Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR), Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP)
Singer eyeing court $upport (NYPost)
Billionaire hedge-fund mogul Paul Singer may ask a Manhattan federal appeals court to force Argentina to fork over $1.4 billion in bond payments as soon as next month, sources told The Post. Singer is weighing such a move after Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner went on local TV and suggested a way of side-stepping a recent court order. The Manhattan appeals court ruled Argentina has to pay Singer’s Elliott Management and other investors about $1.4 billion due on their unrestructured bonds — but stayed the order pending the country’s full appeal. After Kirchner’s move, Singer is weighing asking the court to lift the stay, sources said.
Michael Karsch to close down $1.8bn hedge fund firm (Opalesque)
Various media reported that Michael Karsch is shutting down his 13-year-old hedge fund firm Karsch Capital Management and would return most of the firm’s $1.8bn assets to investors by the end of September, and the rest in January after the fund’s audit. New York-based Karsch Capital is mostly invested in Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE). The flagship hedge fund was up 6.1% YTD through mid-August and outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 index by at least 100 percentage points over its life span with one-third of the volatility, said Karsche in a letter dated Aug.28, according to 4-traders.com. The firm also manages a $500m long only fund which returned 16%.
Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) shares shows a significant decline (FinancialsTrend)
There had been hefty hedge fund activity in the stock of Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) in the recent quarter to ascertain the bullishness of the price trends. It was observed that there were totally 23 hedge funds which were holding effective long positions in this stock in the recent quarter which was observed to be a significant increase of 10% over the previous quarter. Further many new hedge fund managers had also taken up long positions in this stock during the quarter to assert that the company possesses bright prospects for growth in the near future. Renaissance Technologies was found to occupy the largest hedge fund position in the stock of Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) with shares worth $50.9 million occupying around 0.1% of the fund’s total portfolio…
Elena Ranguelova joins Investcorp’s hedge fund group (HedgeWeek)
In this newly created role, Ranguelova (pictured) will be responsible for supporting the growth of both investments in emerging managers and the Single Manager Platform, the firm’s hedge fund seeding business. Before joining Investcorp, Ranguelova served as global head of credit and event driven strategy research at Pioneer Investments, where she also served as a member of the board of directors for Pioneer Alternative Investments New York. Earlier, she ran Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)‘ fundamental strategies team in New York. In this role, she facilitated investment ideas for institutional clients across credit and equities, as well as advised the firm’s proprietary traders on hedging and portfolio solutions. She began her career as a structured credit strategist with Lehman Brothers.
Noble Wins Court Order to Liquidate Ebullio Master Fund (Bloomberg)
Noble Group Ltd. (NOBL) won a court order appointing liquidators for Ebullio Commodity Master Fund LP, which Asia’s largest raw-materials trader said had failed to pay it about $4.9 million for contract breaches. Judge Andrew Jones of the Cayman Islands Grand Court accepted Noble’s petition and appointed Matthew Wright of RHSW (Cayman) Ltd. and Finbarr O’Connell of Smith & Williamson LLP as liquidators of the hedge fund, according to an Aug. 23 order.
Man Group shuts down products after performance fails (HereistheCity)
Bloomberg News reports that the company decided this month to shut Man Vision Ltd., a $40m pool that sought to generate returns of more than 10 percent annually, according to an Aug. 12 letter sent to clients. Man Group is also closing similar offerings that, like Vision, were tied to the performance of AHL Diversified, the firm’s biggest hedge fund, said a person with knowledge of the moves who asked not to be identified because they aren’t public.
Bond battle with Argentina (CNBC)
David Einhorn’s Green Mountain Short Backfires (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR) got a java jolt and surged more than 3 percent, closing on Wednesday at a new all-time high of $86.66. The stock has more than doubled this year, but not many hedge funds are celebrating. The company is a high profile short sale of David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital, and it just hasn’t caught on as a long position among hedge funds. On Among the top 25 holders of Green Mountain stock, only one hedge fund appears: Coatue Management. And Coatue’s portfolio managers pared their holdings by about 40 percent in the second quarter of this year. Jeffrey Smith’s Starboard Value hedge fund has raised its stake in chip maker Tessera Technologies to 8.6 percent, making this the activist hedge fund’s third largest holding in its concentrated portfolio…
Hedge fund group forms advisory board (StamfordAdvocate)
The Hedge Fund Association, a global booster for the exclusive corner of high finance, announced Wednesday it had launched an academic advisory board designed to drum up support for the industry across this country’s university campuses. The five-person board plans to hold symposiums at schools featuring prominent hedge fund managers and investors as guest speakers. It will host a series of online “webinars,” offering information about investing and finance in hopes of developing a new generation of successful money women and men.
Investcorp brings in hedge fund principal (PIOnline)
Elena Ranguelova joined Investcorp’s hedge fund unit as principal and head of credit and equity strategies. Ms. Ranguelova’s position is new and brings with it oversight of the firm’s investments in emerging managers’ hedge funds and in its seeding activities with individual managers, confirmed James Cheston, an Investcorp spokesman, in an e-mail. Ms. Ranguelova was global head of credit and event-driven strategy research at Pioneer Investments. Geoffrey Smith, a spokesman for Pioneer, did not respond to a request for information about Ms. Ranguelova’s replacement by press time. Investcorp’s hedge fund group managed $4.2 billion as of June 30.
Icahn Bondholders Charge Premium After Gains: Corporate Finance (BusinessWeek)
Even as bondholders of Carl Icahn’s investing company enjoy market-beating gains, they’re demanding extra yield on new notes to compensate for risk in the maverick investing style of the world’s 35th-richest person. Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP) have returned 32 percent since Aug. 26, 2010, compared with 22 percent for bonds whose ratings are split between the lowest investment and highest junk grades. The New York-based company sold $500 million of 6 percent bonds last month that yielded 399 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, compared with a spread of 274 for debt in the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Crossover Corporate index.
Jim Rogers: US War with Syria Would Be Bullish for Commodities (MoneyNews)
It’s looks likely that the United States will launch a military attack against Syrian government forces, and that would boost commodity prices, says legendary investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings. He told Reuters he owns oil and gold. “If there is going to be a war, and it sounds like America’s desperate to have a war, they’re going to go much, much higher,” Rogers said, according to the news service. “Stocks are going to go down, some of the markets are already going down. Commodities are going to go up.”
Japan Moves the Needle for Sloane Robinson (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
Sloane Robinson has suffered a setback over the past few months, interrupting a ferocious comeback that began in early 2013. Even so, the long-short equity shop, one of London’s oldest hedge fund firms, is outperforming most of its peers this year. Four of the five portfolios within the SR Global Fund are up by double-digits through July 31. The firm’s best performer has been its Japan portfolio, launched in 2003. Sloane Robinson lost 5.2 percent in its Japan strategy between May and July after jumping 29.1 percent in the first quarter and more than 27 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. Despite the recent weakness, the portfolio is up more than 41 percent this year through August 13.
