Aurelius Renews Feud Over Sycamore’s $1 Billion Nine West Payday (Bloomberg)
Disgruntled investors, including hedge fund Aurelius Capital Management, have ignited a fresh legal battle over Nine West Holdings Inc. — a year after the retailer exited bankruptcy with different owners, a new name and less debt. The lawsuit is the creditors’ second case involving the footwear chain after their investments suffered losses of more than 80%. They sued Sycamore Partners last year, a case that was settled after Sycamore paid them $120 million to drop claims that its 2014 buyout rendered Nine West insolvent while enriching shareholders by over $1 billion.
Jim Simons Backing Coronavirus Vaccine In Between Bouts Of Smoker’s Cough (Deal Breaker)
You’d think that if Jim Simons was going to put his family’s money up to end a deadly disease, it would be lung cancer. But no: Jim Simons already knows how to stop adenocarcinoma, and it’s by quitting smoking, something that he has not done at the age of 81. So instead, the Simons billions are going toward ensuring that if we do, contrary to Larry Kudlow’s assurances, face a coronavirus pandemic, it will be for the first and only time. Simons, through his family office, started investing in the company, called Codagenix, at least four years ago and now owns a little more than a 25% stake. “It still takes a while to get a vaccination program underway,” Simons, 81, said Tuesday on the sidelines of the MoMath Masters Tournament in New York.
Steyer Courts Voters that Biden Needs for Decisive SC Win (Business Insider)
GEORGETOWN, S.C. (AP) – Joe Biden’s political future depends on convincing South Carolina’s black voters to rally behind his flagging campaign. But Tom Steyer has spent millions trying to win those same voters and visited a historic black church in this coastal town on Wednesday to make a final pitch that they should consider him instead. “South Carolina gets to reset this election,” the billionaire activist said. Half a mile away, Biden was receiving a warm welcome from about 200 voters. State Rep. Carl Anderson, who is black, sought to dismiss the threat from Biden’s wealthier rivals.
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Ackman Still Likes Chipotle, Says Sold Shares to Manage Portfolio (Reuters)
NEW YORK, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Billionaire investor William Ackman, whose hedge fund earned double-digit returns last year with the help of strong gains in Chipotle Mexican Grill shares, said on Thursday he remained a “delighted long-term shareholder” even after selling some stock. “What started out as a large position recently became a massive one, in excess of 20% of capital,” Ackman told Reuters, adding “We sold stock earlier this week only for portfolio management reasons.” Ackman spoke one day after his Pershing Square Capital Management said in a regulatory filing the firm had cut its stake in the fast food restaurant chain to 4.2% from 5.4%. Pershing Square oversees $7 billion in assets.
The Billion-Dollar Fund Managers that Beat Ray Dalio in 2019 (CMCMarkets.com)
Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates – the world’s largest hedge fund with more than $160bn in assets under management – struggled to beat market returns in 2019 on a number of funds while the industry recorded its best annual performance in a decade, according to the Financial Times. Although Bridgewater Associates’ All Weather strategy gained 17%, according to Institutional Investor,its flagship, the Pure Alpha fund, barely gained last year. As of 23 August had it reportedly lost 6%, data from Bloomberg indicated. In 2018 the fund posted gains of 14.6%. The publication also highlighted that in 2019 the Pure Alpha II suffered its first annual loss since 2000.
Value Investor Bill Miller Talks About Amazon And Bitcoin At Forbes/SHOOK Top Advisor Summit (Forbes)
Legendary former portfolio manager of Legg Mason Value Trust, Bill Miller was in Las Vegas yesterday at the Forbes/SHOOK Top Advisor Summit at the Wynn talking about his favorite holdings including Amazon and Bitcoin. Miller, who famously beat the S&P 500 every year from 1991 to 2005 is now the chairman of Miller Value Partners, which has some $3 billion under management, and is run similarly to a family office, but does accept outside investors in its two mutual funds and a hedge fund.
Braced for Turbulence (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – The sell-off in stocks across the globe has taken a pause after several days of heavy losses caused by investor concerns around the possible economic damage from the spread of the coronavirus. “The markets will be controlled by the news about the virus in the coming weeks,” Fredrik Tauson, Portfolio Manager and Founding Partner at Stockholm-based Nordic Cross Asset Management, tells Swedish newspaper Realtid. Tauson, a member of the Nordic Cross team mainly focusing on credit markets, tells Realtid that “based on what we know today, the coronavirus will impact operating and financial results for the first quarter and a bit into the second quarter.” He also reckons that “several companies will probably take the opportunity to blame weak figures on the virus effects.” Whereas markets are expected to be dominated by virus headlines and news, Tauson expects “a quick rebound in the world’s stock markets if we see a slowing rate of growth in the number of infections.”
Hedge Funds Off to a Weak 2020 Start as COVID-19 Outbreak Weighs on Global Growth Outlook (Hedge Week)
Hedge fund managers returned 0.07 per cent in January 2020, recording their weakest January since 2016, according to data released by Eurekahedge. The escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak which originated in China exerted pressure on the market risk sentiment throughout the latter half of the month, pushing the global equity market into negative territory. Returns were mixed across geographic mandates, with Asian fund managers bearing the brunt of the equity market sell-off, losing 0.56 per cent in January. Approximately 57.7 per cent of the hedge fund managers tracked by Eurekahedge have generated positive returns in January.
Thursday 2/27 Insider Buying Report: SIX, NREF (Nasdaq.com)
At Six Flags Entertainment, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Monday, President, CEO Mike Spanos bought 16,075 shares of SIX, at a cost of $31.27 each, for a total investment of $502,638. Investors have the opportunity to buy SIX at a price even lower than Spanos did, with the stock trading as low as $24.91 in trading on Thursday — that’s 20.3% below Spanos’s purchase price. Six Flags Entertainment is trading off about 0.1% on the day Thursday. Before this latest buy, Spanos made one other purchase in the past year, buying $500,742 shares for a cost of $45.73 each. And on Tuesday, See Remarks Matthew Goetz purchased $381,092 worth of NexPoint Real Estate Finance, purchasing 20,073 shares at a cost of $18.99 a piece. NexPoint Real Estate Finance is trading down about 0.7% on the day Thursday.
Southern National Bancorp Of Virginia Inc (SONA) President & CEO Dennis J Jr Zember Bought $227,100 of Shares (Guru Focus)
President & CEO of Southern National Bancorp Of Virginia Inc., Dennis J Jr Zember, bought 15,000 shares of SONA on 02/26/2020 at an average price of $15.14 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $227,100. Southern National Bancorp of Virginia Inc is the bank holding company for Sonabank. It offers savings accounts, money market accounts, commercial real estate loans, construction to permanent loans, development and builder loans, among others.
The CEO of Cinemark Holdings (NYSE: CNK) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the CEO of Cinemark Holdings (CNK), Mark Zoradi, bought shares of CNK for $541.9K. Following this transaction Mark Zoradi’s holding in the company was increased by 3.59% to a total of $14.97 million. In addition to Mark Zoradi, one other CNK executive reported Buy trades in the last month.
