Alternatives Briefs:Lake Shore ordered to freeze pool assets

CHICAGO — Lake Shore Group of Cos. Inc. was ordered by a federal court to freeze the assets of 12 of its commodity pools and to open their books and records, said Dennis Holden, spokesman for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which filed the complaint against the firm.

A related CFTC complaint against Chicago-based hedge fund Lake Shore Asset Management and its president, Philip J. Baker, awaits adjudication. The CFTC alleges that Lake Shore Asset Management, Lake Shore Group and the commodity pools acted as “a common enterprise.” When the regulator posted the status of the case on its website on April 16, Mr. Baker’s whereabouts were unknown, Mr. Holden said. Additional information on his whereabouts was unavailable.

In the default order in U.S. District Court in Chicago, the court found the managers of the commodity pools defrauded investors out of more than $11 million through misappropriation, misrepresentation of profits and losses and issuance of false statements. The court entered the order after the defendants failed to respond to the CFTC’s second complaint against Mr. Baker and LSAM.

LONDON — Aberdeen Asset Management is buying Goodman Property Investors, a U.K.-based real estate investment management firm, for £89 million ($171 million), confirmed Aberdeen spokeswoman Victoria Trench. The deal is pending regulatory approvals but Aberdeen executives are optimistic that the acquisition will be completed by June, Ms. Trench said.

Goodman Property Investors’ £7 billion in assets under management will increase the real estate assets of Aberdeen Property Investors, Aberdeen’s real estate arm, to about £24 billion, she said.

PARIS — PAI Partners closed its fifth fund, a European buyout fund, with £5.4 billion ($8.5 billion), according to a news release. Its last fund, PAI Europe IV, raised £2.7 billion ($3.5 billion) in capital.

About 70% of the 130 investors in the fifth fund invested in previous PAI funds. Sixty-three percent of the investors are from Europe, 26% from North America and 11% from Asia. Investors in the fund include $67.4 billion Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, Harrisburg, and the $41.7 billion Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, Springfield.