Mark Fuchs, chief executive of Singapore-based Fuchs Capital Partners, said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires that he is launching a hedge fund focused on trading blue-chip, large-capitalized Southeast Asian stocks in the region in two months. Fuchs, the former head of Credit Suisse Group's (CS) Southeast Asia equities division, has teamed up with two other Southeast Asian veterans: Winston Loke, who was previously Credit Suisse's Chief Operating Officer for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan, Australia equities and Mark Maroongroge, most recently a portfolio manager with London-based hedge fund HBK Capital Management. He declined to elaborate on the size of the fund, however, other than to say it will start off "modest" in size but would eventually be "significant."   more »

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - India hedge fund manager, Taurus Mutual Fund, launched India’s first actively managed Equity Oriented Shariah compliant fund, the ‘Taurus Ethical Fund’. With a minimum investment of INR 5000 ($100K), the open-ended diversified equity fund opens on February 19, 2009 and closes on March 20, 2009. Launching in Mumbai, the hedge funds has been certified by an independent Shariah Board named TASIS (Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions).   more »

Beach (HedgeCo.net) - Fidelity International is launching the Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund through it’s Indian asset management arm, the new fund is an open ended fund of funds scheme offering asset allocation options with three plans. The investment objective of the fund is to seek to generate reasonable returns based on the plan selected with minimum and maximum asset allocation between debt and equity. The fund manager will use a two-tier investment approach – asset allocation and fund selection – to invest in Fidelity’s funds. The NFO will be open from January 14 to February 5, 2009. The Fund will open for ongoing purchases and redemptions from March 2, 2009   more »

U.S. hedge funds flooded into the City in the last decade, but now that business has slumped, some fund companies are shrinking their London outposts as a way to cut back on costs. London is the second-biggest center for the hedge-fund industry after New York, with more than 400 hedge funds based in the U.K. capital, according to industry estimates. But many hedge funds have had a rough year as markets have slumped and investors have withdrawn their money. Overall, hedge funds saw their returns fall 18% on average in 2008, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research. The focus on reining in costs stands in sharp contrast to the good times at many fund companies that set up shop in London in recent years, typically at some of the city's most desirable addresses.   more »

The shrinking returns from hedge funds have hit the investors' confidence leading to the shutting down of many Asia focused funds. The India-focused funds were among the worst hit as the combined assets of 70 hedge funds have decreased by two-thirds in 2008. "Every morning, there is at least one hedge fund shutting down in Asia," Daniel McCormack, equity strategist at Australian financial house Macquarie Capital Securities told Mint. The investors have pulled out around $155 billion in the previous year as an aftermath of industry shrinking by one-fifth to $1.5 trillion. In India, the country-focused funds were among the worst hit in Asia as the combined assets of around 70 hedge funds aimed at India have decreased by at least two-thirds in 2008, reports Mint.   more »

One of the two investment funds-- US-based DE Shaw and UK-based Symphony Capital -- who have put in money in DLF Assets (a pri-vately held firm floated by the promoters of DLF), is looking at exiting its investments, DLF vice chairman Rajiv Singh told analysts in a con-ference call on Monday. DE Shaw and Symphony Capital have investments of around $400 million and $650 million respectively in DLF Assets(DAL), a company that buys IT SEZs developed by DLF. "One of the two investors(DE Shaw or Symphony Capital) is looking at exiting DAL either at the time of listing or before that," Mr Singh said, without naming the investor citing non-disclosure agreement. He added that the promoters are considering an initial public offer-ing(IPO) for DAL, but it could be contingent on market scenario and would happen only later next fiscal(2009-10). DAL 's plan to list as real estate investment trust on the Singapore stock exchange in 2008 was put off following the global economic tumoil.   more »