Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Andreas Halvorsen, Bill Ackman, Paulson & Co., Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), Arvinas Inc (ARVN), Y-mAbs Therapeutics (YMAB), and More

Andreas Halvorsen Discloses Stake In Urovant Sciences (Forbes.com)
Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global Investors disclosed Thursday that it holds a 75.6% stake in urologic biopharmaceutical company Urovant Sciences Ltd. through its private backing of the company’s parent. Halvorsen made the holding known because Urovant went public on Oct. 1. The company originated as one of 13 “Vants” developed by umbrella owner Roivant Sciences. Each “Vant” focuses on research, development and commercialization of treatments for a specified disease. Founded by Vivek Ramaswamy in 2014, the Switzerland-based Riovant often acquires promising drugs discarded by larger biopharmaceutical companies.

Is Bill Ackman About to Go Activist Investor on Starbucks? (The Motley Fool)
For anyone who thinks that Starbucks’ (NASDAQ:SBUX) long growth arc has started to level out, there’s a billionaire who disagrees, and he’s putting his investors’ money where his mouth is. Bill Ackman‘s hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, has taken a $900 million stake in the coffeehouse chain, and he sees the stock doubling in the next three years.

Luis Louro / shutterstock.com

Detour Gold Says Hedge Fund Paulson Rejected its Settlement Offer (Reuters)
Oct 12 (Reuters) – Canadian gold miner Detour Gold Corp said on Friday that its settlement offer regarding management changes, which included a plan to appoint a new chief executive officer, was rejected by hedge fund Paulson & Co. The settlement would have resulted in almost half of its board being refreshed in six weeks, with interim CEO Michael Kenyon stepping down before the next annual general meeting.

Sears Has Complicated Problems (Bloomberg.com)
What if Eddie Lampert hadn’t done all the stuff? Like, he bought some Kmart unsecured debt in 2002, became its biggest shareholder out of bankruptcy, and merged it with Sears to form Sears Holdings Corp. in 2004. Then he embarked on years of financial engineering, spinoffs, loans, restructurings and what have you to extract value and try to keep Sears afloat, ultimately becoming its chief executive officer and (through his hedge fund ESL Investments Inc.) its largest shareholder and most interesting creditor. There are signs that that might be coming to an end.