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By Zach Fuchs

According to TaraCapital’s summer barometer of European investors, demand for long/short equity strategies, particularly those offered by Japan and Europe funds, has fallen. More investors plan to reduce than increase their exposure to European long/short equities. Instead, investor appetite is growing for relative value, CTA and multi-strategy hedge funds.

EFG Private Bank has bought English traditional private client stockbroker Harris Allday, adding £2 billion in assets under management for the UK and Channel Islands. Harris Allday’s 27 client relationship officers will be absorbed into EFG but will trade as EFG Harris Allday.

Investors who might have hoped that their allocations to hedge funds would have provided some relief from falling equity markets in June must have been disappointed. The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index underperformed the broad equity market that month, falling 0.23 percentage points, a performance that was slightly worse than the 0.16 point fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the same period, and much worse than the 0.14 point rise in the S&P500.

“As you can see, we’re keeping our operating expenses down,” jokes Nigel Harris, CEO of New Philanthropy Capital, as he ushers Euromoney into a cramped and bare meeting room in its LondonBridge office. It’s probably a far cry from the plush quarters to which he was accustomed in his investment banking days at Schroders but such frugality seems appropriate to his new role at a firm that seeks to galvanize the charitable sector. By providing detailed analysis of charities to donors, New Philanthropy Capital hopes to help them direct their money where it will be best used. “We want money to be better allocated,” says Martin Brookes, head of research, “and then hopefully the realization that this is happening will encourage more people to give.”

Henderson Global Investors wants to be taken more seriously in the hedge fund market. The firm launched its first hedge fund in 1999 – a global tech long/short fund – and now runs $2.5 billion in 15 funds. To build the business further, Henderson has been recruiting distribution talent from hedge funds and is ready to attack the US market.

We mentioned earlier this year how Marcus Browning, former co-head of FX trading at Merrill Lynch, had engineered a move to Citi, purely, if rumours are to be believed, to get some sustained training for this year’s Etape du Tour. Unfortunately, Browning failed again this year to get the gold standard handed out to high finishers in the event. Having finished a splendid 820th out of more than 7,500 starters, Browning has every right to feel slightly aggrieved.

Private equity firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) has taken a minority stake in multi-bank trading platform FXall for $77.5 million. FXall declined to reveal what percentage of the company this represents, but in February, Euromoney revealed that the company, established in 2000 by a consortium of 17 banks, was in discussions with private equity to sell a stake of between 25% and 30%.

Slovenia is set to become the first of the new EU member countries from central and eastern Europe to adopt the euro, after EU finance ministers cleared its entry. Slovenia will take up the currency on January 1 2007, bringing the number of eurozone countries to 13. An exchange rate of Tr239.64 to the euro has been set.

If international football teams performed according to economic criteria, one from the eurozone would not necessarily come out on top.

Two years ago structured credit was a cottage industry. Now it’s the sector every major investment bank wants to grow in. Alex Chambers reports on the conflicting dynamics of the market, and how banks are trying to position themselves. And in a brand new poll, Euromoney reveals the leaders in the market.

With the recent sell-off behind them, Japanese and eurozone equities look to be more attractive growth or defensive prospects than US stocks.