3 bullish moves by hedge fund Millennium Management (MarketWatch)
In the latest round of 13F filings, Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management disclosed its equity positions as of the end of March. It is a diverse equity portfolio, although there is a slight focus on basic materials, services and health-care stocks. First off is PPL Corporation (NYSE:PPL), a $21.2 billion market cap energy and utility holding company, engaged in the generation and marketing of electricity in the northeastern and western U.S. and in the delivery of electricity in Pennsylvania and the U.K. Englander’s fund has increased its stake in PPL by more than 40% during the quarter and now owns over 13 million shares, valued at around $435 million.
Sears loss widens as discounts fail to arrest fall in sales (Reuters)
Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) posted a bigger loss for the first quarter as the struggling retailer failed to arrest a fall in sales despite offering heavy discounts to woo shoppers. Shares of the company, which operates Sears department stores and the Kmart discount chain, fell 4 percent in premarket trading. Sears, controlled by hedge fund billionaire Eddie Lampert, has been shedding assets and closing stores as it battles the operating losses and weak sales that have plagued the company since 2005, when the two chains were merged.
Former SAC, Och-Ziff Manager Said to Consider Own Hedge Fund (Bloomberg)
Ken Xu, a former managing director at SAC Capital Advisors and Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (OZM), is considering setting up his own hedge fund in Hong Kong, said a person with knowledge of the matter. Xu left SAC, now renamed Point72 Asset Management LP, earlier this month, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. His license with the company was removed on May 16, according to data posted on the website of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission. Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for Stamford, Connecticut-based Point72 at Sard Verbinnen & Co. in New York, declined to comment.
Pine River Capital Management’s Top Bullish Moves During the First Quarter (Insider Monkey)
A few days ago, Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management, disclosed its equity positions at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Over the first fiscal quarter of 2014, the fund started 238 new stock positions, increased its stakes in 97 of its preexisting holdings, and sold out of 297 stocks. In this article, I will take a look Pine River’s 13F filing and briefly analyze five of its largest bullish moves. First off is Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG), a $14 billion market cap designer, manufacturer and marketer of da Vinci Surgical Systems and related instruments and accessories. Over Q1, Mr. Taylor’s fund started a position in the stock with 265,817 shares, now worth more than $96 million.
UPDATE 2-Starboard launches fight to take over Darden board (Reuters)
Starboard Value LP launched a fight to take over the board of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI), saying the planned sale of Darden’s Red Lobster seafood chain was “a value-destructive transaction” that ignored the rights of shareholders. Darden said last week it would sell Red Lobster to private equity firm Golden Gate Capital for $2.1 billion, defying Starboard and another activist investor that had opposed the sale of the struggling chain.
Cramer’s favorite candy aisle (CNBC.com)
Billionaire Ruias Said to Weigh Delisting Units of Essar (Bloomberg)
India’s Essar Group, controlled by billionaire brothers Shashikant and Ravikant Ruia, is considering delisting all its publicly traded units and plans to sell some assets, people with knowledge of the matter said. The group plans to take Essar Ports Ltd. (ESRS), Essar Shipping Ltd. (ESL) and Essar Oil Ltd. (ESOIL) private over the next couple of years, the people said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations are confidential. The Ruias are already in the process of delisting Essar Energy Plc (ESSR) from the London Stock Exchange.
What the best hedge fund managers are buying now (MarketWatch)
At the beginning of this year we named David Tepper and Larry Robbins, along with Michael Castor of Sio Capital, among the three best hedge fund managers of 2013. Sio Capital doesn’t file 13Fs because it had an equity portfolio smaller than $100 million at the end of 2013. That’s why we will only look into Appaloosa’s and Glenview’s holdings from the latest 13F. However, we should highlight that Sio Capital returned an impressive 23% during the first four months of the year. The first stock in our list is Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), the $142 billion market cap financial services holding company. During the first quarter, both Appaloosa Management and Glenview Capital increased their stakes in this firm.
Political Interference Clips Hedge Funds’ Desires to Trade on Mega Mergers (Wall Street Journal)
A wave of megadeal activity in Europe isn’t providing the trading opportunities many hedge funds had hoped for. U.S. drug firm Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)’s $120 billion attempt to buy U.K. rival AstraZeneca plc (ADR) (NYSE:AZN) and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE)’s proposed $17 billion purchase of French group Alstom’s power business are seen by many investors as kicking off a long-awaited boom in M&A in Europe. Traditionally hedge funds have pounced on big deals such as these, hoping to make money by correctly predicting the outcome and pocketing tiny market inefficiencies. But this time around many are less enthusiastic. One major reason is that funds are wary of growing political interference in deals, which they see as difficult to forecast.
Learn How To Invest Defensively From This Hedge Fund Pro (Investopedia)
With the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 hovering near all-time highs as investors shift toward a defensive stance, there are plenty of opportunities to bet against the stock market. But where to start? Famous short seller James Chanos, president and founder of hedge fund Kynikos Associates, continues to express his deep wariness of China, along with companies tied to high-ticket items, such as artwork, and large rollups that rely on slick accounting to gussy up their balance sheets. In interviews recently at the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference in Las Vegas, Chanos hammered home those themes, noting that a Chinese government crackdown in fraud in gambling mecca Macau could hurt gaming companies with exposure to China.
Reaping strong returns, KC hedge fund continues to grow (Kansas City Business Journal)
When Whetstone Capital LP President David Atterbury told his friends in 2010 that he was leaving New York City to open a new hedge fund in Kansas City, they thought he had gone crazy. Most people move to New York to start a hedge fund, not leave it. But Kansas City is where Atterbury and his partner, Thomas McGannon, grew up, and they knew what it had to offer from a quality-of-life and a financial services perspective.
