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Gold/Mining/Energy : An obscure ZIM in Africa traded Down Under -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (646)	1/25/2003 11:21:32 AM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 867

Hedge fund shuts after 98pc fall Saturday, January 25, 2003 biz.scmp.com BLOOMBERG in Tokyo Japan's Eifuku Investment Management has liquidated its Tokyo-based hedge fund after it plunged 98 per cent in seven trading days, the fund's manager told investors. Eifuku Master Fund, which had more than US$200 million in assets, lost money on Japanese stock trades between January 6 and 15, said John Koonmen, a former Lehman Brothers Holdings trader who ran the fund, in a letter to investors. The fund's collapse follows a record number of closures last year caused by falling returns and a slowdown in new investments as global stock markets tumbled. The Eifuku fund, named after the Japanese word for "eternal luck", plunged as positions in four Japanese bank stocks, a Japanese technology company and other holdings failed, according to Mr Koonmen's letter. "This is a wake-up call for investors in hedge funds," said Ferenc Sanderson, president of Sanderson Consulting of New York, which specialises in Japanese hedge funds. "You need proper due diligence of the fund and fund managers, and you have to know what kind of trading rewards and risks are involved." Mr Koonmen's letter said that after heavy losses from January 6 to 9, the fund was "severely under margin". It was then that Goldman Sachs Group, the fund's main broker, decided to liquidate the fund, according to the letter, confirmed by Goldman. On January 14, Goldman arranged block trades to close Mr Koonmen's two largest positions. Those trades left the fund with a 40 per cent loss that day and, by the end of January 15, the fund had about 2 per cent of the capital with which it started this year.