A pair of hedge fund indexes climbed 2.4 percent in July, the fifth straight month-over-month gain and putting the industry”™s average returns at 12.2 percent for the year.
HedgeFund.net stated it was the best start to a year in a decade.
Fixed-income convertible arbitrage funds gained 7.3 percent and are up nearly 39 percent on the year, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. That easily led all categories of hedge funds, which use advanced trading platforms in an effort to generate better returns than traditional investments. Fairfield County has one of the five largest concentrations of hedge funds in the world.
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The U.S. House of Representatives reportedly is crafting less-stringent rules for hedge funds, as regulations take shape for the financial industry.
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U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, was cited by Bloomberg News as saying hedge funds and private equity firms would likely be required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and report some information, but would be spared the same level of scrutiny planned for banks and mortgage companies.
“I spent a lot of days hearing, ”˜We had nothing to do with the crash,”™” said U.S. Rep. Jim Himes of Greenwich, as quoted by Bloomberg News. “For the most part, they”™re right ”¦ Part of what we need to do is not hurt those who don”™t add more risk to the system.”
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The Stamford-office of Noble Group Ltd. reportedly reached a $65 million agreement to purchase gasoline terminals in four states held by a bankrupt company.
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Noble is purchasing terminals in Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas from Tulsa, Okla.-based SemGroup L.P., according to the Tulsa World. SemGroup has been reorganizing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the past year.
Noble has its head office in Hong Kong, and invests in energy, mines, marine transport and other industries. In the first quarter, the company had a $90 million profit on $6.1 billion in revenue.
