Editor’s Note: Related tickers: American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG), Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Ackman reassures investors of ‘progress’ (FT)
Bill Ackman has told investors in his $13bn hedge fund Pershing Square that he has made “material progress” in attracting regulatory attention to Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), the Los Angeles-based nutritional supplement direct seller that he has called a pyramid scheme. In a letter to investors in the fund, he said that while a short selling campaign of more than $1bn had cost them almost $300m in losses so far, it did not yet rank among the investment mistakes he has made.
Jeffrey Ubben’s Biggest Battle Yet: Microsoft (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
ValueAct Capital’s Jeffrey Ubben is doubling down on his biggest and most high-profile target ever. The San Francisco–based activist hedge fund manager, who made his initial investment in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the first quarter, expanded his stake in the company by nearly 75 percent, to nearly 58 million shares, during the second quarter. The software maker is now ValueAct’s second-largest position behind Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.
AIG Still Hedge Funds’ Most Beloved Stock (Barrons)
Until recently, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was the most important stock in the hedge-fund industry. That’s true if, by “important,” we mean the company that shows up most frequently in the top 10 holdings of major fundamentally driven hedge funds. These days, it’s American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG), which is a top 10 stock for about one-eighth of the entire hedge-fund industry or at least the portion of it covered by Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)’portfolio strategists, who this week published their quarterly in-depth look at hedge-fund holdings. The average weighting of AIG’s stock when it’s in a hedge fund’s top 10: 8%. The amount of American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG) shares outstanding owned by hedge funds: 14%.
Reade Griffith, Hedge Fund Boss, Charged £825,000 For Mega-Basement (HuffingtonPost)
A multi-millionaire hedge fund tycoon has been told to pay more than £800,000 by Kensington council in order to add a two-storey basement to his mansion in a property trend of “iceberg homes”. Reade Griffith, the 48-year old founder of Polygon Investment Partners, and his wife Elizabeth, 42, plan to build the vast extension under two adjoining Kensington townhouses at an estimated cost of £4 million.
Millennium duo plans record RM4.7 billion Asia hedge fund (TheMalaysianInsider)
Two top executives of Millennium Management LLC are preparing to start a US$1.4 billion (RM4.7 billion) hedge fund in Asia, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, in what would be the region’s largest such fund launch. The Millennium spin-out could add a spark to Asia’s hedge fund industry, which has suffered from poor returns and lack of capital flows in the past few years amid volatile and sinking markets across the region.
Scaramucci Raises Fund-of-Hedge-Funds Assets, Asian Bets (Bloomberg)
SkyBridge Capital LLC, organizer of the biggest U.S. hedge-fund event, raised its assets by 24 percent to $8.3 billion and allocated more money to Asian managers ahead of its second conference in the region. Assets have increased from $6.7 billion when it held its Asian inaugural SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, known as SALT, last October in Singapore, Managing Partner Anthony Scaramucci said. Its Series G flagship fund, which has put money with Third Point LLC run by billionaire hedge-fund manager Daniel Loeb, is up 7.1 percent this year through July, according to a letter sent to investors. The Eurekahedge Fund of Funds Index has gained 3.7 percent in the period.
Hedge fund wars heat up (CNBC)
Hedge Fund Manager Walks After Fraud Charges Dropped (Law360)
The formerly incarcerated founder of New York-based asset management firm ThinkStrategy Capital Management LLC walked away a free man Wednesday, following the collapse of the U.S. Department of Justice’s securities fraud case against him. U.S. District Judge John Keenan sentenced Chetan Kapur to time served after he pled guilty to one count of failure to preserve books and records. He ordered no fine, according to Kapur’s attorney Daniel Arshack of Arshack Hajek & Lehrman PLLC.
Hamptons Scene: Hedge Fund Men Join Scallop Pond’s Party (Bloomberg)
At Peconic Baykeeper’s fourth annual Celebration of Our Bays, guests congregated in the backyard of the Port of Missing Men, a private estate in Southampton overlooking Scallop Pond and Cow Neck. Admiring the setting was just as appealing as helping yourself to the raw bar of oysters and clams, served on ice in a canoe, donated by local fishermen. The pheasant in pastry cups was worth a try too. Kevin McAllister, the organization’s president and Baykeeper, took shade under a tree.
Govt’s policies a disaster, rating downgrade likely: Marc Faber (ET)
Swiss investor and editor of the ‘Gloom Boom & Doom’ report Marc Faber says the policies adopted by the Indian government to tackle the current economic crisis have taken a toll on both equity and bond markets. Faber, who is the managing director at Marc Faber Limited, says the economic polices of the government have been a “disaster” by and large. “Over the long term, I am negative about the rupee. The rupee is weak because India has higher inflation than other countries, and the problem is that a weak rupee can lead to even higher inflation and India’s ratings downgrade is quite likely,” he said in an interview to ET in an exclusive interview.
Why Hedge Fund Managers Aren’t Playing the Detroit Bankruptcy — Yet (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
When Detroit’s financial woes sent the city into bankruptcy court this summer, distressed hedge fund managers perked up, sensing a potential opportunity in a field where new distressed corporate debt has been notably scarce. Natalie Cohen, head of municipal research at Wells Fargo Securities, says every development in the Detroit case causes her phone to ring, with 10 or more hedge funds calling to ask what the latest twist means. “The game is to try to figure out if pricing is low enough,” Cohen says. But so far the opportunity “is not transparently there,” she adds.
Texas Employees sets tactical plans for alternative investments of $2.4 billion in FY2014 (PIOnline)
Texas Employees Retirement System, Austin, approved tactical investment plans for the 2014 fiscal year that would invest or commit a total of $2.4 billion to the private equity, hedge fund and infrastructure portfolios of the $24.2 billion pension fund. At a board meeting on Tuesday, trustees approved a staff recommendation to commit a target of $700 million to between six and 10 private equity funds and co-investments in the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2014, confirmed Mary Jane Wardlow, an ERS spokeswoman, by e-mail. The private equity target allocation was raised to 10% of plan assets from 8% for the pension fund’s 2014 fiscal year. Texas ERS’ private equity portfolio totaled a net $1.5 billion as of June 30.
