Trump Rules Out Scaramucci as He Considers Next Press Secretary (Bloomberg)
President Donald Trump said he hasn’t decided who will replace Sarah Huckabee Sanders as White House press secretary but that it won’t be his former communications director, financier Anthony Scaramucci. “I like Anthony,” who is known as the Mooch, but “he should stay where he is right now,” Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News on Friday. The president announced on Thursday that Sanders would resign at the end of the month.
A Nudge From Dan Loeb Could Pay Dividends for Sony (The Wall Street Journal)
Activist investor Daniel Loeb is calling for a split of Sony again. He may not get everything he wants, but he probably won’t come away empty-handed either. As Japan was waking up Friday, Mr. Loeb’s New York-based hedge fund, Third Point, sent an open letter and a 108-page presentation to Sony’s investors suggesting ways to unlock value at the Japanese technology conglomerate. Chief among its proposals: spin off its semiconductor division to Sony’s shareholders.
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Nelson Peltz May Want To Flush Plumbing Company Out Of Brexit Britain (Deal Breaker)
Learning that Trian Partners has taken a large stake in one’s company is not usually a happy moment for a company’s executives or directors. Trian chief Nelson Peltz does not make it a habit of investing in businesses that he thinks are well run, and he is neither shy of opinions about things nor voicing them, loudly and repeatedly, until he gets his way. Well, the executives and directors of something called Ferguson Plc have now had that moment, following on another rather unpleasant moment for them.
Asset Managers with More Advanced Technology are Growing Over Twice as Fast as Peers (Opalesque.com)
The asset managers with the most advanced technology operating models continue to outperform their peers in terms of revenue growth, driven by accelerated adoption of cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies. Fund managers implementing technological advances reported an average 3.3% annual growth rate over the past 12 months in revenue, compared with 1.1% for other fund managers, according to the survey, released Thursday by FIS, a technology and outsourcing firm. 49% of the executives surveyed – nearly double the number from the 2017 report – said they were confident they have the right technology in place to support their growth ambitions, a number that climbs to 71% for operational leaders.
Barnes & Noble Says it Did Not Get Any Other Bids Before Elliott’s Deadline (CNBC)
Barnes & Noble said on Friday it had not received any other offers from prospective bidders before Elliott Management’s “keep-shop” deadline. Elliott, which offered $475.8 million to take the bookstore retailer private, had a provision that allows the hedge fund to be entitled to a payment of up to $4 million if the retailer struck a deal with a third party before the deadline. Thereafter, the breakup fee will be $17.5 million.
Emerging Hedge Fund Managers Take ’Key Steps to Success’ at Hedgeweek Event in NYC (Hedge Week)
Fund and fee structuring, operational due diligence, cybersecurity, selecting the right service providers and the fund raising process itself, were all hot topics at a Hedgeweek event for emerging hedge fund managers and service providers in New York yesterday (13 June). The one-day event – Key Steps to Success: Managing a Start-up or Emerging Hedge Fund in 2019 – which was held at the University Club and attracted over 120 delegates, featured a panel of industry experts including Wincrest Capital founder Barbara Ann Bernard, Don Steinbrugge, founder and managing parter of Agecroft Partners, and Marianne Scordel of Bougeville Consulting.
Hedge Fund Adviser to Pay $5 Million for Compliance Failures Related to Valuation of Fund Assets (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that a private fund manager in the mortgage-backed securities space has agreed to pay a $5 million penalty to settle charges stemming from compliance deficiencies that contributed to the firm’s failure to ensure that certain securities in its flagship fund were valued properly. The fund manager’s chief investment officer (CIO) agreed to pay a $250,000 penalty. An SEC investigation found that Colorado-based investment adviser Deer Park Road Management Company LP, in connection with its flagship STS Partners’ fund which has been ranked as one of the most consistent performing hedge funds in the country, failed to have policies and procedures to address the risk that its traders were undervaluing securities and selling for a profit when needed.
Adrigo Small & Midcap L/S Named Best New HF in Europe (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Adrigo Small & Midcap L/S has been crowned the “Best New European Hedge Fund” at the inaugural Eurekahedge Global Hedge Fund Awards. This award is handed out to the best European hedge fund launched during the 12 months ending September 2018. Managed by portfolio manager Staffan Östlin (pictured), Adrigo Small & Midcap L/S is a stock-picking hedge fund searching for long and short opportunities among small- and mid-cap Nordic companies. The long/short equity vehicle was launched by Stockholm-based asset manager Adrigo Asset Management in November 2017 and earned a cumulative return of 31.6 percent net of fees since inception. With a year-to-date gain of 14.1 percent, Adrigo Small & Midcap L/S currently ranks among this year’s top ten best-performing hedge funds in the Nordic Hedge Index.
Friday 6/14 Insider Buying Report: KIRK, DSSI (Nasdaq.com)
On Wednesday, Kirkland’s (KIRK)’s Director, Charles Pleas III, made a $239,000 purchase of KIRK, buying 100,000 shares at a cost of $2.39 each. Kirkland’s is trading down about 5.2% on the day Friday. This buy marks the first one filed by Pleas III in the past twelve months. And on Tuesday, CEO Craig H. Stevenson Jr. purchased $236,485 worth of Diamond S Shipping (DSSI), purchasing 20,231 shares at a cost of $11.69 each. Before this latest buy, Stevenson Jr. made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $490,972 shares for a cost of $12.52 a piece. Diamond S Shipping is trading off about 1.6% on the day Friday. Bargain hunters have the opportunity to snag DSSI even cheaper than Stevenson Jr. did, with shares changing hands as low as $11.02 at last check today which is 5.7% under Stevenson Jr.’s purchase price.
Sanofi EVP’s Bioverativ Blabbing Ends in Insider Trading Cases (Fierce Pharma)
For Sanofi, snapping up Biogen spinout Bioverativ for $11.6 billion bolstered its rare disease franchise by adding hemophilia drugs Eloctate and Alprolix. But for a Swiss man, catching an early whiff of the deal has allegedly brought some illegal gains—and now, a civil and a criminal case in the U.S. Roland Mathys, 32, is charged with insider trading before Sanofi’s Bioverativ acquisition, U.S. prosecutors unveiled Thursday. Using nonpublic information from a Sanofi executive vice president, the Swiss businessman allegedly bought 1,607 Bioverativ call options over a week in January 2018 and profited more than $4.7 million after the company’s stock soared at the official acquisition news later that month.
Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange Insider’s Trading Ban Starts June 16 (Zawya)
Abu Dhabi – The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) announced that the insider’s trading prohibition period will start as of Sunday, 16 June 2019 until the full disclosure of financial statements for the second quarter of the year. All listed-firms and departments at the ADX and all brokers accredited by the stock market, as well as investors in the market, will be subject to this resolution, according to a statement. In a separate statement, the ADX highlighted that listed-companies shall provide a reviewed quarterly financial report within a 45-day period from the end of any quarter along with the board’s report or management discussion and analysis.
A Director at Sharps Compliance Corp (NASDAQ: SMED) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, a Director at Sharps Compliance Corp (SMED), Parris Holmes, bought shares of SMED for $132.3K. Following this transaction Parris Holmes’ holding in the company was increased by 4.43% to a total of $3.21 million. Based on Sharps Compliance Corp’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending March 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $9.45 million and GAAP net loss of $1.13 million. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $9.43 million and had a GAAP net loss of $757K. Currently, Sharps Compliance Corp has an average volume of 6,953.
New York U.S. Attorney: Swiss Man Charged in Manhattan Federal Court For Insider Trading Scheme That Generated More Than $4.7M in Profits (Market Screener)
NEW YORK, June 13 — The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey S. Berman, issued the following news release: Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the indictment of ROLAND MATHYS for his participation in a scheme to trade on material, nonpublic information (the “Inside Information”) regarding a tender offer by Sanofi, S.A (“Sanofi”) for Bioverativ, Inc. (“Bioverativ”). After the tender offer was announced, MATHYS’s trading yielded over $4.7 million in illegal profits.
Mario J. Gabelli Purchases 5,000 Shares of Gabelli Global Small Md Cp Vl Trst (NYSE:GGZ) Stock (Tech Know Bits)
Gabelli Global Small Md Cp Vl Trst (NYSE:GGZ) insider Mario J. Gabelli acquired 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The shares were bought at an average price of $11.55 per share, for a total transaction of $57,750.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
