Editor’s Note: Related Tickers: Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), Elan Corporation, plc (ADR) (NYSE:ELN), Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE:CS), SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD), iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:SLV), Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GDX), Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), Mylan Inc. (NASDAQ:MYL)
Hedge fund ‘owes Elan shareholders at least $685m’ (Irish Examiner)
Gold Posts 6th Consecutive Loss, Hedge Funds Still Interested? (Wall St. Cheat Sheet)
On Thursday, gold futures for June delivery, the most active contract, declined $9.30 to close at $1,386.90 per ounce, while silver futures for July traded flat to finish at $22.66. Gold has now closed lower for six consecutive sessions. Both precious metals continue to drift lower as sentiment remains weak. Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE:CS) recently said gold will trade down to $1,100 an ounce within a year, and sink below $1,000 an once within five years. However, the pullback in precious metals during the first quarter appears to have attracted a popular hedge fund. Leon Cooperman’s Omega Advisors added new positions in the SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD) and iShares Silver Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:SLV), worth $13.9 million and $4.4 million, respectively. The firm also took a new position in the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GDX) worth $4.4 million.
Billionaire Carl Icahn Has Been Buying Herbalife Ltd. (HLF) and Transocean LTD (RIG) (Insider Monkey)
If anyone’s been living on another planet for the last six months, let’s sum up: billionaire Bill Ackman of Pershing Square gave a presentation accusing Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) of being a pyramid scheme, driving down the stock price. As it was recovering, Carl Icahn criticized Ackman in the media, eventually dialing in to a CNBC interview with the hedge fund manager and engaging in a nasty fight. Since then Icahn has become a major shareholder in Herbalife (though he had apparently started buying before his confrontation with Ackman) and owned over 16 million shares at the end of March. He has suggested that he may try to take the multilevel marketer of health and fitness products private at a premium.
Goldman Offers Hedge Funds to the 99% (TheStreet.com)
Credit: Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)
Occupy hedge funds: when private investment funds and the public collide (The Guardian)
The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to soon begin allowing hedge funds and other private placement investments to begin advertising and otherwise promoting themselves to the general public. That means television commercials and gussied-up websites, not to mention cold calls and online marketing pitches, coming to your home. “Ms Olen, would you like to hear about an innovative investment strategy, formerly only known to the wealthiest of the wealthy … ? The veteran investor Henry Kaufman often has a snarky but accurate quote attributed to him: that there are two kinds of people who lose money: …
…those who know nothing and those who know everything. The two groups are now going to collide, and chances are, they’ll both lose money.
Hedge Fund Billionaire William Ackman, Investor Group in Contract to Buy a New York Penthouse for Over $90 Million (Wall Street Journal)
Billionaire hedge-fund manager William Ackman and a group of real-estate investors are in contract to buy a penthouse condo in Manhattan for more than $90 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal is among the largest struck for a residence in Manhattan. Previously, the largest closing to date was the $88 million penthouse sale of former Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) Chief Executive Sandy Weill’s penthouse to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev’s daughter, according to several real-estate agents. When the deal closes, Mr. Ackman, whose Pershing Square Capital Management has made big bets on companies like J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) and against Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), would be part of a group that owns the 75th and 76th floors of One57, a new luxury tower overlooking Central Park.
Billionaire John Paulson Bought Sprint Nextel Corporation (S), Sold Mylan Inc (MYL) In Q1 2013 (Insider Monkey)
Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) had been one of the fund’s largest holdings by market value at the beginning of the year, but that wasn’t enough for John Paulson: he bought over 100 million shares of the telecom company last quarter and owned about 230 million shares at the beginning of April. Currently Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) is trading above a proposed takeover price from SoftBank, though DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), another potential acquirer, recently issued debt in order to give it enough cash to fully pursue the transaction and might outbid SoftBank. According to the 13F, Paulson reduced his stake in Mylan Inc. (NASDAQ:MYL), a $12 billion market cap manufacturer of generic and specialized pharmaceuticals, to about 18 million shares from about 25 million three months earlier.
Hedge Funds’ Bet on Corbat Pays Off as Citigroup Surges (Bloomberg)
Moore Capital Management LP and Appaloosa Management LP are among hedge fund firms that counted Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) among their top holdings before the bank posted a 16 percent rally in a month and a half. Moore Capital, run by Louis Moore Bacon, boosted its stake in the New York-based bank by 11 percent to 5.23 million shares, which were valued at $231.2 million at the end of the first quarter, filings yesterday show. Appaloosa, run by David Tepper, held 8.5 million shares valued at $376.9 million after paring its stake by 7.3 percent.
UBS hedge fund traders go to Millennium, BlueCrest and Tudor (Ct Post)
UBS O’Connor, the $5.7 billion hedge-fund unit within Switzerland’s biggest bank, has lost at least six equity traders this year to Millennium Management, BlueCrest Capital Management and Tudor Investment, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Felipe Cruz, Arnaud Langlois and Mark Napp have left to join the U.K. unit of Millennium, a New York hedge-fund firm with $17.8 billion of assets, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the departures haven’t been publicly announced. Bernard Ahkong and Rabin Tambyraja will join BlueCrest, which oversees $35 billion, the people said. Jason Randolph started working at Greenwich-based Tudor this week, one of the people said.
APB Financial Group LLC & Hedge Fund Solutions Announce New Shareholder Activism Webcast Featuring GAMCO’s Mario Gabelli and Ryan Morris, Nominee to TDS Board on 5/17 (Albany Times Union)
Mario Gabelli, Chairman and CEO of GAMCO Investors and Mr. Morris, GAMCO’s nominee to the TDS Board, will be interviewed this Friday, May 17, by Damien Park; the webcast is part of the APB Financial Group ongoing series of interviews on Shareholder Activism. As an 8.69% shareholder, GAMCO seeks to replace one of the Company’s twelve directors at TDS’s 2013 Annual Shareholders Meeting, scheduled for Friday May 24, 2013. Attendees will receive a complimentary copy of activist investing research for TDS. “Sum-of-the parts stories, where there’s also activist activity, can be particularly compelling as a successful activist can be the required catalyst for value to be realized,” said Damien Park, moderator of the webcast and Managing Partner at Hedge Fund Solutions.
