Another day, another David Einhorn rumor. Today, market chatter suggests that the hedge fund honcho has taken a short bet on Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU). Similar chatter recently suggested he was shorting Apollo Group Inc. (Nasdaq: APOL), while covering his Green Mountain Coffee (Nasdaq: GMCR) short. Today’s chatter could have been sparked by an interesting WSJ article discussing ‘The Einhorn Effect.’ “We call it being ‘Einhorned,”‘ says Scott Warner, a portfolio manager at Pacific Alternative Asset Management.
Franklin Templeton Announces Agreement to Acquire Majority Stake in Fund of Hedge Funds Specialist K2 Advisors (Sys-Con)
Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE:BEN), which operates as Franklin Templeton Investments, today announced that it has agreed to acquire a majority stake in K2 Advisors Holdings LLC (“K2”), a leading, independent fund of hedge funds manager. This acquisition will enhance Franklin Templeton’s alternative investments and multi-asset solutions platforms. The proceeds of this acquisition by Franklin Templeton will be used by K2 to purchase all of the equity currently held by TA Associates and to retire all of K2’s debt obligations. The current management of K2 will not sell any of its interests at this time and will receive no up-front consideration in this transaction. Beginning in 2016, Franklin Templeton will acquire the remainder of K2 over a multi-year period. The transaction is subject to certain conditions including regulatory approval and is expected to close in the calendar fourth quarter of 2012.
Merger arb fund having fun in J. Alexander’s (NashvillePost)
A Dallas-based hedge fund that specializes in merger arbitrage and similar “event-driven investments” has declared a 5.1 percent stake in J. Alexander’s, which has risen more than 25 percent since the day after Fidelity National Financial first said it planned to buy the restaurant chain. Slotnik Capital Management, which was launched in the spring of 2010, first began piling into J. Alexander’s on Aug. 8 and was still buying as recently as last week. A back-of-the-napkin calculation suggests founder Charles Slotnik and his team — who paid an average of $13.67 per share — will book a profit of about $250,000 (or more than 5 percent on his initial outlay) for his investors when Fidelity National pays $14.50 per share in the coming weeks.
eVestment|HFN Hedge Fund Survey: Consolidation A Key Trend (HedgeCo)
European economic challenges continue to weigh negatively on an otherwise positive year for hedge fund administrators, according to a new survey by eVestment|HFN. “The administration industry is feeling the effects of the European crisis,” said Peter Laurelli, Vice President, Research, eVestment|HFN. “After seeing outright declines in reported Europe-based hedge fund assets under administration during the latter half of 2011, growth turned positive in the first half of 2012 for firms’ European businesses although lagging growth in other regions.
Hedge Fund People: Stephen Dedyo Joins Pyxis Capital (HedgeCo)
Stephen Dedyo has been hired as Managing Director and Head of National Accounts for hedge fund advisor Pyxis Capital’s distribution team. He will report to Brad Ross, President of the Dallas based company. Dedyo joins from Janus Capital Group, where he was Director, Advisor Relationship Management, covering many major national broker-dealers. Prior to Janus, he spent nearly a decade at AllianceBernstein in a variety of roles of increasing importance and responsibility, including time as a financial adviser associate, regional wholesaler, and a director for global business development.
SS&C GlobeOp Top Rated in Seven Categories by GC (RFPConnect)
The readers of Global Custodian magazine have voted SS&C GlobeOp as a ‘top-rated’ provider in seven categories: Top Rated $100M-$1B, Top Rated $1B-$5B, Single Strategy, Multi-Strategy, North America, Single Provider, and Multi-Provider. SS&C GlobeOp received a Best in Class rating in 82 different service categories from technology to client service. One client in the survey said SS&C GlobeOp “always place the client first and develop solutions to meet their client needs”. Another client said, “SS&C GlobeOp is top notch in every administrator function they provide”.
Linedata Global Hedge delivers uniquely comprehensive hedge fund technology platform (BobsGuide)
Linedata Services SA (EPA:LIN), the global solutions provider dedicated to the investment management and credit industries, today announced the launch of Linedata Global Hedge, a platform supporting the full investment lifecycle for hedge funds and alternative investment managers. Linedata Global Hedge covers trading and order management, through portfolio, risk and compliance management and middle office to investor accounting and reporting. It is available as single functional modules or multiple modules, is sufficiently scalable to handle the largest and most complex hedge fund requirements and is available as either deployed or as a hosted solution.
Mason wins OK to appeal forcing Telus back to court (TheProvince)
Mason Capital Management LLC, the largest shareholder in Telus Corp, said on Tuesday it has been granted permission to launch an expedited appeal of a court ruling that blocked it from calling a meeting of the telecom company’s shareholders. The U.S. hedge fund has been locked in a bitter dispute with Telus for months over the Vancouver-based company’s plan to consolidate its voting and non-voting stock on a one-for-one basis. Telus, which backed down on the plan in May, recently revived the proposal.
Zen Capital Management Launches Unique Global Macro Hedge Fund (NewsMaker)
Zen Capital Management is preparing to launch the Zen Capital Management Global Fund SP. The Global-Macro fund has been designed to deliver attractive returns with low volatility; a performance-driven fee structure; and excellent liquidity. With a high water mark and a performance hurdle, the fee structure is compelling to investors as it only rewards Zen for the delivery of real performance. A key objective of Zen Capital Management is to hedge portfolio risk. As such, Zen says it can be considered a true “hedge fund” as opposed to the vast majority of competing “hedge funds” which are actually equity funds.
Beau Taylor profit jumps as oil boosts hedge-fund returns (StamfordAdvocate)
Hedge funds from Beau Taylor’s Taylor Woods Masters Fund to Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP’s commodities fund gained in August as surging oil and grain prices drove commodities to their third monthly advance. The Taylor Woods fund, which manages more than $1 billion from Greenwich, climbed 6.3 percent last month, according to a letter to investors obtained by Bloomberg, as the Standard & Poor’s GSCI spot index of 24 raw materials jumped 6.2 percent. The $565 million Brevan Howard Commodities Strategies Master Fund, managed by Stephane Nicolas in Geneva, rose 4 percent, according to three people with knowledge of the returns.
Hedge fund manager strikes out alone (eFinancialNews)
Jonathan Herbert, who launched the Camox fund in February 2008, has set up London-based Cologny Advisors. He leads a team of five people and is now in discussions with seed investors and family offices to try and grow the fund. In its first three years, the fund outperformed its peers: it gained 4.7% during the remainder of 2008, was up 29% in 2009 and gained 26% in 2010. However last year it lost 13%, while the average equities hedge fund was down 8.38%, according to data provider Hedge Fund Research.
Judge rules on legal spat between ex-Soros traders (Reuters)
A judge has ruled on a legal spat between two former Soros Fund Management colleagues who launched their own firm in 2005, coming down on the side of a credit analyst who accused his former partner of withholding millions of dollars owed to him. William Seibold and Richard Brennan founded Camulos Capital in 2005 after working together at George Soros’ eponymous hedge fund, Soros Fund Management, for about three years. The pair were part of a $1 billion team that specialized in distressed debt investments.
Goldman’s Quants Court Advisors After Shutting Hedge Fund (AdvisorOne)
A year after shutting its fallen-star hedge fund and replacing its quantitative investment strategies group head, Goldman Sachs Asset Management is back on track with a successful risk-management fund that targets RIAs as investors. The Goldman Sachs Dynamic Allocation Fund (GDAFX), which is set to hit the three-year mark this coming January after an early 2010 launch, is a solid contender within Morningstar’s world allocation category, with $1.3 billion in assets, 1.39% in expenses and a year-to-date return of 8.45% as of Monday.
Orinda Launches Macro Opportunities Mutual Fund (Finalternatives)
California-based Orinda Asset Management has once again teamed with hedge fund advisory firm SkyView Investment to launch a multi-manager macro opportunities mutual fund. The firms already run a long/short equity multi-manager mutual fund—the Orinda SkyView Macro Opportunities Fund—launched in 2011. Orinda says its highly opportunistic strategy will seek to exploit macro economic changes through equity, bond, currency and futures markets.
Was A Hedge Fund Unwind Responsible For The Sudden Drop In Oil Prices? (Forbes)
A mysterious and violent movement in crude oil prices has traders scratching their heads in disbelief. Over the course of a few minutes, WTI and Brent crude, the two main global price benchmarks, dropped more than $3 per barrel each, the most in eight weeks, as volumes surged in what had been a slow, low liquidity session. Talk of a “fat finger” or an impending release of petroleum reserves from the Obama Administration has been thrown around, but traders suspect there’s more to this move.
