HFA Holdings (HFA) founder Spencer Young will return to the helm as chief executive following Paul Jensen’s departure after only eight months in the top job.
Jensen’s departure was announced to the market yesterday through a short statement on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Jensen was hired to the role of chief executive designate of HFA’s subsidiary HFA Asset Management in January this year. He also held the position as HFA Holdings managing director.
Jensen’s hire was part of HFA’s long term succession plan. He was to take over to allow Young to focus on HFA’s expansion into the international market.
A spokesperson for HFA said the company would not make any further comment.
Jensen’s departure comes as HFA announced a 100 per cent increase in total net fund inflows compared to the same period last year.
HFA’s total inflows comprise a 9 per cent increase in net retail funds inflows, a strong result considering hedge fund strategies experienced a turbulent last few months.
“August was an extremely difficult month for hedge fund strategies in general, regardless of their exposure or not to US Sub Prime and CDO (collateralised debt obligations),” the statement said.
“In some respects this period has been the most difficult for the entire hedge fund industry since 1998 during the Asian, Russian and LTCM (Long-Term Capital Management) crisis.”
During July and August, HFA’s core investment product the HFA Diversified Investments Fund reported negative returns of -0.63 per cent and -3.92 per cent respectively.
HFA said the increase in inflows proves positive for strong growth in assets under management for the current year.
“This growth will be driven and supported by an 80 per cent increase in product sales staff following a number of recent appoints,” the company said.
“These appointments, which include a dedicated institutional/wholesale sales executive and a national key account manager, will allow HFA to lengthen and deepen its highly successful distribution channel.”
HFA reported record full year earnings with a net product after tax for the year to 30 June, 2007 of $20.28 million which was 157 per cent up on normalised earnings from the previous financial year.
The result was also 46 per cent better than the company’s 2007 prospectus forecast of $13.9 million.
In July HFA signed a merger agreement with US fund of absolute return funds manager Lighthouse Partners.
