Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Holdings disclosed, yesterday, three recent reductions in its stake in CBRE Group Inc (NYSE:CBG). Through three separate transactions that took place between October 30 and November 3, the fund disposed of a total of 262,731 shares of Class A Common Stock (pursuant to a 10b5-1 plan), for an average weighted price of $32.16 per share –ValueAct got a total of roughly $8.44 million for its stock. It now owns 31.9 million shares of Class A Common Stock.
ValueAct Holdings is a fund with approximately $15 billion in Assets Under Management, founded by Jeffrey Ubben in June 2000. Mr Ubben has served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of the company ever since. Its investment strategy combines intensive due diligence, a concentrated number of investments, and active, constructive involvement in the value creation at those investments. The fund usually makes only three to four new investments each year, and often holds about 15 positions, over an average holding period of three years. Prior to ValueAct, Jeff Ubben spent five years at Richard Blum’s Blum Capital Partners, working as a Managing Partner.
CBRE Group Inc (NYSE:CBG) is the world’s largest commercial real estate brokerage. This $10.76 million market cap company offers real estate and investment services such as facilities management, property management, mortgage loan servicing and investment management to owners, lenders and investors in office, multifamily and other types of commercial real estate. According to ValueAct’s latest Form 4 filing, the fund sold 2,500 shares on October 30, for $32.02 each; another 10,231 shares on the next day, for $32.00 each; and an extra 250,000 shares of November 3, for $32.17 per unit. Following these transactions, ValueAct beneficially owns more than 31.9 million shares of Class A Common Stock.
This position makes of Mr. Ubben’s fund the largest institutional shareholder (amongst those we keep track of) in CBRE Group Inc (NYSE:CBG), trailed by its “parent” company, Richard Blum’s Blum Capital Partners, which disclosed ownership of 15.04 million shares by the end of the second quarter of the year. Another major fund betting on this company is Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group, which declared holding 6.2 million shares by the end of the second quarter.
ValueAct’s sales took place at a time of high stock prices for CBRE Group Inc (NYSE:CBG), right after the company made public its third quarter earnings. Profit grew 13% to $107.1 million, or 32 cents per share, compared with $94.4 million, or 28 cents, in last year’s third quarter.
Mr. Ubben has been particularly active lately. A few days ago, the fund started an activist stake in Agrium Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AGU), with more than 8.19 million shares, which represent roughly 5.7% of the company’s shares outstanding, and boosted its exposure to Allison Transmission Holdings Inc (NYSE:ALSN) to approximately 19.13 million shares (after purchasing 275,000 shares at an average price of $27.17 per unit). The fund had already raised its bet a few days earlier. Check out the reasons behind his bullishness in this article. Finally, on late-September, the fund acknowledged an increase in its bet on Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX). The fund added 5,022 shares to its holdings as Mr. Ubben was appointed as a Board Director for the company. Its position now amounts to almost 18.93 million shares of Common Stock, worth almost $2.4 billion. This stake accounts for 5.6% of the company’s shares outstanding, and makes of Valueact Capital the largest institutional shareholder at the company, amongst those that we keep track of.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any stocks or funds mentioned.
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