PDA

View Full Version : Soros to close Quantum fund to outsiders



AntZ
07-26-2011, 06:29 PM
Soros to close Quantum fund to outsiders

By Dan McCrum in New York

July 26, 2011 2:54 pm




George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund manager, is closing his Quantum fund to outside investors and returning their money.

The fund, which will continue to manage about $24.5bn of Mr Soros’ own money, blamed the decision on new financial regulations requiring it to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.


“An unfortunate consequence of these new circumstances is that we will no longer be able to manage assets for anyone other than a family client as defined under the regulations”, Jonathan and Robert Soros, George’s sons and co-deputy chairmen of the fund, wrote in a letter to investors on Tuesday.

The fund is returning about $750m of capital to outside investors, according to a person familiar with the situation. Keith Anderson, chief investment officer since 2008, is also leaving the fund.

The move brings an end Mr Soros’ four-decade career as a hedge fund manager. A Hungarian emigré, he made more than $1bn in 1992 betting that the UK would be forced to devalue sterling and pull out of the European exchange rate mechanism.

Mr Soros started Quantum in 1973 and developed a reputation for trading on instinct .

Since inception, the firm has returned roughly 20 per cent annually. At the end of June, however, Quantum was down 6 per cent for the year to date. Speaking in April, Mr Soros told a panel of investors that “I find the current situation much more baffling and much less predictable than I did at the time of the height of the financial crisis”.

After the technology burst in 2000, Mr Soros returned most of the fund’s outside capital, or about 40 per cent of the $11bn then under management, in order to concentrate on his philanthropic work with the Soros Foundation.

The remaining capital was largely farmed out to other hedge fund managers. Mr Soros returned to active management in 2007 during the early stages of the financial crisis.

Other hedge fund veterans including Stanley Druckenmiller, who managed Quantum in the 1990s, and Carl Icahnhave also recently decided they will no longer manage other people’s money.

“It demonstrates that hedge funds, at least as we once knew them, are gone, replaced by far more transparent entities”, said Anthony Sabino, professor at the Tobin College of Business.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/42bd6288-b785-11e0-b95d-00144feabdc0.html


______________________________________


We sure can't have any accountability like the little people have! :hand: Better to close up shop then shine a little light on the books!

AntZ
07-26-2011, 06:33 PM
Soros Returns Capital, Avoids Dodd Frank

Robert Holmes
07/26/11 - 08:04 AM EDT



BOSTON (TheStreet) -- George Soros, the billionaire hedge-fund manager and philanthropist best known for breaking the Bank of England in 1992, will return capital to investors in order to avoid reporting requirements under the Dodd Frank reform act.

Soros will return money to investors by the end of the year, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing two people briefed on the matter. Soros Fund Management will focus on managing assets for his family, according to a letter to the firm's investors. Soros will turn 81 on August 12.

"We wish to express our gratitude to those who chose to invest their capital with Soros Fund Management LLC over the last nearly 40 years," the letter to investors reads, according to the Bloomberg report. "We trust that you have felt well rewarded for your decision over time."

Initial media reports trumpeted the end of Soros' 40-year career as a hedge-fund manager, although the billionaire investor's firm is far from being done. Soros will return less than $1 billion to external investors, a drop in the bucket compared to the firm's total assets of more than $25 billion.

The reason? Under new requirements from the Dodd Frank act, hedge funds are required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission by March 2012 if the fund continues to manage more than $150 million in assets for outside investors. The new requirements would call for funds to report information about the assets they manage, potential conflicts of interest, and information on investors and employees. The act allows an exemption for what the Commission considers "family office" advisers.

"We have relied until now on other exemptions from registration which allowed outside shareholders whose interests aligned with those of the family investors to remain invested in Quantum," the letter continued, according to the Bloomberg report. "As those other exemptions are no longer available under the new regulations, Soros Fund Management will now complete the transition to a family office that it began eleven years ago."

While less than $1 billion is small compared to the firm's overall assets, some positions will have to be trimmed through the end of the year. According to Soros' last 13F filling with the SEC for the quarter ended March 31, his firm's top 10 holdings included Adecoagro(AGRO), InterOil(IOC), Motorola Solutions(MSI), Monsanto(MON), Citigroup(C) and Wells Fargo(WFC), among others.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in Boston.

Muddy
07-26-2011, 06:34 PM
So what does all this mean?

Acid Trip
07-26-2011, 08:37 PM
So what does all this mean?

It would take to long to explain fully but here are the basics.

A hedge fund manager acts as the money manager for a group of investors. Previously these hedge funds did not have to register with the SEC. The Dodd Frank bill came along and now any hedge fund with more than $150 million in their investment pool must register and open up their books to the SEC.

Basically Soros is getting out of the private investor hedge fund business (by giving outside investors their money back) so that he doesn't have to comply with the new regulations. He can continue to run his hedge fund on the private level since the majority of the wealth he manages belongs to his family.

FBD
07-27-2011, 10:53 AM
It means that Soros had to dump his obviously shady dealings to avoid getting bent over by the SEC.

But since he's already made gazillions, he's got enough to keep it running for his family and outside of the regulations.

Then again, this is another asswipe who's calling for a new global financial order...what's that tell ya...

Acid Trip
07-27-2011, 01:27 PM
It means that Soros had to dump his obviously shady dealings to avoid getting bent over by the SEC.

But since he's already made gazillions, he's got enough to keep it running for his family and outside of the regulations.

Then again, this is another asswipe who's calling for a new global financial order...what's that tell ya...

That's a pretty accurate description hahaha!