Schulte Roth & Zabel Navigating A Brave New World

This years Schulte Roth & Zabel’s  (SRZ) 19th Annual Private Investment Funds Seminar stuck a very different pose from last years event.  One year on from the global meltdown of financial markets, languishing institutional certainty and the  pervading crisis of industry confidence has been replaced with a cautious optimism.  The bold swagger of the industry however is gone, in its place a more certain sense of direction and expectation is emerging.  Though managers continue to labor under unachievable  high water marks due to the 2008 market devastation, 2009 marked a year of exceptional performance.   Investment portfolios rebounded in line with the upturn in the equity and bond markets.  Liquidity improved and net inflows into the industry has turned positive during the last quarter as large institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds returned to the sector with generous allocations.  These are taken as clear signs that the industry has stabilized and the path to recovery and the healing of economic and psychological wounds are underway.  Yes the industry will survive and ultimately thrive again but it will do so under vastly different conditions.  The new business landscape will require an industry with a guarded culture of  opaqueness to provide much greater transparency while operating under a regimen of greater regulatory scrutiny.

The 1,900 registered attendees heard a message about an industry at a cross road  still coming to terms with the market cataclysm brought on by unfettered, unregulated markets and excessive risk taking.  SRZ offered an honest assessment in examining the industries role in the market turmoil.  Speakers alerted attendees to an industry at a tipping point.  To survive the industry must adapt to a converging world that believes that uniform market rules and regulations are the surest safeguards against catastrophic systemic risk events.  A global political consensus is emerging  that expresses  support for industry regulation as an effective tool to mitigate the pervasiveness of fraud and market manipulation that undermines investor confidence and ultimately the functioning of a fair and efficient open free market.

Paul Roth, Founding Partner of SRZ,  noted in the events opening remarks that the market is beginning to recover as evidenced by industry AUM once again exceeding the $2 trillion mark;  but  he warned  that any exuberance needs to be tempered with the understanding that the new normal would not resemble the pre-crash world.  The days of  cowboy capitalism and radical laissez-faire investing are clearly over.   Indeed Mr. Roth wryly observed “the industry must develop a maturity about the need for change.  He concluded “that the industry must respond by playing a constructive role in forming that change.”

The conference subject matter, speakers and materials were all top shelf.  Break out presentations on risk management, regulatory compliance, distressed debt deal structuring, tax strategies and compensation issues all reinforced the overriding theme of an industry in flux.  The presenters passionately advocated the need to intentionally engage the issues  to confront accelerated changes in market conditions.  By doing so, fund complexes will be in a position to better manage the profound impact these changes will have on their business and operating culture.  Subject issues like insider trading, tax efficient structuring, hedge fund registration,  preparing for SEC examinations and the thrust of DOJ litigation initiatives and how to respond to subpoenas were some of the topics explored.

To highlight the emerging regulatory environment confronting the industry, a  presenter pointed to the Southerization of the SEC.  This is an allusion to the hiring of former criminal prosecutors from the Department of Justice, Southern District of New York to go after wayward fund managers.  The SEC is ramping up its organizational capability to effectively prosecute any violations of the new regulatory codes.   The growing specter of criminal prosecutions and the growing web of indictments concerning the high profile case of Mr. Raj Rajaratnam of the Galleon Group was presented as evidence of an emerging aggressive enforcement posture being pursued by regulators.  Managers beware!

Presenters made some excellent points about how institutional investors are demanding greater levels of TLC from their hedge fund managers.  This TLC stands for transparency, liquidity and control.  Creating an operational infrastructure and business culture that can accommodate these demands by institutional investors will strengthen the fund complex and help it to attract capital during the difficult market cycle.

The evening concluded with an interesting and honest conversation between Paul Roth and Thomas Steyer,  the Senior Managing Partner of Farallon Capital Management.  The conversation included increased regulatory oversight, compensation issues, industry direction and matching investor liquidity with fund strategy, capacity, structure and scale.   Mr. Steyer manages a multi-strategy fund complex with $20 billion AUM,  his insights are borne from a rich industry experience.  He made the startling admission that Farallon has been a registered hedge fund for many years and he believes that the regulatory oversight and preparation for examiners reviews helped his fund management company to develop operational discipline informed by sound practices.

Mr. Steyer also spoke about scale and that additional regulatory oversight will add expense to the cost of doing business.  Mr. Steyer believes that it will become increasingly difficult for smaller hedge funds to operate and compete under these market conditions.

Another interesting topic Mr. Steyer addressed were issues surrounding investor redemption and fund liquidity.  During last years SRZ conference investor liquidity was the hot topic.  Fund preservation during a period of market illiquidity and a fair and orderly liquidation of an investment partnership were major themes that ran through  last years  presentations.  Mr. Steyer struck a more conciliatory tone of investor accommodation.  He confessed his dislike for the use of “gates” as a way to control the exit of capital from a fund.  In its place he offered a new fund structure he referred to as a “strip” to allocate portfolio positions to redeeming partners in proportion to the overall funds liquid and illiquid positions.  He stated he believed that strategy to be more investor friendly.

Schulte Roth & Zabel has once again demonstrated its market leadership and foresight to an industry clearly in flux, confronting multiple challenges.  These challenges will force fund managers to transform their operating culture in response to the sweeping demands of global market pressures, political impetus for regulatory reform and the heightened expectations of increasingly sophisticated investors.   The industry could not have a more capable hand at the helm to help it navigate through the jagged rocks and shifting shoals endemic to the alternative investment management marketplace.

You Tube Music Video: Beach Boys, Sail On Sailor

Risk: industry, market, regulatory, political

NFIB Reports Decline in Small Business Optimism

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has just released the Small Business Economic Trends Report for January 2010.  The report published since 1973 measures small business sentiment on numerous economic and business factors that confront small businesses.

This months report indicates a decline in business optimism.  The NFIB index fell 0.3 points in December to 88. That’s up from the lows of March 2009, but has been below 90 for 15 months. “Optimism has clearly stalled in spite of the improvements in the economy,” the NFIB said.

Highlights Reported by Forbes Digital:

• Jobs: 10% of the owners increased employment (the highest reading of 2009), but 22% reduced employment (seasonally adjusted). Over the next three months, 15% plan to reduce employment (down two points), and 8% plan to create new jobs (up one point), yielding a seasonally adjusted net-negative 2% of owners planning to create new jobs, a one-point improvement from November.

• Credit: Regular borrowers (accessing capital markets at least once a quarter) continued to report difficulties in arranging credit at the highest frequency since 1983. A net 15% reported loans harder to get than in their last attempt, unchanged from November. Although “that is not nearly as severe as the financial distress reported in the pre-1983 period, 24 months of recession have sapped the financial strength of many small firms,” Dunkelberg said. Eight percent of all owners reported that their borrowing needs were not satisfied, down two points from November. The remaining 92% of all owners either obtained the credit they wanted or were not interested in borrowing.  Only 4% of the owners reported finance as their number one business problem (down one point).

• Profits: 54% reported lower earnings compared to the previous three months. Of those, 65% cited weaker sales, 4% each blamed rising labor costs, higher materials costs and higher insurance costs, while 6% blamed lower selling prices. Poor real sales and price cuts are responsible for much of the weakness in profits.

• Prices: 10% of the owners reported raising average selling prices, but 33% reported price reductions yielding a net-negative 22% (seasonally adjusted) of owners who cut prices in December. Plans to raise prices fell one point to a seasonally adjusted net 3% of owners, 35 points below the July 2008 reading. “The weak economy continued to put downward pressure on prices,” said Dunkelberg. “Widespread price cutting contributed to the reports of lower nominal sales.”

• Costs: On the cost side, the percent of owners citing inflation as their number one problem (e.g. costs coming in the “back door” of the business) fell two points to 2%, and only 3% cited the cost of labor.

Components of the Optimism Index include: Labor Markets, Capital Spending, Inventory and Sales, Inflation, Profits and Wages, Credit Markets

The NFIB Report can be downloaded from the Sum2 website.  NFIB Optimism Index

The NFIB Research Foundation has collected Small Business Economic Trends Data with Quarterly surveys since 1973 and monthly surveys since1986. The sample is drawn from the membership files of the NFIB.

You Tube Music Video: Louis Armstrong, Sunny Side of the Street

Prognostications and Expostulations for 2010

We’re going out on a limb with this one or given thats its winter we’ll say we’re walking on thin ice.   We’ll gaze into the crystal ball and pontificate on eleven  subject areas for 2010.  With some we hope we will be wrong.  With some we hope we will be right.

1.  Stock Market:  Buoyed by well managed earnings by the large multinational companies in the DOW, principally as a result of cost reduction initiatives and exposure to global markets the Index will finish up 6% and close at 11, 011 on the last trading day of 2010.   Given an inflation rate of 4% investors will realize a 2% gain on equity investments in DOW constituents.  S&P 500 and NASDAQ will be flat gaining 2% for the year.

2.  Iraq War:  The war in Iraq will continue to wind down.  America will scale down its military presence in the country.  Troop levels in the country will approximate 85,000 by the close of 2010.  Though direct American military involvement in conflicts will decline,  Iraq will experience civil unrest as Kurd nationalists, Shiite and Sunni Muslims seek to protect their political and economic interests.

3.  Afghanistan War:  The escalation of America’s military presence in Afghanistan will move the theater of war further into Pakistan.  The Taliban will be satisfied to harass US forces by engaging in a guerrilla war.   Taliban and Al-Qaeda supporters will use the opportunity to increase the level of urban terrorist attacks in the large cities of Pakistan.  Al-Qaeda confederates will seek to reestablish base of support in Somalia, Yemen and ties will begin to emerge in Latin American narco-terror states.

4. Iran: The political situation in Iran will continue to deteriorate.  This is a positive development for regional stability because it will force the ruling regime to cede its nuclear program development initiatives.  Iran will not be able to capitalize on the US draw down in Iraq.  It will become increasingly isolated as Hezbollah and Hamas pursue actions that are less confrontational to Israel in Palestine and Lebanon.   The ruling Caliphate position will weaken due to internal political dissent and external economic pressures.

5.  China:  It will be a year of ultra-nationalism in China.  Its stimulus program that is targeted to internal development will sustain a GDP growth rate of 8%.  China will use this opportunity to strengthen the ideological support of its citizens to fall in line with the national development initiative.  Globally China will continue to expand its interests in Africa and will cull deeper relationships with its Pacific Rim club member Latin America.  China will continue to use US preoccupation with its wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and skirmishes in Yemen and Somalia as an opportunity to expand its global presence with a message of peace and cooperation.

5.  US Mid Term Elections:  Republicans will gain a number of seats in Congress.  The continued soft economic conditions, state and local government fiscal crisis, war weariness and cut back in services and rising expenses will make this a bad year for incumbents and the party in power, namely the democrats.  Sarah Palin will play a large role in supporting anti-government candidates drooling over the prospect of  winning a seat in government.

6.  Recession:  Though the recession may be officially over, high unemployment, home foreclosures and spiking interest rates will hamper a robust recovery.  The end of large government stimulus programs  and the continued decrease in real estate values also present strong headwinds to recovery.  We predict a GDP growth rate of 2% for the US economy.  Outsourcing will abate and a move to reintroduce SME manufacturing  will commence.

7.  Technology:  The new green technology will focus on the development of nuclear power plants.  The clash of the titan’s between Google’s Droid and Apple’s I Phone will dominate tech news during the year.  Lesser skirmishes  between Smart Phones makers or the war of the clones will continue to explode altering the home PC market and continue to change the market paradigm for old line firms like DELL, Microsoft and HP.   SaaS or cloud computing will gain on the back of lean business process initiatives and smart phone application development and processing infrastructure will encourage cottage industries fueling the cloud and making for some new millionaires.  The tension between the creators of content and search and delivery will begin to tilt back toward the content providers.  Litigation involving social networking sites will be filed to create safeguards against  its use  as a tool to control and manipulate behaviors thus threatening civil liberties and privacy rights.

8.  Culture:  The Googlization of civilization will allow individuals to embrace paternal corporatism as a pillar to add efficiency and order to their lives.  Multiculturalism will continue to grow in the US.  However a growing political backlash against it will become more of a prominent theme as Teabaggers agitate for a return to the true values of America.  Electronic arts will make major leaps and bounds as commodification continues to be a driving force in the world of art.  Printed words like books and newspapers will continue to dramatically decline.  Writing, drawing and playing musical instruments skills will  ebb as people prefer to develop digital skill sets.  Texting and Tweeting make for poor practice for extended compositions.

9.  Latin America:  Instability will grow in Latin America as narcodollars continue to undermine political stability in Columbia, Venezuela, Mexico and Panama.   The US will increasingly become involved in the conflicts between petro and narcodollars.  Mexico’s stability will be increasingly undermined by the power and corruptible influence of the drug trade.  China’s influence on the continent will grow.

10. European Union:  The EU will continue to manage itself for stability.  It will yearn to return to its aristocratic roots and will become increasingly conservative.  It will continue to have a complex relationship with the expanding Muslim community.  A call to deeper nationalism will arise out of a growing influence of Islam and the inefficiencies of EC bureaucrats in Belgium.  The EU will continue its union of expediency to counterbalance their distrust of Russia and their distaste for America.

11.  Environmental Justice:  Though awareness continues to grow concerning the need to mount and implement large scale solutions to halt the problem of global climate change;  the political will and resources required to drastically alter the planets current trajectory in growth of carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels remains unaltered.  Social responsible enterprises, small businesses and individuals continue to make a difference.  Eco friendly small businesses, urban farming, capital formation initiatives around renewable  energy  businesses are hopeful signs of a market response to the pressing problem.  China is investing heavily in becoming a market leader out of business savvy and environmental necessity.  Until the great powers of the world can come to some  collective agreement on how to limit , cap or trade carbon credits we’ll have to be content to separate the trash and recycle, reuse and reduce.

You Tube Music Video: Donald Byrd, Stepping Into Tomorrow

Risk: unfulfilled predictions will make me look bad