Hedge Fund News: Carl Icahn, Daniel Loeb, Wausau Paper Corp (WPP)

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Louisiana pension funds cut ties with consultant after hedge fund investment hits snags (BayouBuzz)
All five Louisiana retirement systems that have relied on the controversial Memphis-based investment firm Consulting Services Group have taken recent steps to distance themselves from the firm, with two selecting new outfits and the others in various stages of seeking new advisers, according to public records and pension officials. For more than a year, state officials and other observers have called for more intense scrutiny of how public pension boards manage their investments . But it took a bad bet on an unconventional investment — pushed by CSG, which has come under fire from federal regulators in the past — for that effort to gain much traction.

2012 the Fifth-Worst Year for HFs: BofA ML (Barrons)
By now, it’s apparent 2012 went down as only a slightly better year for hedge funds than for the Jets. Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Global Diversified Hedge Fund Index returned 5.63%, a little more than one-third of the Standard & Poor’s 500’s 16% return and well shy of the average annual return of 9.20% since 1995. That made 2012 the fifth-worst year for hedge funds of the past 18. Equity hedge funds did better with a 7.39% total return, still less than half that of the S&P 500. Since 1995, however, equity hedge funds have significantly outperformed the large-cap benchmark with an 11.6% average total return vs. the the S&P’s 10.5% average yearly showing. Their halcyon years were at the peak of dot-com bubble and its subsequent bursting; equity hedge funds outperformed in 1999’s historic rally and gave back little of their gains in the bust.

Ex-SAC Manager Simonian Said to Start Stock Hedge Fund (BusinessWeek)
Charles Simonian, a former portfolio manager at SAC Capital Advisors LP’s Sigma Capital unit, plans to start a long-short equity hedge fund, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Simonian, 41, will open New York-based Trove Capital Management LLC in March or April, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The fund will focus on industrial, consumer, media, telecommunications and business-services stocks with market capitalizations of $1 billion or more, and its capacity for assets is at least $1 billion, the person said.

Laven Partners comments on confusion over hedge fund administrator role (Opalesque)
Laven Partners chief executive officer, Jerome de Lavenere Lussan, has commented on the role of fund administrators in hedge funds, saying: “There is confusion in the hedge fund industry regarding the responsibilities of hedge fund administrators. Investors believe that administrators are responsible for providing valuation and accounting services to funds, in reality however the role of administrators is limited to the aggregation of data inputs when striking the NAV. In most cases the administrators are not questioning the pricing of underlying assets, leaving that responsibility to other counterparties, such as managers, brokers and auditors.”

Dan Loeb May Have Already Made Over $100 Million By Going Against Bill Ackman On Herbalife (BusinessInsider)
Hedge fund hot-shot Daniel Loeb, the founder of Third Point LLC, has made an estimated $108 million profit so far with his long position on Herbalife, the New York Post’s Michelle Celarier reports. Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), a multi-level marketing firm that sells nutrition products, is the stock that Bill Ackman has a massive short position on. Ackman, who runs Pershing Square, believes the company is a pyramid scheme and has a price target of zero. Not everyone agrees with Ackman, though.



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