Hedge Fund News: Tom Sandell, Carl Icahn, Paul Singer

Activist Sandell Scolds PartnerRe Board for Shunning Hostile Bid (Bloomberg)
Sandell Asset Management Corp., the activist hedge-fund firm run by Tom Sandell, said PartnerRe Ltd. directors hurt shareholders by pushing a merger with Axis Capital Holdings Ltd. rather than talks with a hostile bidder. “We will not hesitate to exercise the rights available to us to hold the board accountable,” Tom Sandell said in a letter Friday to Jean-Paul Montupet, the chairman of Bermuda-based PartnerRe.

Carl Icahn Says Underweight Apple Bets Will Hurt Funds’ Performance (Reuters)
Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn said Thursday that mutual funds will increasingly realize that being underweight shares of Apple will hurt their performance as the technology giant continues to innovate. “They are underweight Apple in relation to the index funds, and I think more and more of these funds will realize that’s going to hurt their performance in the future as Apple continues to launch new products in new categories and continues to grow earnings,” Icahn told Reuters.

BofA Tells Bond Buyers: Singer Won’t Block This Argentina Payout (Bloomberg)
Given Paul Singer’s success in disrupting Argentina’s bond payments, it’s not surprising investors are reluctant to buy local notes that the country is set to repay in October. They shouldn’t be, Bank of America Corp. and Jefferies Group LLC say. The hedge-fund manager is unlikely to target the $6.3 billion of debt as part of his attempt to force Argentina to repay him because he’s focused on blocking payments on recently issued notes, they say. And even if he tried, the legal dispute that would arise wouldn’t be resolved before the debt matures, Bank of America strategist Jane Brauer says.