear threat in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami – affected hedge funds?

Madoff Puzzle: How His Reputation Survived

Chidem Kurdas

Hedge funds lose their clients and tend to shut down when they are investigated by government agencies or face civil lawsuits. Raj Rajaratnam’s Galleon Group and Arthur Samberg’s Pequot Capital, accused of abusing inside information, come to mind. Both long-time managers closed shop.