Boaz Weinstein Thrives in Market Chaos With a 25.5% Gain in 2020 (Bloomberg)
Boaz Weinstein’s main hedge fund gained 25.5% in the year’s first two months as he bet against companies exposed to the coronavirus and benefited from some of the most violent market swings in almost a decade. Weinstein’s $2.2 billion Saba Capital Management reaped gains trading credit default swaps, a sort of insurance against companies defaulting on their borrowings, according to an investor in the 11-year-old firm. He also profited from derivatives bets on companies in the retail and energy sectors.
Steven A. Cohen Raising New Fund to Invest in Private Companies (The Wall Street Journal)
Hedge-fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen has started efforts to raise his first private-markets fund, a venture that will test whether his decades of experience investing in public companies will translate to private markets. The fund – Mr. Cohen’s first client offering that isn’t a hedge fund – has been pitched to investors as a hybrid venture and private-equity fund called Point72 Hyperscale, according to people familiar with the matter. The fund would back early-stage technology companies focused on artificial intelligence.
Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management is at the Center of a Quarter-Trillion-Dollar Web Linking Billionaires, the Pharma Bro, and a ‘Big Short’ Main Character (Business Insider)
Nearly two decades after Julian Robertson closed Tiger Management to outside investors, his fund still constantly pops up in headlines and conversations within the hedge fund industry he helped pioneer. The billionaire North Carolina native’s sprawling network of spin-offs and seeded start-ups is almost overwhelming, and has spawned fellow billionaires like Chase Coleman, O. Andreas Halvorsen, Philippe Laffont, and several others. Names like “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, “The Big Short” main character Steve Eisman, and Ken Griffin‘s ex-wife Anne Dias-Griffin are among the hundreds of names that have been seeded, spun-off, or came from a fund that’s connected to Robertson.
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Like Many Hedge Fund Investors, Dyal Capital Partners Isn’t Getting What It Thought It Paid For (Deal Breaker)
As we have noted, ad nauseum some might say, running a hedge fund doesn’t seem to be as much fun as it used to be, which is probably why so many of its most famous practitioners have chosen to, uh, not do it anymore. This is not usually a problem for anybody, really: The hedge fund manager gets to do something that will hopefully make him happier and his clients, whether they know it or not, are freed from paying too much for far, far too little. There is an exception. A small one, to be sure, but a potentially legally-important one: Investors not in the hedge funds themselves, but in the hedge fund firm that manages them. Or doesn’t as much anymore, as Dyal Capital Partners complains about Jana Capital Partners, of which it owns 20%.
Morning Coffee: Jamie Dimon Nearly Died Last Night. Hedge Fund Manager Pays for Staff Taxis to Avoid Virus (eFinancialCareers.com)
Something very bad seems to have happened to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon overnight. The Financial Times reports that Dimon had emergency heart surgery after an ‘acute aortic dissection’ on Thursday morning and that an aortic dissection is ‘one of the most lethal cardiovascular conditions’ that can occur. Fortunately, Dimon is ok. In a memo sent last night, JPMorgan said the condition was ‘caught early and the surgery was successful’ and that Dimon was already, ‘awake, alert and recovering well.’
Billionaires in Education: And in the Center Ring, the Dalios! (NonProfitQuarterly.org)
NPQ has written a panoply of articles over the years looking at the warping effect of billionaire high rollers on our public school systems. In a way, this is just another “dog bites man” story; we know the terrain. This latest incident comes from Connecticut, where hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio and his wife Barbara have invested $100 million in the Partnership for Connecticut, an effort to improve the performance of the state’s lowest-ranked schools. That $100 million, however, has been matched once by state funds and is due to be matched again by other private sector money yet to be raised, even as the Dalios are apparently taking key decisions on themselves – specifically, decisions about how to talk about the program, a job which appears to have been contracted out to a highly politically connected firm, Global Strategies Group.
Black Swan Fund That Won Big in 2008 Has Best Month Since Crisis (Bloomberg)
As coronavirus fears spark the fastest moves in stocks and bonds in decades, a black swan fund just notched its best month since the global financial crisis. 36 South Capital Advisors LLP skyrocketed to fame after posting huge returns in 2008. Now it’s gained big from the February mayhem, after spending years patiently waiting for the next cataclysm.
Spotting Idiosyncratic Opportunities in Global High Yield (Hedge Week)
With notable dispersion in high yield in 2019, CQS and BlueBay Asset Management see further upside as energy and automotive sectors respond to technology disruption… High yield credit will likely present further idiosyncratic opportunities in 2020 thanks to elevated dispersion in US high yield, in particular. Relative to investment grade, CQS’s Sir Michael Hintze is of the view that “there is room for significant outperformance”.
Six Principles for Successful Alternative Credit Investments in Emerging Markets (Preqin.com)
Providing growth capital to corporates active in sustainable commodity value chains is a niche strategy that is increasingly drawing interest from institutional investors. This is primarily thanks to attractive, uncorrelated returns, rather than solely because investors are concerned with ESG/impact investing. As rapid growth in emerging market economies drives higher demand for commodities, businesses operating non-speculatively in sectors spanning agriculture, food, renewable energy, and recycled metals offer promising investment opportunities. For many of these corporates, ESG and impact investing are becoming just as critical as financial performance, enabling businesses to maximize efficiencies while ensuring their long-term viability.
Alliancebernstein Holding Lp (AB) COO James A Gingrich Sold $2.4 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
COO of Alliancebernstein Holding Lp., James A Gingrich, sold 75,000 shares of AB on 03/04/2020 at an average price of $32.28 a share. The total sale was $2.4 million. AllianceBernstein Holding LP is engaged in the financial service sector. Its activities include investment management services and its sell-side business. AllianceBernstein Holding LP has a market cap of $3.06 billion; its shares were traded at around $31.15 with a P/E ratio of 12.51 and P/S ratio of 11.22. The dividend yield of AllianceBernstein Holding LP stocks is 8.12%.
What Did This CEO Just Do with Personal Shares of Ameresco (NYSE: AMRC)? (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the President & CEO of Ameresco (AMRC), George Sakellaris, sold shares of AMRC for $17M. Following George Sakellaris’ last AMRC Sell transaction on September 23, 2019, the stock climbed by 6.6%. Based on Ameresco’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending December 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $307 million and quarterly net profit of $22.2 million.
A Director at Washington Prime Group (NYSE: WPG) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, a Director at Washington Prime Group (WPG), Robert Laikin, bought shares of WPG for $129K. This recent transaction increases Robert Laikin’s holding in the company by 25.75% to a total of $610.5K. In addition to Robert Laikin, 2 other WPG executives reported Buy trades in the last month.
