Financial Times reported that Winton Capital, the London hedge fund manager, has pulled the planned $200m float of a hedge fund, blaming regulatory difficulties. Winton had planned to team up with Dexion Capital, a specialist in listed hedge funds, to float a company feeding in to its $3bn (1.52bn) managed futures fund, after a series of rival funds listed.
But the pair could not find a way round insider trading rules because they planned to provide weekly net asset values, but some existing investors in Winton segregated accounts receive prices daily, giving them an information advantage.
The difficulties coincided with poor performance for managed futures funds such as Winton using trend-following strategies, often characterised as “black box” trading because of the highly automated systems used.