United Capital's Devaney Halts Hedge Fund Withdrawals on Subprime Losses

(Bloomberg) -- John Devaney, who invests in subprime
mortgage bonds, restricted redemptions to protect some of his
Horizon Strategy hedge funds from being forced to sell assets.

It's ``a defensive move because we had an unusually high
number of redemption requests and we didn't want to be a forced
seller in this market,'' Michael Gregory, a spokesman for
Devaney's United Capital Markets Holdings Inc. said yesterday. One
investor who wanted to withdraw accounted for about 25 percent of
the funds' money, he said. United Capital, based in Key Biscayne,
Florida, oversaw $620 million in its fund group as of March 31 and
$266 million in its money-losing Horizon ABS funds, an April
investor letter said.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

TREASURIES-Prices flat ahead of confidence, housing data

(Reuters) - The funds made bad bets on collateralized debt obligations
linked to subprime mortgages and worries over the magnitude of
local banks' exposure to troubles in the subprime sector has
unnerved investors.




"The flight-to-safety will continue at least until the Fed
meeting. There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty right
now," said Doug Roberts Chief Investment Strategist, Channel
Capital Research in Shrewsbury, New Jersey.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

REFILE-Almost half of Canadians oppose BCE-Telus merger

(Reuters) - The Angus Reid Strategies poll, released on Sunday, found
48 percent of respondents believe the federal government should
not approve the merger if it were to occur, while only 27
percent think the deal should get a go-ahead from Ottawa and 25
percent are unsure.




Last week, Telus touted the creation of a "national
champion" by proposing a takeover of BCE, Canada's largest
telecom company. Telus became the fourth party interested in
mounting a bid for Montreal-based BCE. The other three are
buyout consortiums that each include a different U.S.
private-equity firm.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News