Icahn Ups Ante With Mentor Graphics (II Magazine)
Carl Icahn is embroiled in another Icahn-style battle. This time with Mentor Graphics. One day after the software company rejected the septuagenarian’s $17 per share offer for the software company, and the same day Mentor announced plans to sell in a private placement up to $253 million of convertible debt, Icahn fired off a letter to Mentor’s Board of Directors expressing his outrage. “On the one hand, the company indicates that the price that we offered as a stalking horse bid for the company is far too low and a sale of the company to a strategic acquirer is too risky,” he wrote. “On the other hand, it is choosing to issue securities convertible into stock that would dilute shareholders and make a tender offer or other acquisition proposal by a potential acquirer a great deal more difficult to accomplish.”
Connecticut Hedge Fund Manager Charged In $3.5 Billion Ponzi Scheme (Hartford Courant)
Federal securities regulators blocked a Connecticut hedge fund manager from diverting $14 million Monday after charging him with defrauding investors as part of a $3.5 billion Ponzi scheme headed by a Minnesota businessman. Hedge fund manager Marlon M. Quan and his Greenwich-based Acorn Capital Group have been accused of funneling hundreds of millions of dollars in investor money into the scheme headed by convicted businessman Thomas Petters. Quan pocketed about $90 million in fees.
FDA chemist, son charged with insider trading (Reuters)
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration chemist and his son were charged with using inside information about drug approvals to reap more than $3.6 million in profits, in an embarrassing blow to the health industry regulator. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Cheng Yi Liang, 57, and his son Andrew, 25, on Tuesday with illegally trading in advance of at least 27 public announcements about 19 publicly held companies. “Liang’s conduct was calculated, repeated and egregious. Liang was a serial insider trader who violated the public’s trust for his own profit on numerous occasions,” the SEC said in its complaint filed in federal court in Maryland.
China’s wealth fund ready to boost LatAm incestment (Reuters)
China’s $300 billion sovereign wealth fund is prepared to invest more in resource-rich Latin America because it is confident in the region’s growth prospects, a senior official said on Wednesday. Jin Liqun, chairman of the China Investment Corp. supervisory board , told an investor forum he had just returned from a trip to Brazil, Argentina and Chile and saw great potential for trade and investment. “We are also optimistic on growth in Latin America and are prepared to increase our investment there,” Jin said. “Brazil is fast growing, but Chile, Colombia are also providing interesting opportunities for private equity investors.” He did not say which sectors CIC is interested in.
