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Ex-CQS manager Alistair Lumsden launches new credit fund

Hedge fund East Lodge, founded by ex-CQS portfolio manager Alistair Lumsden, has opened to external money, a letter to investors seen by Reuters showed. _0"> East Lodge has launched the East Lodge Capital Credit Opportunities Fund and is targeting assets under management of $250 million within three months, a source close to the company added. Lumsden previously managed $3.2 billion for hedge fund CQS, with a focus on asset-backed securities. Estimated performance during April, when the fund used just internal money, was 4.27 percent, the investor letter showed. (Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Chris Vellacott)

UK hedge funds see assets jump, beat continental peers

UK-based hedge funds saw their assets increase by $57 billion between January 2013 and April 2014, while fund managers in France, Spain and Germany posted a net decrease, data from Preqin research showed. _0"> Firms headquartered in the UK now account for $423 billion in hedge fund assets, more than 10 times the amount of assets managed in any other single European country, it said in a statement. Following the UK are Sweden, with assets under management of $34 billion; Switzerland, with $31 billion; France, with $20 billion; and Netherlands, with $9 billion. The UK is also home to most of the start-ups of recent years, it said, with around half of all known new launches in 2013 and so far in 2014. Within the UK, London is the most popular place to be based, with 90 percent of all hedge fund assets managed from the capital, Preqin added. (Reporting by Simon Jessop and Nishant Kumar )

Man Group hit by cautious outlook after 'challenging' Q1

Shares in British hedge fund manager Man Group slid on Friday after its cautious outlook took the shine off an in-line trading statement. The firm, founded in 1783 as a barrel maker, said it took in a net $2 billion of new money during the first quarter, mostly into its GLG alternatives unit, which partially compensated for the money pulled by investors from its FRM funds. When combined with a net $700 million performance loss across its investments, funds under management at the end of March rose to $55 billion, from $54.1 billion at the end of December. While sales of $6.5 billion in the quarter were the highest in three years to help chalk up a third straight quarter of net inflows, a feat last matched in the second quarter of 2008, the prospect that a weak investment performance could persist weighed on investor sentiment. At 0703 GMT, shares in Man Group were down 1.5 percent, the third-biggest faller on the mid-cap FTSE 250. "The market environment in the first quarte

Global hedge fund assets hit record high in April

Global hedge fund assets under management hit an all-time high of $2.938 trillion in April, beating the previous peak of $2.937 trillion reached before the financial crisis, data provider eVestment said. _0"> "Investors allocated heavily into hedge funds in April, the third consecutive month of elevated inflows," it said in a statement. A total of $17.9 billion of new money was invested to more than offset a slightly weaker asset-weighted performance and push assets under management to a level not seen since the second quarter of 2008, eVestment added. (Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Jemima Kelly)

Hedge fund moguls put money on Asian Internet, low-volume stocks

From Asian Internet stocks, which have boomed over the last year, to food and paper products companies, prominent hedge fund investors listed their favorite stocks on Thursday at an industry meeting dominated by talk of where markets will move. John Burbank stuck with the Chinese Internet stocks that helped boost returns at his $3.8 billion Passport Capital last year. Real estate Internet portal Soufun Holdings, which climbed 121 percent in the last year, and discount online retailer Vipshop Holdings, which climbed 417 percent in the last year, made the list as his favorites. "I am not negative on U.S. Internet companies but China is trading at a bigger discount," Burbank said at the annual SkyBridge Alternatives Conference known as SALT. Burbank, whose picks have long included international companies and who taught in English in China decades ago, said "China is fundamentally changing and there is something to bet on." This year Burbank's flagship fund is

Hedge fund sues McKesson for $500 mln over Celesio deal

Hedge fund Magnetar Capital is suing U.S. drugs wholesaler McKesson, saying its acquisition of German peer Celesio short-changed minority shareholders and bondholders by around 370 million euros ($507 million). _0"> McKesson structured the transaction in an unlawful way, discriminating against the minority investors, Magnetar said in a statement on Wednesday. McKesson's bid for Celesio succeeded following drawn-out negotiations with another Celesio shareholder, activist hedge fund Elliott International, led by U.S. investor Paul Singer. Elliott, which had invested more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in Celesio shares and bonds that convert into shares, ended up selling all those securities to McKesson. Magnetar, which holds more than 3 percent in Celesio's shares, accuses McKesson of paying convertible bond holders such as Elliott an equivalent of up to 30.95 euros per underlying share, while owners of Celesio stock were only offered 23.50 euros a share. S

Exclusive hedge funds crack open door to Main Street

As a $14.8 billion hedge fund with a reputation for savvy mortgage trades and a record of double-digit returns, Pine River Capital Management has long signed up multi-billion-dollar pension and sovereign wealth funds as investors. Now the exclusive hedge fund is making some of its strategies available to Main Street investors who've been warned that bets on stocks and bonds may not see them through retirement. For as little as $1,000, they can include hedge funds in their nest eggs. As one of seven firms managing money in Wells Fargo's new Alternative Strategies fund, Pine River is among the latest big-name funds to crack its doors to private clients with look-alike products known as liquid alternative funds after years of courting only the super-wealthy. "Sub-advising portfolios in the (mutual fund) space is a new and diversified source of capital for a firm like ours," said Brian Taylor, who founded Pine River with $350,000 of his retirement money in 2002. &quo