Man Group has called in the re-branding experts.
The RMF and Glenwood fund of fund businesses are being crunched together to form a “new” integrated hedge fund management division, which does not appear to have a name.
Of course, this exercise is likely to be seen as a response to the Madoff and Stanford ponzi scandals, which have rocked the fund of funds industry. Indeed, RMF had $360m invested in two funds that were advised by Madoff Securities.
And Peter Clarke, Man’s CEO, seems to acknowledge as much in a statement released on Thursday morning explaining the move.
As markets have changed, so have investor requirements for hedge fund investing. Performance remains an absolute requirement, but transparency, governance and risk management are now at the top of investors’ agendas. They are looking for providers with the scale, expertise and systems to deliver the enhanced transparency, institutional quality governance and stronger controls over invested capital they require.
Quite.
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Meanwhile, shares in Man Group are up 20.5p at 228p following the release of a year-end trading round-up that analysts have described as reassuring.
Merrill Lynch:
What’s good? Well, a number of the market’s more lurid fears have not been validated. RMF has retained assets pretty effectively given the backdrop, in spite of not gating investors. Retail redemptions were better than we had expected. The company’s capital position, which we have been focussing on a lot recently, is better than we expected.
The other major positive is that Man intends to maintain its final dividend of 24.8 cents, which gives a total payout of 44 cents for the year, or a dividend yield of 13.2 per cent.
Related links:
Man Group warns of 43% fall as assets decline – FT.com
Man Group fees hit heights – FT.com