Silver Point Capital’s Bullish Q1 Moves Include New Stake in Embattled Drugmaker Valeant

#4. Caesars Entertainment Corp (NASDAQ:CZR)

– Shares owned by Silver Point Capital as of March 31: 3.48 Million

– Value of Silver Point Capital’s holding as of March 31: $23.64 Million

The Connecticut-based credit and distressed debt firm increased its exposure to Caesars Entertainment Corp (NASDAQ:CZR) by 967,000 shares during the first quarter of 2016 to 3.48 million shares. The position was worth $23.64 million at the end of the quarter and made up 2.7% of the firm’s equity portfolio. Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., the largest operating unit of publicly-traded casino company Caesars Entertainment Corp, has recently failed to secure support from first-lien banks and junior creditors for its reorganization plan after filing for bankruptcy in January 2015. The publicly-traded parent company may need to contribute roughly $4 billion to help fund CEOC’s Chapter 11 exit plan. Several hedge funds have sued the casino company for roughly $11.4 billion, claiming that the parent company of CEOC reneged on guarantees on bonds issued by its largest unit. Shares of Caesars Entertainment Corp are up nearly 6% thus far in 2016. John Paulson’s Paulson & Co. was the owner of 14.44 million shares of Caesars Entertainment Corp (NASDAQ:CZR) at the end of March.

#3. Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY)

– Shares owned by Silver Point Capital as of March 31: 1.18 Million

– Value of Silver Point Capital’s holding as of March 31: $22.00 Million

The asset manager run by two former Goldman Sachs partners acquired a new stake of 1.18 million shares of Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY) during the January-March period, which was valued at $22.00 million at the end of the period. The new stake represented 2.5% of the manager’s portfolio at the end of March. The former financing arm of General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) focuses on two primary markets: auto-lending and direct online banking. The company’s Ally Bank represents a leading franchise in the direct (internet, telephone, mobile, and mail) banking market. Just recently, Ally Financial acquired online brokerage TradeKing Group for roughly $275 million, which will add TradeKing’s brokerage and wealth management services to Ally’s current product portfolio. The digital wealth management market is expected to reach $7 trillion by 2020, so the $8.6 billion financial services company will definitely benefit from this massive market. Richard Perry’s Perry Capital reported owning 22.60 million shares of Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE:ALLY) in its latest 13F.