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Bear Stearns Hedge Funds virtually worthless, investors are told.
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Several weeks after the collapse of two prominent Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds that bet heavily on the market for risky home loans , Bear Stearns has told the funds’ investors that the portfolios’ assets are almost negligible, according to people familiar with the matter .

It would appear that the money and net worth of the High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund (the more leveraged of the two) are (according to insiders or those in the know) virtually negligible. The funds in the bigger, less-levered fund are worth less than 10% of their former value since the end of April, these people said. The April valuations were not immediately available, but in March, before their sharp losses , the enhanced leverage fund had 638 million dollars of investors cash, while the other fund was estimated to be worth just over 900 million.

The two funds have been in in public view for weeks after suffering heavy losses in the sub prime market. Late last month , The brokerage helped stabilize the less-levered fund with a $1.6 billion secured loan; this fund then began trying to unwind its remaining $1.1 billion in debt.

The brokerage disclosed this information to investors earlier today and is expected to make a statement this evening, these people said. A spokeswoman for the brokerage did not return calls for comment .

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In one of the largest financial exercise of its kind, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group at last revealed their plans for an IPO

Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC on Monday filed an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to $2 billion in Class A shares.

Och-Ziff, of New York, is an institutional alternative asset-management firm and one of the largest of its kind with approximately $26.8 billion of assets under management for over 700 fund investors as of April 30. Details about the number of shares offered and estimated price range for the IPO weren’t disclosed in the filing.

Och-Ziff was listed as the seventh-largest U.S. hedge fund management firm, according to trade publication Absolute Return.

Och-Ziff said it plans to use net proceeds from the IPO to acquire interests in its business from its existing owners, including members of senior management. Its existing partners will reinvest all of their after-tax proceeds in the company’s funds, the filing said.

Goldman, Sachs