RAB Capital Plc
RAB Capital Plc - Hedge Fund Notes
The following piece on RAB Capital Plc is being published as part of our daily effort to track hedge fund events in the industry. To review other hedge fund related announcements please see our Hedge Fund Tracker Tool.___________________________________
Resource #1: (8.4.09) Hedge fund firm RAB Capital (RAB.L) said on Wednesday that clients had started putting money back into some of its funds helped by a recent upturn in performance, adding to signs the industry may be recovering.
The firm, some of whose funds have been hit by poor performance and illiquid markets during the credit crisis, posted a 32 percent drop in overall assets. However, it said it saw positive net flows into its single strategy funds in the second quarter and into July, excluding the effects of recent disposals.
"I think we feel cautiously optimistic. We're beginning to see some flows and they are continuing seemingly into the third quarter," chief executive Stephen Couttie told Reuters.
The inflows were in "tens of millions of dollars", he said. Allowing for small net redemptions from its fund of funds, flows across the group were broadly flat. ...read more
Resource #2: (4.3.09) RAB Capital bought 2m shares in its own listed hedge fund on Wednesday, proclaiming it "good value" after the shares plunged 85 per cent last year, writes James Mackintosh .
The RAB Special Situations Company, listed on Aim, invests its assets into RAB's flagship Special Situations fund, which fared badly last year. source
Resource #3 (2.2.09) RAB Capital, the troubled London-based hedge fund, yesterday agreed to sell its Asian business as it tries to shore up its finances.
The fund manager, which on top of the general woes affecting the industry has made wrong calls including buying shares in now-nationalised lender Northern Rock, said it was selling the assets and business of its loss-making Northwest brand for £1m to its original owners, at a big book loss. As recently as last June, RAB valued Northwest at £20m. However, the sale will allow the fund manager to save between £3m and £4m in costs annually, and a spokesman said that after tax adjustments the writedown would be closer to £9m.
Northwest's assets under management, held in three funds, were approximately $300m at the end of December. On a pro-forma basis, the business and assets it is selling generated pretax profit of around £9m in 2007, but analysts believe Northwest may have slipped into the red last year.
RAB said it would continue to do business in Asia, where it also sells products, including those branded under the Pi Asia Fund. It also said the sale would not materially affect its trading position, though it does marginally improve its liquidity. "The cash consideration will be allocated to general working capital purposes," a spokesman said.source
Resource #4: (12.3.08) Artradis Fund Management Pte, RAB Capital Plc’s Northwest unit and Cannizaro (Hong Kong) Ltd. are cutting fees and locking up investors’ money for longer in new hedge funds that will buy bonds after prices fell in Asia.
Merrill Lynch & Co.’s prime brokerage unit has been approached by at least eight money managers about starting such funds in Asia to buy beaten-up fixed-income securities such as convertible bonds, said Eddie Guillemette, the firm’s regional co-head of global markets financing and services. Some of the hedge fund managers are offering to reduce management and performance-based fees by as much as 50 percent, he said. source
Resource #5: (10.26.08) ONE of Britain’s best-known hedge funds, RAB Capital, has stopped investors cashing out of a second of its flagship funds. Investors in RAB’s Energy fund - which has lost more than 50% of its value this year - have been told they will not be able to liquidate their holdings.
Those who want to quit will be handed “redemption shares” instead of cash - a promise on behalf of the fund to pay back investors as and when it can sell out of enough stocks.
The fund, run by Gavin Wilson and Mark Redway, is entitled to do this under existing agreements with investors. Those who opt to stay in are being offered the chance to lock up their money for three years in exchange for a reduced management fee. The proposal is based on the deal offered to investors in RAB’s Special Situations fund, run by former chief executive Philip Richards.
Investors have until Friday to tell the firm whether they want to accept the Energy fund’s lockup deal or sign up for the special shares.
The fund, which was worth more than £1 billion at its peak, has been one of the biggest backers of oil and gas-exploration firms on London’s Alternative Investment Market.
It is understood that the fund has held informal discussions with a number of large oil companies interested in buying some of its holdings. The fund mostly holds large stakes in small companies - investments that have become almost impossible to trade in today’s volatile environment.
RAB Capital said: “The fund managers have exercised their right to make redemptions in specie in light of the difficult market conditions.” Source
Resource #6: RAB Capital has plugged at least one hole in its sinking flagship. Investors in the firm’s Special Situations fund voted to accepts a new three-year lockup, RAB said yesterday. Had they rejected the proposal, RAB would have been forced to hold a second vote on whether to liquidate the portfolio. The proposal, which includes fee reductions for investors, passed by a “considerable margin,” RAB said in a statement.
“We are grateful that investors in RAB Special Situations have given strong support for the restructuring proposal,” CEO Stephen Couttie said. “The three-year lock-up is the best way to secure value from their investments.”
The US$790 million fund—which managed US$2 billion at the end of last year—has been battered by investor redemptions and market volatility. The fund is down more than 50% year-to-date. Earlier this month, Philip Richards, who manages Special Situations, stepped down as RAB CEO to focus his attention on the plummeting fund. RAB also announced plans to spin off its Northwest Asian-focused hedge funds. The London-based firm will own 51% of the new entity, while its managers, George Philips and David Rogers, will own 49%. The six Northwest funds manage some US$630 million. Source
Resource #7: RAB Capital Plc said Chief Executive Officer Philip Richards will step down after almost seven years to ``focus exclusively'' on running RAB Special Situations, the hedge fund that has lost 38 percent of its value this year.
Richards, 48, who co-founded RAB in 1999, will be replaced by Stephen Couttie, 50, who has been chief operating officer of the London-based hedge-fund manager since July 2005, RAB said in a statement today.
Special Situations, the largest of RAB's funds with about $1.5 billion under management, has been hurt this year after it invested in Northern Rock Plc, a mortgage lender nationalized by the U.K. government, and small natural-resources companies. Richards will continue to run RAB's Global Mining and Resources Fund, which he started at the end of 2007.
``This is a sensible, and arguably overdue, clarification of roles at RAB and should be welcomed,'' Rae Maile, an analyst with JPMorgan Cazenove Ltd. in London, wrote in a note to clients. ``It obviously cannot address the concerns of the poor recent performance. The recent weakness of commodities doesn't inspire much confidence in an imminent revival.'' Read more...
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