Bluecrest hedge fund shareholders to vote on portfolio future
Bluecrest AllBlue has become the latest listed hedge fund whose future will go to a vote because of its depressed share price, which has traded at a wide discount to the valuation of its assets, despite the fund making 10% on its investments this year.
Shareholders in Bluecrest AllBlue, the listed hedge fund managed by Bluecrest Capital Management, will vote next month on its future.
The ballot of £275m (€320m) AllBlue, which the fund's board announced this morning, was triggered automatically on its three share classes by wide gaps over 12 month periods between the share prices and the per-share value of the fund's investments, or net asset value.
The average 12-month discounts to NAV for AllBlue's shares last year sat between 5.1% and 5.4%, depending on the share class, according to Bluecrest. This came after hedge funds lost 21% on their investments last year, according to analysts Hedge Fund Research. However, shares including those of listed funds, fell by more than double that, causing wide discounts.
The ballot of the three-year old portfolio of $11.5bn manager Bluecrest has been triggered despite performance of the fund and demand for its shares having picked up since last year. AllBlue made 10% this year, according to analysis by RBS, corporate broker to the fund. The portfolio made 16% in the 12 months to the end of May, the fund's board said today. Hedge funds made 9.4% this year, according to HFR.
It is the latest of at least nine either votes that have been held or announced in the listed hedge fund sector. It is the second time one has been convened for a single manager hedge fund.
The issue of shareholder votes being triggered by share prices trading at large discounts to investments has also hit funds at rivals Brevan Howard Asset Management, Marshall Wace Asset Management and Boussard & Gavaudan, among others, as shareholders offloaded what they regarded as risky, including both hedge funds and equities.
The shareholder vote on the future of BH Global, the listed fund of rival Brevan Howard Asset Management, was passed last month.
AllBlue's shareholders will, meanwhile, vote in an improved investment climate. The price of its three share classes still sit at discounts to NAV of between 2.7% and 4.8%, however the prevailing discounts last week were narrower for AllBlue than for any of its five direct peers, according to analysis by RBS.
Bluecrest declined to comment further for this article
-- Write to David Walker at dwalker@efinancialnews.com
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
reddit
StumbleUpon