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☆ More Americans can buy investments earmarked for the rich. Why doing so may be risky, say experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Anyone can generally buy the stock of public companies on a stock exchange, or buy pools of stocks or bonds via publicly available mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. By comparison, private investments let people invest in companies that aren't listed on a public exchange. Julio Estela, 41, who lives in Wantagh, New York, made his largest private investment in 2021, in Green Coffee Company. Why private markets are 'two-tiered'Hxyume | E+ | Getty ImagesSome of the largest U.S. investors, such as pension funds, often have some exposure to private investments, proponents say. As with public stock, betting on one private investment instead of pooling risk in a fund of many private companies is an even riskier strategy, experts said.

Persons: Micah Hauptman, Charles Failla, Cassandra Borchers, Thompson Hine, Borchers, it's, Michael Cembalest, Mike Curtis, Shaka Tea, Julio Estela, he's, Curtis, Estela, Hauptman, Failla Organizations: SEC, Consumer Federation of America, Sovereign Financial Group, Sovereign Financial, Morgan, Wealth Management, Shaka, Green Coffee Company, rehabbing, American Investment Council, Pensions, Cambridge Associates Locations: Honolulu , Hawaii, Wantagh , New York, Hawaii

☆ Some fund managers see merit in China's deeply discounted stocks
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Summer Zhen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

U.S. asset manager Fidelity International is highlighting China's looser monetary policy and the government's recent 1 trillion yuan ($137.10 billion) borrowing-and-spending sovereign bond plan as a tailwind for the country's stock markets. London-based £3 billion fund manager Somerset Capital Management likewise finds China exciting. The stock market has yet to recover, but has stabilised. Morgan Stanley estimates long-only foreign investors now have their deepest underweight positions in China and Hong Kong equities in years. Chinese stocks could see a short-term sentiment pick-up given foreign funds have such light positions in the market, said Redmond Wong, Greater China market strategist at Saxo Markets.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, ”, Marty Dropkin, Mark Williams, Morgan Stanley, Patrick Ghali, Sean Ho, Vivek Tanneeru, Redmond Wong, Summer Zhen, Xie Yu, Vidya Ranganathan, Kim Coghill Organizations: REUTERS, Fidelity, Asia Pacific, Fidelity International . London, Somerset Capital Management, Nasdaq, Japan’s Nikkei, Sussex Partners, Hong, China, Hang Seng Tech, Monetary Fund, Cambridge Associates, Capital, “, Triata, Matthews Asia, Saxo Markets, Thomson Locations: HONG KONG, China, U.S, Asia, Hong Kong, London, Boston, San Francisco, Greater China

☆ Big University Endowments Hampered by Startup Write-Downs
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Juliet Chung | Eliot Brown | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Yale University’s endowment gained 1.8% for the fiscal year ending June 30. Photo: Tim Tai for The Wall Street JournalThe hangover from the bursting of the startup bubble is weighing on big U.S. university endowments, with write-downs in their growth and venture-capital investments driving a second straight year of weak returns. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported a loss of 2.9% and Duke University, a loss of 1% for the fiscal year ending June 30, while endowments at Yale and Stanford gained 1.8% and 4.4%, respectively. The median return for endowments and foundations of more than $1 billion was 5.6%, according to a preliminary estimate from Cambridge Associates.

Persons: Tim Tai Organizations: Yale, Wall Street, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University, Stanford, Cambridge Associates

Reuters analysis shows a massive jump in the assets of emerging market (EM) mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) that exclude China as U.S. and European investors turn more wary of being exposed to the Asian giant. Other investors are simply moving to markets with better growth prospects, such as Brazil. The scale of change needed in global supply chains could drive such capital flows for the next decade, he said. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ex-China ETF , the world's largest emerging market ex-China ETF whose biggest holdings are firms in Taiwan, South Korea and India, attracted a record $1 billion net inflow in the first half of 2023, the data showed. "China is the one major country that investors are most concerned about in EM," said John Lau, portfolio manager for Asia Pacific and emerging market equities at SEI.

Persons: Aly, Malcolm Dorson, John Lau, Goldman Sachs, Jeffrey Jaensubhakij, ”, Benjamin Low, Donald Trump, Joe Biden's, Biden, Wong Kok Hoi, Summer Zhen, Vidya Ranganathan Organizations: REUTERS, Global, China ETF, China, Asia Pacific, SEI, Stock Connect, Morningstar, China Opportunity Equity Fund, Fund, Boston, Cambridge Associates, CSI, Nikkei, Investors, Reuters Graphics, APS Asset Management, Thomson Locations: Shanghai, China, HONG KONG, U.S, Mexico, India, Vietnam, Brazil, New York, Taiwan, South Korea, Asia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, “ U.S

Other investors are simply moving to markets with better growth prospects, such as Brazil. The scale of change needed in global supply chains could drive such capital flows for the next decade, he said. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ex-China ETF , the world's largest emerging market ex-China ETF whose biggest holdings are firms in Taiwan, South Korea and India, attracted a record $1 billion net inflow in the first half of 2023, the data showed. "China is the one major country that investors are most concerned about in EM," said John Lau, portfolio manager for Asia Pacific and emerging market equities at SEI. “U.S., Canadian, and some European investors are exiting China due to political pressure.

☆ A fund manager for institutional clients shares the offensive and defensive strategies she uses to build portfolios that can navigate all conditions and last generations — plus what all investors can
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Menon has discretion over several institutional clients' portfolios including endowments, foundations, pensions, and healthcare institutions. Regardless of expectations, Menon emphasizes that it's hard to build a portfolio around any particular macroeconomic outcome. This means creating a portfolio that prioritizes offensive assets through equities while adding defensive securities, she noted. When it comes to defensive positions, the two most important things a portfolio needs protection against are inflation and deflation. "Private equity would fall more in the space of offense in terms of generating long-term growth in a portfolio," Menon said.

☆ Microsoft M12 boss departs tech giant's VC arm to help turn London-based investor Systemiq Capital into the Sequoia of climate tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A founding partner at Microsoft's VC arm M12 has left to take up a GP role at a climate tech investor. Goldstein has joined Systemiq Capital and plans to turn it into the Sequoia of climate tech. One of the founding partners of Microsoft's venture arm M12 has left the company to join London-based investor Systemiq Capital, which he wants to help turn into the Sequoia of climate tech. Systemiq Capital, meanwhile, was spun out of advisory firm Systemiq in 2022 to allow it to thrive on its own, Goldstein said. The climate tech investor expects to reach final close on its second fund, worth $200 million, towards the end of 2023.

☆ Upfront's Mark Suster has become the star of LA's booming startup scene. Not everyone is a fan.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

"I have worked with more than 50 VCs and nobody comes close to what it is like to work with Mark Suster," said a founder backed by Suster. "Mark and the Upfront Summit helped put LA tech and investing on the map," said Jeffrey Katzenberg, the cofounder of DreamWorks and WndrCo. Several years ago, a founder whose startup Suster invested in was in a conference room rehearsing their presentation for the Upfront Summit. If you're going to put him on your board, you're letting the fox guard the henhouse. "If you're going to put him on your board, you're letting the fox guard the henhouse."

☆ Base10 Partners is offering its limited partners direct access to investing in unicorn startups in order to compete against VC firms with much bigger funds. Here's how.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Limited partners, the investors that back VC firms, are seeking out more direct deals in startups. But often LPs don't get in until long after the VC firms have invested, so they get smaller returns. VC firm Base10 Partners has launched a program to give LPs earlier access and more upside. As the exuberance in venture capital has crashed to a halt, the institutions that back VC firms, known as limited partners, have had plenty to grouse about. The VC firm Base10 Partners seeks to offer its own limited partners a remedy to this dilemma.

☆ Thoma Bravo and Clearlake have posted negative returns for a major endowment, according to exclusive performance data. Middle-market firms have been much stronger.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The returns show losses from Thoma Bravo and Clearlake, though the funds are new and PE is a long game. Thoma Bravo and Clearlake Capital Group, two private-equity firms that have emerged as notably active investors in recent years, have posted early losses across some of their funds, according to investment returns from a major US endowment. UTIMCO invested $51.7 million in Clearlake's seventh flagship private equity fund, known as Clearlake Capital Partners VII, which closed with some $14 billion of commitments last May. Thoma Bravo declined to comment. Meanwhile, the data show high returns from CapRock Partners, Renovus Capital Partners, Serve Capital Partners, and LFM Capital, PE firms that target middle-market companies.

☆ Returns from top venture firms NEA, DCM, and Khosla have been dismal over the past 2 decades, according to filings from California's largest pension fund, CalPERS
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CalPERS is the US's largest public pension plan, managing the retirement accounts of 1.5 million California employees and retirees. Unlike many other financial institutions, VC funds are not required to show their return on investment in startups. The CalPERS fund's $75 million bet in 2001 on a venture fund managed by the Carlyle Group lost money. A $25 million investment in DCM's 2000 fund had a 1.9% IRR. Its $260 million investment in two Khosla Ventures funds in 2009 yielded an IRR of 11.8% for the early-to-midstage fund and 6.9% for the seed-stage fund.

Dec 30 (Reuters) - Global hedge funds are set to register their worst returns in 14 years in 2022 after aggressive U.S. interest rate rises hit asset prices hard, however, their declines are overall smaller than the slump seen in equity and bond markets this year. Some hedge fund strategies that put money in commodities and currencies using macro-focused strategies and exploited price differences between related securities outperformed in 2022, handing decent gains to investors. According to investment data firm Preqin, hedge fund returns have fallen 6.5% this year, their biggest since a 13% decline in 2008. Strategy-wise, macro funds gained 8.2% through November this year, while equity-hedged and event-driven strategies lost 9.7% and 4.7%, respectively, according to HFR data. Reuters GraphicsAlongside the tumble in traditional assets from equities to bonds, net assets of global hedge funds fell 4.8% in the first three quarters of this year to $4.3 trillion.

☆ 10 money managers who quietly control the vast fortunes of Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, the Waltons, and other big-name billionaires
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +24 min

Many über-rich people don't outsource their wealth — they hire their own chief investment officers. He left SAC in 2005 for Dune Capital Management, but stayed in touch with Steve during his five-year term at the investment firm. Andrew oversees CPV's portfolio, which primarily comprises direct private investments such as Collectors Universe, a collectibles-authentication company, and the New York Mets. In 2011, Wildcat Capital Management was launched with Potter as president and chief investment officer. Since November 2021, Carland has also served as the interim chief investment officer for Builders Vision's asset arm.

☆ Inside the private-debt boom: Wall Street's hottest asset faces a tremendous test in a dimming economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Defaults on private loans, which have fallen steadily since the pandemic's height in 2020, are ticking up. Private credit, or private debt, are catch-all terms to describe privately negotiated loans outside the public debt markets. Private credit firms engage in what's known as direct lending, making these private loans to companies who turn to them instead of a traditional bank. Analysts and asset management executives say private debt has held up well in 2022 in the face of brutal stock and bond market volatility. 'Fighting for allocation'A challenge for private debt funds in the past decade has been a dearth of companies they can lend to.

☆ Stanford lost 4% on its investments after making 40% a year ago, as slumping markets hit university endowments
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Stanford University's endowment posted a 4% loss after gaining 40% the year before, per the WSJ. Other leading US schools have seen big swings from record returns on endowments to losses, it reported. It was among several academic institutions that saw falling returns on investments in the fiscal year ended June 30, the WSJ reported Monday. Meanwhile, Harvard University, the richest college in the US with a $51 billion endowment, saw a 1.8% loss after scoring a 33.6% gain. Stanford ranked third out of the 10 US universities with the largest endowments in 2021, per Statista, with an endowment fund value of $37.8 billion.

☆ Asia hedge fund losses grow in Q3, poised for worst year since 2008
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Summer Zhen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

“It’s a very painful third quarter for (Asia) hedge fund managers’ performance. Repeated lockdowns in many Chinese cities, a risk-off mode ahead of the party congress and geopolitical risks affected market sentiment. The magnitude of central bank policy moves and frequent macro headlines created profitable trading opportunities for macro hedge funds globally, analysts said. The HFRI Asia ex-Japan Index tracks funds that target more than 50% of their investments in the Asia ex-Japan region. Japan-focused hedge funds fared relatively well, with the HFRI Asia index that includes Japan, down just 3.3% in September and 3.9% this year.

☆ Inside the $4 billion family office of Walmart Heir Lukas Walton
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Robert Frank | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Lukas Walton, the billionaire grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton, is reinventing the family office — building a multi-billion-dollar funding machine that powers charities, tech start-ups, public companies and activists seeking global change. Walton, 36, last year launched Builders Vision, a one-stop-shop of impact investing based in Chicago with more than $4 billion in assets. While most family offices separate philanthropy and investing, Walton has stitched them together into an impact-investing superstore – funding social and environmental causes through start-ups, public companies or charities. The Builders Vision venture capital fund, called S2G, is in the top quartile of venture capital funds by returns, according to Cambridge Associates benchmarks. Climate change, the food supply and ocean health are, after all, also investment risks, he said.

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