Hedge Fund Managers See France As A Growth Risk

CQS founder Michael Hintze, one of Europe’s most influential hedge fund managers, has warned that France’s struggling economy could present a “major pothole” for investors in 2014.

Hintze, whose firm manages around $12 billion and who was one of the world’s top-performing hedge fund managers last year, painted a picture of a “pretty benign world” for investors and a recovery in Europe’s peripheral economies next year, but picked out France as a concern.
Speaking at the Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit in London, Hintze pointed to social tensions, government debt, an exodus of workers and the possibility that France may drop out of the euro project.

“The real issue will not be the periphery. The real problem would go back to France,” said Hintze, whose CQS Directional Opportunities fund rose 36 percent last year and is up 12 percent this year.
“Core Europe is in sensible shape, especially Germany, but what does worry me a little bit is what happens in France, because I think that’s one that could be a major pothole in 2014.”

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza