Editor’s Note: Related Tickers: Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY), Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Rockwood Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:ROC)
Jana Says Rockwood Worth $80 a Share in Possible Takeover (Bloomberg)
Workday Inc (WDAY): Billionaire Mandel Clears 9% (Insider Monkey)
A 13G filed with the SEC has reported that Lone Pine Capital, which is managed by billionaire and Tiger Cub Stephen Mandel, owns 3.5 million shares of Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY), a $9.7 billion market cap enterprise software company. This gives Lone Pine over 9% of the total shares outstanding. We track quarterly 13F filings from hedge funds such as Lone Pine as part of our work developing investment strategies (we have found, for example, that the most popular small cap stocks among hedge funds generate an average excess return of 18 percentage points per year) and so we can see that as of the end of December the fund owned about 980,000 shares. See more of Mandel’s stock picks.
Nikko Asset Management’s Devitt sees consolidation in outlook for Fofs and Fohfs (Investment Europe)
Aoifinn Devitt, head of the World Series Fund platform at Nikko Asset Management, sees consolidation as one key outcome for funds of funds and funds of hedge funds in future. The fund of fund industry has been subjected to a multi-pronged attack in recent years, as fees and assets come under pressure, and performance, transparency and “value added” are probed. Escalating competition from consultants and a spike in the number of institutions wiling to pursue their own direct programs, have forced groups to adapt, even preemptively, as, to paraphrase an Intel executive, “only the paranoid survive”.
Paamco Seeks Asian Institutional Money for Hedge-Fund Strategies (Bloomberg)
Pacific Alternative Asset Management Co., an $8.6 billion U.S. fund-of-hedge-funds, is seeking to raise money from pensions and sovereign wealth funds in Asia to diversify its investor base. U.S. investors account for 85 percent of its clients, mostly institutional, with the rest spread across Asia, Europe and the Middle East, said David Walter, Singapore-based director for the Irvine, California manager known as Paamco. The company is looking at Asian managers employing relative-value strategies and those investing in high-yield stocks, he said. Paamco, which invests in emerging hedge-fund managers around the world for clients including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, is seeking to capitalize on growing demand in Asia for alternative investments such as hedge funds and real estate.
How to Choose a Good Hedge Fund for Your Portfolio: Mark Anson’s Secret Formula (CFA Institute Enterprising Investor)
Evaluating the quality of a money manager is a perennially important topic. It’s all the more important when that money manager charges 2% of assets under management and 20% of any gains. Yes, that age-old conundrum of how to choose a good hedge fund for your portfolio remains a difficult task. But Mark J.P. Anson, CFA, CAIA, thinks he has bright light to shine on the problem. As the person responsible for alternative assets at the Bass Family Foundation, he enjoys wider sight lines than many other investors who have taken the plunge into hedge funds. At last week’s 2013 Asset and Risk Allocation conference in New York, Anson began his presentation with a Sherlock Holmes–like quote: “When you have eliminated all of the beta, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the alpha.” In other words, if you want to identify a skilled hedge fund manager, you need to dissect the many factors (betas) leading to an actual return (alpha).
David Einhorn’s Greenlight ‘Applauds’ Apple (AAPL) Capital Return Plan (StreetInsider.com)
While Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) didn’t go for the hedge fund manager’s ‘iPrefs’ idea, David Einhorn and his Greenlight Capital hedge fund were positive on the company’s announcement Tuesday to tap the debt market and more than double its capital 
Credit: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Hedge fund billionaires vs. nature and neighbors (FierceFinance)
Superstorm Sandy was a wake-up call for many people who had coastal properties. The debate about what to do has started in earnest, though some hedge fund managers aren’t going to wait around for a public solution. “Joshua Harris, a billionaire hedge fund founder and an owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, began to…
…fear that his $25 million home on the water here might fall victim to the next major storm. So he installed a costly defense against incoming waves: a shield of large metal plates on the beach, camouflaged by sand. His neighbor, Mark Rachesky, another billionaire hedge fund founder, put up similar fortifications between his home and the surf.”
Hedge Fund Pine River Capital’s High Yield Picks Include Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NLY) (Insider Monkey)
We have gone through the 13F for Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management and here are five stocks it owned at the beginning of this year with high dividend yields. The fund’s largest holding at the end of December was its nearly 24 million shares of Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY). Annaly- like most of the high yielders we’ll be discussing here- is a real estate investment trust. Such companies are required to distribute a large share of taxable income to shareholders in order to preserve their favorable tax treatment, and this often results in high yields.
Billionaire trader Marc Lasry told investors in his $12 billion Avenue Capital that he will remain at the hedge fund and not become the next U.S. ambassador to France, according to a person familiar with the situation. Lasry, who would have been the first hedge fund manager tapped to be a U.S. ambassador, declined to comment. A longtime Democratic donor with close ties to former President Bill Clinton, Lasry was considered the front-runner to be nominated by President Barack Obama as the next ambassador to France. Chelsea Clinton, the former president’s daughter, once worked as an analyst for Avenue, which specializes in distressed debt investments.
Rothstein Kass Survey: Hedge Fund Managers Mixed on 2013 Outlook Despite Strong Performance Predictions (San Francisco Chronicle)
Rothstein Kass, a leading professional services provider to the financial services industry, today released its annual hedge fund outlook report entitled “Water Water Everywhere.” Produced by the Rothstein Kass Institute, the firm’s thought leadership arm, the survey, of 358 hedge funds, reveals that despite assets being at an all-time high and predictions of strong performance from most managers, many believe 2013 will be another challenging year for the industry. Those sentiments are based largely on unbalanced capital inflows that have plagued the industry since 2009. “Asset flows have emerged as an important theme in each of our studies since 2009, but the issue has clearly taken on a new level of significance based on what we heard this year,” said Howard Altman, Co-CEO of Rothstein Kass.
Marubeni Wins China Approval for $3.6 Billion Gavilon Takeover (Bloomberg)
Marubeni Corp. (8002) won approval from Chinese antitrust authorities for its $3.6 billion purchase of U.S. grain supplier Gavilon Group LLC, the Japanese commodities trader’s biggest acquisition. The approval, coming almost a year after Marubeni said that it agreed on the purchase, was posted yesterday on the website of China’s Ministry of Commerce. The go-ahead was only given on the basis that Marubeni and Gavilon continue to operate separate soybean sales units in China so as not to limit competition, the ministry said.
Hedge Funds Dismiss Argentina Payment Offer (FINalternatives)
Elliott Management Corp., Aurelius Capital Management and other holdouts from Argentina’s 2001 default have rejected the country’s latest offer to pay them. The holdouts blasted the proposal submitted by Argentina to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering whether to force the country to pay the hedge funds and other who have rejected Argentina’s previous exchange offers. The country’s proposal to the court is similar to the terms it gave those who exchanged debt in 2005 and 2010, roughly 15 cents on the dollar.
