The Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to share some internal memos and make available staff for interviews with Senate investigators probing whether a hedge-fund investigation was derailed because of political interference, according to a Senate spokeswoman.

The Energy Hedge Fund Center recently observed an increasing investor risk, due to the collapse of at least one energy commodity trading hedge fund, and also large reported losses at other funds and banks trading in energy commodities. The Energy Hedge Fund Center LLC offers analysis and consulting services in energy and environment.

In a move designed to provide access to its top-flight hedge fund range, Henderson Global Investors will launch the Henderson Total Return Fund on 01 September 2006. Managed by Bill McQuaker, director of Multi-Manager funds, the fund will invest in a range of nine Henderson managed hedge funds, including some of the funds currently capped, and have a target return of 12-15%.

Hedge funds are facing a tax crackdown as financial watchdogs take a greater interest in their activities and geographical locations. The rapid development of new investment strategies devised by hedge funds has attracted the interest of tax authorities.

Swiss bank UBS AG (UBS) will begin accepting outside money later this year for an in-house hedge fund run by John Costas, former head of investment banking, the bank's chief financial officer said Tuesday.

Bryan Garnier Asset Management, the institutional asset management arm of Bryan Garnier & Co, has launched a hedge fund managed by Adriaan Klop.

UK hedge fund Marwyn Value Investors is to launch a 250-million-pound ($475-million) cash bid for Canadian film business Motion Picture Distribution, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

A hedge fund is claiming it got ripped off when it sold a big raft of Mercury Interactive shares just before a big merger announcement. Okumus Capital, an $800 million fund, has asked a New York state judge to order Goldman Sachs and Jefferies to turn over the names of any customers who bought some 2.4 million shares of Mercury from Okumus Capital in late July.

The recently-formed asset management arm of European investment bank Bryan Garnier & Co said on Tuesday it has launched a European equity hedge fund, the first in a series to be rolled out over the next 18 months.

Hedge fund firm Ospraie Management said on Tuesday it added another manager to trade in energy-related stocks at a time when the sector is delivering strong returns.

The growing number of hedge fund managers globally, and the plethora of investment styles, makes it hard for advisers and investment consultants to pick managers for the sector. RCG Capital Partners managing principal Ken Phillips said the solution was to pick fund of fund products that have done the research on managers and their investment styles and how they can be blended into a single product.

Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking has developed a new end-to-end hedge fund platform that it said will allow hedge fund managers to do multi-strategy, multi-asset class and multi-currency investing under one roof. The new front-to-back platform is backed by UK company Linedata’s Beauchamp technology and Citigroup’s existing support, middle office and fund administration services. Called ‘OpenPrime’, the platform will allow hedge fund managers to manage complex portfolios and meet both investor and regulatory requirements.

MotherRock LP, the hedge fund firm run by former Nymex President Robert ``Bo'' Collins, is preparing to shut down because of ``terrible performance'' as natural gas plunged this year.

One of the biggest New York hedge funds trading natural gas futures, MotherRock LP, is shutting down after suffering big losses in the natural gas market in June and July.

Citigroup Inc. unveiled a new prime brokerage platform on Wednesday as the banking giant tries to grab a bigger share of the lucrative business of serving hedge funds.

Jon Wood, a former UBS trader who helped the Zurich-based bank earn US$2.4 billion over a six-year span, raised more than US$3 billion ($4.8 billion) from investors for a hedge fund he plans to open in September.

US hedge fund Citadel Investment Group is planning an opportunistic bid for UK rail operator GNER, hoping to acquire the group cheaply because of debt problems at its Bermuda-based owner, Sea Containers, the Sunday Express reported without citing sources.

The number of new European hedge funds launched jumped nearly 15 percent in the first half of this year and hit record levels, information provider HedgeFund Intelligence said on Wednesday.

A second fund of hedge funds is expected to float on the London Stock Exchange this week, giving retail investors further exposure to the high stakes industry.

About 10 hedge fund advisers have pulled their registrations with the Securities and Exchange Commission, an SEC spokesman said on Friday, a month after a court threw out an SEC rule requiring hedge fund advisers to register.