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February 19, 2003 at 07:00 PM
NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com)–Stock traders have not warmed up to hedge fund managers. The few hedge fund businesses that are publicly traded tend to be significantly undervalued in relation to profitability or assets under management.
These companies have been instituting measures to reduce the discount to which their shares are subject. Altin AG, a Swiss-based hedge fund of funds that trades on both the London and Zurich stock exchanges, has a proposal in place to purchase its shares at 95% of net asset value should the discount to this value exceed 10%.
Altin’s board of directors recently resolved to put this measure into effect depending on the daily average discount during the three months preceding the firm’s 2003 annual shareholders meeting. This meeting is scheduled for June 25.
Moreover, the Altin board proposes to make the measure permanent, barring a new decision. Should the discount be greater than 20%, the company will investigate tax efficient ways to return cash amounting to 50% of the company’s net assets.
The fund has been developing ways to improve the liquidity of its shares and narrow the discount since 2001. “The board is glad to report that these measures are beginning to show their results, as the discount to NAV has narrowed to 13.5% as of December 2002, down from a high for the year of 17.9%,” according to a statement from Altin.
