The ever-shrinking pool of independent funds-of-funds businesses just got smaller. Legg Mason’s Permal has agreed to acquire Fauchier Partners, creating a firm with about $24 billion in assets under management. Permal is known for its well-established U.S. business, while Fauchier has a strong presence among pension funds and insurance companies in Europe and Asia Pacific.
Harvard Management Co. named a Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager as managing director for emerging markets. Sanjiv Bhati, who from 2009 to 2012 was CIO of Isometric Capital Management, will also serve as emerging markets equity portfolio manager for the university’s endowment fund. He also previously spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs in London and Asia. HMC also named Al-Wadhah Al-Adawi as senior vice president and emerging markets portfolio manager for Latin America/Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. From 2008 to 2012 he was an equities portfolio manager at GLG.
A Massachusetts man pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud after misusing funds intended to be invested in his hedge fund. Andrey C. Hicks raised $2.3 million from 10 people for his hedge fund, Locust Offshore Management. However, he made misrepresentations about his background, experience and Locust, including assertions that he had undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University, previously worked for Barclays Capital and that Locust had more than $1 billion under management and rose nearly 80 percent in 2011. Hicks faces up to 20 years in prison.
