Australia's Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) has reported that the Westpac controlled BT Investment Management wrote to investors before Christmas advising they were freezing redemptions on its $1.2bn Global Return Fund.
The SMH article cites BT believing that "unstable market conditions ... assets cannot be realised at prices that would be obtained in a stable market."
Management of the Global Return Fund was apparently outsourced to Grosvenor Capital Management in Chicago who are claimed to manage US$23bn. Grosvenor had taken action to segregate a portion of the less liquid assets.... and as a result are not currently available to meet redemptions in the fund. However, Grosvenor itself has not suspended redemptions from its own master fund.
