News
Each day, DailyAlts tracks major developments across the alternative investment world. Our content is procured from primary contacts in the industry and secondary sources across the web. Our goal is to give readers the most up-to-date news and engaging experience to open new doors and areas of knowledge. Our stories cover nine separate verticals of the alternative investment industry.
Top Story
Chipmaker AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) has unveiled a range of innovative AI solutions spanning from data centers to personal computers. The AMD Instinct MI300 Series features data center AI accelerators, while the ROCm 6 open software stack introduces new features supporting Large Language Models (LLMs). Additionally, the Ryzen 8040 Series processors come equipped with Ryzen AI capabilities.
Get Daily Updates
Subscribe to DailyAlts Today to get Alternative Investment news, insight, and commentary delivered straight to your inbox every day.
More Stories on News
Melvin: Private Equity Firms Struggle to Deploy Capital – Now What?
Fundraising by private equity funds will set a record in 2019. As of last month, PE funds have raised $248 billion of new commitments. There were still two months left in the year. Blackstone (BX) had the most substantial raise at $27 billion for its latest fund that closed in September. Advent International raised a $17.5 billion fund that closed in June. And Brookfield (BAM) just announced the closing of a $9 billion fund.
Sequoia’s $3.4B Fund Raise: US-China Politics Take a Back Seat to Opportunity
Sequoia Capital has raised about $1 billion for late-stage U.S. investments and approximately $2.4 billion for venture and growth deals in China.
Sequoia Capital has usually taken the path less travelled when it comes to China. And been handsomely rewarded in the process.
Japan’s Mammoth Pension Fund Will No Longer Lend Shares to Short Sellers
Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) feels a pang of ESG conscience and bans lending its foreign holdings to bears.
The GPIF fund will lose a small but lucrative stream of revenue from stock lending. It said the practice of stock lending lacked transparency. The identity of the ultimate buyer and their intentions are not known, the fund said.
GPIF’s move is said to be triggered by environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, and the resulting need to improve its image as an investor.
Troubles in Start-Up Land? Postmates Shuts Mexico City Office; Lays Off Workers
Postmates’ actions in Mexico City do not sit well with its $ 225 million fund raise in September. Postmates Shuts Mexico City Office; Lays Off Workers
According to a report in the New York Times, Postmates is shutting down its Mexico operations to focus on the US market.
Hedge Fund Performance Fees Drop 11% in 2019
Hedge fund performance fees dropped 11% from the start of 2019 through October. Eurekahedge says that the average performance fee hit 13.3% in October. That figure is down from 15% in January of this year.
KKR European Fund V Details
The KKR European Fund V will focus on buyouts in Western Europe. The company announced this week that it has raised more than €5.8 billion from investors. In addition, the company will provide about $400 million of its own money.
Another High-Level Exit, and Job Cuts, At Scandal-Rocked GAM Holding
No respite for GAM Holding as it weighs a 40% cut in its workforce and the departure of its Head of Investments.
GAM Holding announced Monday the departure of Matthew Beesley, group head of investments, with effect from the second quarter of 2020.
Hedge Fund Manager, NFL Owner David Tepper Fires Ron Rivera in Carolina
Hedge fund manager David Tepper had announced plans to shakeup Appaloosa Management in January 2020. But today, he’s shaking up his NFL team, the Carolina Panthers. Tepper has fired the team’s head coach Ron Rivera after a lackluster performance in the 2019 campaign.
Go master Lee Se-dol Retires; Concedes AI is Better at the Game
South Korean Go master Lee Se-dol was the only human ever to defeat artificial intelligence (AI) Go player AlphaGo. In 2016, Go master Lee Se-dol managed to win one game in a tournament of five games playing against the AlphaGo Artificial Intelligence algorithm. Lee has recently retired, admitting that AI was unbeatable at Go.
World Bank Re-Enters The Danish Green Bond Market; Six Nordic Funds Invest
World Bank issued its debut green bonds in Denmark in 1997, the first and longest maturity green bond issued in that market. After a hiatus of 22 years, the World Bank has returned to Denmark with a Danish green bond issue of DKK 3 billion (USD 441 million). Six Nordic funds subscribed to the issue.
Dyal Raises Largest Fund Ever For Buying Stakes in PE Companies
Dyal Capital received a record commitment of over $9 billion for its Fund IV, with heavy oversubscription reached during the final hours. Dyal is a division of Neuberger Berman and specializes in acquiring minority interests in leading institutional private market firms.
Melvin: FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile for the Third Quarter
The FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile arrived last week.
For the first time in several years net income fell. Net Income is the nation’s banks totaled $57.4 billion during the three months ended September 30, a decline of $4.5 billion (7.3 percent) from the third quarter of 2018.
Greenlight Capital’s Recent Struggles Continue in November
Greenlight Capital saw its fourth-quarter woes continue last month. According to Institutional Investor, the value hedge fund dropped 1.8% in November. That decline follows a 6% drop for the fund in October.
PwC: Takeaways from the Real Estate 2020 Outlook
Real Estate 2020 Building the Future (a report from PwC) looks at the key trends in the commercial real estate market for 2020 and beyond.
JP Morgan’s BBUS ETF: At 2 bps, the Lowest Fee ETF in the US
When it launched in March 2019, the JPMorgan BetaBuilders U.S. Equity ETF (BBUS) under-cut the then cheapest ETFs from BlackRock’s iShares and Charles Schwab, which had been the lowest-fee offerings for broad US equity exposure, at 0.03 percent each.
Christopher Hohn: Activist Manager, Climate Warrior
Sir Christopher Hohn, the head of activist fund TCI, has demanded the companies improve their pollution disclosures. Those boards that fail to meet his demands will not receive his vote. In fact, he’ll vote against directors on issues like carbon emissions.
Huawei to Deploy Its Kunpeng 920 Chipset in World-Beating AI Platform
Huawei and the Pengcheng Laboratory released Cloud Brain II, a new AI computing platform, on Friday. The platform will use Huawei’s Atlas 900, claimed to be the world’s fastest AI training cluster. Further, Huawei will take the battle right into the Intel and NVIDIA camps by using its Kunpeng 920 chipset to power Atlas 900.
KKR Expects Lower Returns and Economic Growth
The KKR economic outlook arrived in late October. Following a holiday week, let’s take a look at the report. Henry McVey, the Head of Global Macro and Asset Allocation, has a few important things to say about the road ahead.
HSBC World Bank Taps Blockchain to Transfer $20 billion in Digital Assets
HSBC World Bank will track $20 billion in digital assets on a blockchain storage platform in 2020. The company plans to initiate the platform Digital Vault by March.
Embroker Releases 2019 State of Venture Capital Report for U.S. Startups
Embroker, a provider of insurance to venture-backed startups, has published “A Look Into VC Funding in 2019.” Its new report analyzes the venture capital (VC) middle market and successful startups under $1 billion.
Fake News: China Targets Artificial Intelligence and Bots
Fake news is a term generating a lot of buzz in the United States. But in China, the term has taken on a whole new meaning. The country has issued new guidelines that will ban online video and audio suppliers from using artificial intelligence to disseminate “fake news.”
How About a Hedge Fund Under the Toshiba Brand?
A Toshiba hedge fund may soon emerge. The Japanese conglomerate is seeking a license to operate a hedge fund. The news comes just two years since activist hedge funds pressured the company to restructure its operations. Not only did Toshiba beat them, but they are also joining them.
Short-Selling U.K. Hedge Fund Cashes In on Chaos
Marshall Wace’s LLP reported profits of £258 million. That’s a pretty nice payday for all of its 17 partners. The firm reported a turnover of £803 million at the end of February 2019. That figure is up sharply from the £ 647 million it had in 2018, according to The Guardian.
Private Equity Giant Carlyle Group’s Latest Windfall: SBI Cards
The SBI Cards IPO will be the largest public offering in India this year. On November 27, the company filed its draft prospectus but failed to provide any valuation insight. No matter for one of the biggest winners in this deal – which could raise $1.25 billion: Private equity giant Carlyle Group.