San Diego Business Journal – Now facing a loss of $105 million invested in a failed hedge fund, San Diego County\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s pension board is mulling whether to continue similar investing strategies, as wellas litigation against Connecticut-based Amaranth Advisors LLC.<\/p>\n
Brian White, the pension fund\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s chief executive, said Amaranth officials told him the value of the pension fund\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s holdings had decreased to $70 million as of Oct. 6. The county pension fund invested $175 million in the fund last year, or about 2 percent of its total $7.7 billion in assets.<\/p>\n
Amaranth told White that it is not redeeming any investments in the fund until it completes a liquidation process that began last month after it failed to sell itself to Citigroup.<\/p>\n
\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cThey\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2ve suspended redemption requests and indicated they won\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t resume until they fully liquidate,\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d White said. \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cThey gave no date about how long that would take.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/p>\n
Amaranth\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s meltdown last month was caused by spectacular losses sustained from investments in futures energy-related contracts that went in the opposite direction. As a result, the losses plummeted the value of the fund from $9 billion to $3 billion as of Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
The county pension board held a closed session Oct. 7 to discuss possible litigation. White said it involved Amaranth. He said no decision was made during the session.<\/p>\n