Offshoot of SAC Capital to Close | Chief Investment Officer

(February 4, 2014) — New York-based hedge fund firm Exis Capital Management, founded by former SAC Capital trader and art collector Adam Sender, is closing after 16 years, according to the Wall Street Journal.

An Exis Capital representative promptly hung up the phone when asked to comment on the firm’s shut down.

The firm was reportedly suffering from poor performance in the last few years, with less than $75 million in assets under management and a loss of 5.1% last year. Its investors had yet to be notified of the closing as of Sunday.

Sender’s future plans are also unclear.

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He previously claimed that a 2006 lawsuit from Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings had led to the firm’s poor performance.

“Most of the assets in the fund are [from] friends and family and my own money,” Sender said. “We haven’t been able to raise any significant capital since Fairfax of Canada sued us in 2006.”

According to legal documents, Fairfax sued Exis Capital, among other firms and individuals, including SAC Capital Management, Steven Cohen, and Daniel Loeb over an alleged short-selling scheme, seeking up to $8 billion in damages.

Exis Capital was cleared of all charges by the New Jersey Superior Court in 2012.

“Our company plays by the rules and this lawsuit should never have been filed in the first place,” Sender said in a statement after the court’s decision. “Our plan is to move forward and work to re-establish Exis Capital as one of the leading hedge funds in the world.”

Sender was also involved in another high-profile scandal in 2008 when he testified against Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano. According to records, Sender had sued movie producer Aaron Russo, accusing him of pocketing $1.1 million of his investment in 1999. When Russo failed to cooperate, Sender paid Pellicano $500,000 to investigate Russo, at which point he began wiretapping Russo and offered to kill him for the hedge fund manager.

Exis Capital’s founder testified in Federal District Court that Pellicano, saying, “if I wanted to, I could basically authorize him” to have Russo “murdered on the way back from Las Vegas. He would have someone follow him back, drive him off the road and bury his body somewhere in the desert.” Sender said he had declined the offer.

Sender is also known in the industry as a prolific art collector, famous for flipping artworks for profit. Exis Capital’s Soho office in New York is said to be adorned with a Kara Walker mural, a John Currin painting, and a small portion of New York businessman John Loeb’s art collection.

Exis Capital is the third hedge fund of size to close so far in 2014. Scout Capital Management and Joho Capital announced their closings in letters to their investors last week and promised to return all outside money. They managed $6.7 billion and $5 billion respectively.

(February 4, 2014) — Dutch pension plans’ funding ratios are back on track, with the average reaching 110% by January 31, 2014, according to data from Aon Hewitt.

The ratio reflects just a single percentage point growth from the funding level in December 2013. Liabilities also rose in January by about 0.6 %, driven by a slight decline in the three-month average rate.

While some of the largest pension funds have taken the opportunity over the past few weeks to announce they would no longer have to cut benefits, Aon Hewitt has argued that the landscape for Dutch funds remains fragile.

Some of the largest funds, ABP, PFZW, and BPF Bouw all exceeded their minimum funding target in the first month of this year. ABP revealed last week that its funding ratio had increased to 105.9%, 1.7% above the required minimum. It has brought to an end a 0.5% reduction in pensioner payments, introduced last year, as a result.

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BPF Bouw reported a 111.6% funding ratio for the end of 2013, and PFZW even suggested the recovery to its assets could result in an increase in pension payments by almost 1%.

PMT has not, as of today, reached its minimum funding level, but has nevertheless said that it won’t introduce pensioner payment cuts, because it hit the required coverage level in the middle of January.

PME, the other of the Netherlands’ five major pension funds, has also yet to meet its minimum funding target.

Despite this generally good news, there are still 38 pension funds required to cut their payments to pensioners, according to the Dutch regulator, De Nederlandsche Bank.

Frank Driessen, chief commercial officer for retirement & financial management at Aon Hewitt, said those 38 funds highlighted by the DNB would come under pressure to reduce pensioner payments from April 1, 2014.

He also warned that Dutch pension funds as a whole were still in dangerous territory. “The recovery of pensions is fragile. Many funds are largely exposed to equity risk and partly to interest rate risks,” he said.

Total assets also increased by 1.2% on average in the past month. Bond prices rose by an average of 3.6%, driven by the decline in market interest rates. Equities, however, underperformed in January by 2%, with emerging markets being hit particularly hard.