Billionaire Falcone: No Lightsquared Bankruptcy (Reuters)

Hedge fund manager Philip Falcone is ruling out a bankruptcy filing for his telecom startup LightSquared Inc, one day after U.S. regulators said they planned to revoke approval for the company to build a national wireless broadband network.

Falcone Seeks Spectrum Swap for LightSquared (Bloomberg)

Billionaire Phil Falcone is seeking to swap spectrum owned by LightSquared Inc. with that controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense, a person with knowledge of the company said, in an effort to salvage his investment and save his hedge fund. Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners LLC has sunk $3 billion in LightSquared, a Reston, Virginia-based firm that plans to build a high-speed broadband network to serve 260 million Americans. The Federal Communications Commission said Feb. 14 it won’t let the company begin service because it interferes with GPS navigation of cars, boats, planes and tractors. (more…)

Hedge Fund Gottex to Cut Costs As Assets Shrink (Reuters)

Swiss fund of hedge funds manager Gottex GFMS.S said it would slash running costs by 15 percent in 2012 after assets fell by some $1 billion (637 million pounds) from a year earlier as some large clients pulled money in order to invest directly in hedge funds. (more…)

Hedge-Fund Liquidity Turned Corner, Says Gayeski (Bloomberg)

Troy Gayeski, senior portfolio manager at SkyBridge Capital LLC, discusses liquidity conditions for hedge funds and high-yield bonds, and efforts by the U.S. government to boost the housing market. He speaks with Scarlet Fu and Stephanie Ruhle on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.” (more…)

David Einhorn

The insider trading case involving David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and its trading of Punch Taverns before the company announced its fundraising is continuing to draw more fines. Friday, Britain’s financial regulator said ” that it had fined a former Greenlight Capital compliance officer and a JPMorgan Cazenove trader in connection with Greenlight’s sale of shares in a British pub operator more than two years ago,” writes the New York Times. “The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said Alexander E. Ten-Holter, Greenlight’s former compliance officer, was fined £130,000, or $204,000, for failing to ensure that an order to sell shares was not based on inside information.” (more…)

David Einhorn

The chapter of the FSA’s insider trading fines against Greenlight Capital‘s David Einhorn over his sale of Punch Taverns stock may be over – Einhorn agreed to pay the fine – but it seems the FSA has yet to lay the matter to rest. According to the Financial Times, “UK regulators are seeking to fine a former Bank of America Merrill Lynch broker about £350,000 for his role in hedge fund manager David Einhorn’s improper trading ahead of the 2009 equity raising by Punch Taverns.”

“Andrew Osborne, who resigned from the bank late last year, is considering whether to appeal against the fine to a tribunal,” writes the Financial Times. (more…)

David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital

David Einhorn was fined for insider trading yesterday by Britain’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) (read the story here). The agency “ordered Einhorn to pay £7.2 million (US$11.2 million), including a £3.7 million fine” over a questionable trade involving Greenlight Capital and the British Punch Taverns.

The FSA’s Argument

The FSA said that Einhorn learned on June 9, 2009, from a broker working for Punch, that the company was near an equity fundraising. Einhorn then instructed his hedge fund to cut its stake. Greenlight went from owning a 13.3% stake in Punch to a stake worth 8.9% of the company,  in doing so, avoided “£5.8 million in losses after Punch announced its fundraising on June 15. (more…)

David Einhorn

David Einhorn, founder and manager of Greenlight Capital, was fined today by British regulators. “The Financial Services Authority ordered Einhorn to pay £7.2 million (US$11.2 million), including a £3.7 million fine, reports FINAlternatives. “The agency said that Einhorn ordered Greenlight to sell its entire stake in Punch Taverns after learning that the company was about to announce a round of equity financing.” At the time Einhorn made his call, “Greenlight owned 13.3% of Punch’s stock.”

“The FSA said that Einhorn learned on June 9, 2009, from a broker working for Punch that the company was near an equity fundraising. Einhorn then instructed his hedge fund to sell its stake.” (more…)