The bankers' new best friends
David Prosser, chief executive of insurer Legal & General, famously called on the Financial Services Authority to "put more grit in the system" in 2002 after his company's shares took a battering from short selling by hedge funds, which prompted the FSA to look into the rules on shorting. Although the City watchdog gave the practice a clean bill of health, it is still a contentious issue for some.
Earlier this year, Ray Webster, chief executive of Easyjet, hit out at hedge funds when the budget airline's share price fell by a quarter after it released its interim results. A t the time, Easyjet said it would consider making a formal protest to the FSA, although it has since changed its mind.
"There was a huge volume of share trading at that time, 40 or 50 times our normal daily average. There was a great deal of hedge fund activity, but at the end of the day they are now part and parcel of the City," says Easyjet.
"We don't go out of our way to see them. Put it this way - we have results twice a year and our managers make themselves available for that time, and during that time we want to see long-term investors rather than hedge funds."
But that type of attitude may change. Hedge fund managers are increasingly playing the role of activist shareholder, and like the corporate raiders of the 1970s and 1980s, shaping and even dictating the outcome of deals.
In June, a group of hedge funds led by Trafalgar Asset Managers, a $600m specialist fund based just off London's Oxford Street that deals with corporate events such as takeovers and debt restructurings, swung the takeover battle for British tank manufacturer Alvis in favour of the eventual winner, BAE Systems.
"From the moment BAE took the strategic stake in Alvis, the company came on to the radar screen of the hedge funds," says Lee Robinson, a manager at Trafalgar. "We were wondering if they would bid for the company. Then a few months later General Dynamics bids for Alvis. But the company is about 18 per cent owned by hedge funds and we came together and worked with BAE to broker a cash bid that won them the deal."
The hedge funds' willingness to commit their collective interest irrevocably to the British defence company proved the decisive factor.
Mr Robinson's partner, Theo Phanos, adds: "From an M & A point of view, it was the last M & A boom in 1999-2000 that really showed what hedge funds could do. In terms of distressed debt, it was in 2001-2002 that hedge funds really came to the fore. Even though we control a small part of global assets under management, we get lumpy. Over time, hedge funds get very large in a company and then they move on because they turn over their portfolios much more in a year."
And as another hedge fund manager points out, this is unlikely to be a passing phase for companies.
"Corporates are going to realise how they need to work with hedge funds. You can't issue a convertible bond if it is not in the ball park of what hedge funds will buy. What we are saying to corporates is that you had better start thinking about us as a major investor."
Additional reporting by David Wells
Industry powers ahead like a bull in a bear market
The past decade has seen a powerful surge in the growth of hedge funds, which has easily outpaced the growth in the asset management industry worldwide, writes Deborah Brewster.
However, the unregulated and fragmented nature of the industry has resulted in a paucity of reliable data. Estimates of the size of the industry range from $650bn to $1,000bn, with estimates of the number of funds ranging from 5,000 to 8,000.
According to Tass Research, which has tracked the industry since 1990 and has the largest data base, hedge fund assets worldwide have grown by 700 per cent in the past decade, to $830bn at the end of March. Over the same period, worldwide mutual fund assets have grown 300 per cent to $14,000bn, according to the Investment Companies Institute.
During the bear market of the past few years, when most asset classes showed little or no growth, hedge funds powered ahead, with assets rising by 25 per cent last year and 20 per cent the year before. Last year, investor inflows hit a record of $72.2bn, and this year they are on track to exceed that, with $38.1bn coming in during the first quarter alone.
This growth has translated into huge earnings for the leading managers.
The US accounts for 77 per cent of hedge fund assets, but this is down from more than 90 per cent a decade ago, according to Tass. The industry has been growing more rapidly in Europe, which today has 21 per cent of assets. Asia is creeping up, with about 1.3 per cent of assets.
The number of hedge funds has doubled since 1994, to more than 7,000 today, with a steady increase in the size of the average fund, according to Tass. The group estimates that the median hedge fund size is about $91m, compared with $21m a decade ago.
Although there has been much talk about the "retailisation" of the industry, the evidence is that the weight of money is increasingly institutional. Most sources agree th at individual investors now account for less than half of all assets invested, a much lower proportion than a decade ago. This is likely to shrink even further as more and more pension funds and foundations announce plans to invest in hedge funds.
对冲基金：银行家的新朋友
2000年，保险公司Legal & General的首席执行官戴维?普罗瑟(David Prosser)呼吁金融服务管理局(FSA)“更多地监管这种系统”。他的呼吁很出名，因为他公司的股票此前遭对冲基金卖空，从而受到严重打击。这促使金管局开始关注有关卖空的法规。虽然金管局最后明确表示，这种操作没有问题，但对一些人来说，这依然是个有争议的问题。
今年早些时候，易航(Easyjet)的首席执行官雷?韦伯斯特(Ray Webster)猛烈抨击了对冲基金，因为在这家廉价航空公司公布中期报告后，其股价下跌了25%。当时易航表示，将考虑向金管局提出正式抗议，但此后该公司改变了主意。
易航表示：“当时股票交易量巨大，是我们正常情况下日平均交易量的40或50倍。那时市场上有大量对冲基金在活动，但到最后，它们已经成了金融城不可或缺的一部分。”
“我们不会刻意与它们见面。这么说吧，我们每年发布两次业绩，那时侯，你就能找到我们的管理层。而在此期间，我们希望看到的是长期投资者，而不是对冲基金。”
但这种态度很可能会发生改变。对冲基金经理正日益扮演着股东权益倡议者这样的角色，并且就像上世纪70至80年代的公司袭击者(raider)一样，他们能影响、甚至决定交易的结果。
今年6月，在对英国坦克制造商阿尔维斯(Alvis)的收购战中，以特拉法加资产管理公司(Trafalgar Asset Managers)为首的一群对冲基金扭转了战局，使之朝着有利于BAE Systems的方向发展，结果BAE成为最终赢家。特拉法加资产管理公司是一家特种基金，资产6亿美元，总部就位于伦敦牛津街(Oxford Street)，处理收购和债务重组等公司事务。
特拉法加的一位经理李?罗宾逊(Lee Robinson)表示：“从BAE取得阿尔维斯的战略性持股开始，阿尔维斯就成了对冲基金的关注对象。我们当时怀疑，它们是否会竞购该公司。几个月后，通用动力(General Dynamics)竞购阿尔维斯。但阿尔维斯约18%的股份为对冲基金所有，于是我们与BAE走到了一起，合作安排了一次现金收购，使BAE赢得那宗交易。”
对冲基金愿意全力以赴帮助这家英国国防公司，这种意愿被证明是交易的决定性因素。
罗宾森先生的合伙人西奥?帕努斯(Theo Phanos)补充说：“从并购的角度来说，上一次并购热潮出现在1999年至2000年，正是那次热潮真正显示了对冲基金的作用有多大。在处理不良债务方面，对冲基金在2001年至2002年真正冲到了前沿。即使我们控制的资产只占全球管理资产的一小部分，我们的影响力还是很大。随着时间的推移，对冲基金对一家公司的影响将越来越大，随后，对冲基金将继续前进，因为它们的投资组合每年的周转次数更多。”
正如另一位对冲基金经理所指出的，对公司来说，这个阶段不可能稍纵即逝。
“公司将逐渐意识到，它们与对冲基金合作非常有必要。如果对冲基金不买，你就不能发行可转债。我们想对企业说的是，最好现在就开始把我们当成主要投资者。”
戴维?威尔斯(David Wells)补充报道
附文：熊市中的对冲基金象牛市一般勇猛前进
黛博拉?布鲁斯特(Deborah Brewster)认为，对冲基金在过去10年里出现了强劲增长，其增长速度轻而易举地超过了全球资产管理行业。
但该行业缺乏管制、分布散乱的特性导致了可靠数据的匮乏。有关该行业规模的估计数据各种各样，从6500亿到1万亿美元都有，而估算的基金数量则从5000家到8000家不等。
塔斯研究公司(Tass Research)自1990年起就开始跟踪该行业，并拥有最大的数据库。据该公司的数据，在过去10年里，全球对冲基金的资产已增长了700%，在今年3月底达到8300亿美元。而根据投资公司学会(Investment Companies Institute)的数据，全球共同基金的资产同期增长了300%，至14万亿美元。
在过去几年的熊市期间，大多数类别的资产几乎没有或完全没有增长，而对冲基金则全速前进，去年和前年的资产增长分别达25%和20%，去年，投资者资金流入达到创纪录的722亿美元，今年单第一季度就已有381亿美元投入对冲基金，有望超过去年的水平。
这种增长已转化为主要对冲基金公司的巨额收入。
据塔斯研究公司的数据，目前美国占对冲基金资产总量的77%，但这一比例已比10多年前的逾90%有所下降。该行业在欧洲的增长更快，如今欧洲已占对冲基金资产的21%。亚洲也在慢慢赶上，目前约占资产总额的1.3%。
据塔斯研究公司的数据，自1994年以来，对冲基金的数量已增加一倍，达7000家以上，每家基金的平均规模也在稳步扩大。该公司估计，中型对冲基金的资金规模约为9100万美元，而10年前则为2100万美元。
尽管关于该行业将“散户化”的传言不少，但有证据显示，来自机构资金的比重正越来越大。大多数消息人士同意说，个人投资者目前只占所有投资资产的不到一半，比10年前的比例小了许多。随着越来越多的养老金和基金会宣布投资于对冲基金的计划，这一比例还有可能进一步缩小。
