Martin Hughes, Toscafund Management Strenghten Position in LSE-listed Sinclair IS Pharma

Martin Hughes‘ hedge fund Toscafund Management has solidified its exposure at the LSE-listed Sinclair IS Pharma PLC (LON:SPH). According to a filing, Toscafund now holds over 91.7 million shares, which represent almost 21.1% of the company’s total voting rights. The position has been upped from 90.6 million held by Toscafund earlier.

According to Sinclair’s website, Toscafund is the largest shareholder of the company. Some smaller positions are held by AXA Investment Managers, and Lansdowne Partners, managed by Paul Ruddock and Steve Heinz, which holds around 50 million shares, or 11.5% of the voting rights.

Sinclair IS Pharma is engaged in production of various pharmaceutical products for dermatology. Recently the company announced about the disposal of some of its non-core products. The company sold its Effederm, for acne treatment, to Labaratoires Bailleul SA. Other three products: Xclair,
Salinum and SST have been acquired by Hexim Pharmaceuticals Inc. The total proceeds from the deals amount to over $1.7 million.

For the fiscal year 2013, ended on June 30, Sinclair reported revenues of over $89 million, which represent a 7.7% increase over the year. The gross profit of the company totaled $50.7 million, up by 7.9% in year-on-year terms. The stock of the company has gained over 9% since the beginning of the year.

Martin Hughes, the manager of Toscafund, is a former employee of Julian Roberton’s hedge fund Tiger Management. Among a wide range of investments, one of the oldest funds managed by Toscafund is the global long/short equity fund. Among the largest holdings in its equity portfolio, we can mention Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), in which the fund owns 778,900 shares, with a value of $37.8 million; followed by Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:HIG), and SLM Corp (NASDAQ:SLM), in which Toscafund reported holding 754,300 shares, and 817,400 shares, worth $23.5 million and $20.4 million respectively.

Disclosure: none

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