Bodenholm with new Absolute Return UCITS Fund (HedgeNordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – At the beginning of March, Bodenholm Capital, a member of the Brummer & Partners family of managers, launched a UCITS fund which currently has 130 MEUR in AUM. The new fund, Bodenholm Absolute Return, has daily liquidity and is domiciled in Luxembourg. The UCITS-fund follows Bodenholm’s established low net long/short equity strategy, which is a European focused strategy that invests a majority of the assets in the Nordic region, spin-offs, and in conglomerates that are in de-conglomeration phase. On the short side Bodenholm, with its dedicated shorting team, focuses on the discovery of companies that make use of aggressive accounting practices.
Here Are the Manager Finalists for the 2019 Hedge Fund Awards (InstitutionalInvestor)
Bridgewater, Tiger Global, and Two Sigma are among the firms nominated. Winners will be revealed June 27. Last year was brutal for hedge funds. The industry posted its worst aggregate performance since the 2008 financial crisis, and nearly two-thirds of all hedge funds lost money in 2018. But a few funds finished the year with gains — an impressive feat given the market backdrop. Several of these elite managers will be honored this year at Institutional Investor’s 17th annual Hedge Fund Industry Awards, which will celebrate firms that prevailed in the face of a variety of market challenges and volatility.
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A $10 billion British Hedge Fund Returned $300 million to Saudi Arabia After the Khashoggi Murder (Business Insider)
UK hedge fund Pharo Management told its investors that it returned $300 million of Saudi Arabian money following the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Pharo, which controls about $9.7 billion, managed the money on behalf of the kingdom’s central bank, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA). The move is a major call during a tricky period in which funds are struggling for capital. The fund’s founder, Guillaume Fonkenell, says the decision was based on principles, following Khashoggi’s murder last October which has been linked to the Saudi state, according to Bloomberg.
Pro Bankruptcy Briefing: Aurelius Targets Neiman Marcus; PG&E Loan Concerns; GE Settles Petters Allegations (The Wall Street Journal)
Good day. Distressed-debt hedge fund Aurelius Capital Management has set its sights on Neiman Marcus. The retailer’s recent negotiations with debtholders has given Aurelius the opening to make demands. Meanwhile, PG&E Corp.’s proposed $5.5 billion bankruptcy loan has raised concerns among wildfire victims, leading lenders to offer concessions that would give the company more time to refinance the loan in the event of a default. And General Electric Co.’s finance unit reached a deal with a bankruptcy trustee to settle allegations.
Hedge Fund Owner Bill Ackman Riding High Again on Profit Margin (The Jewish Voice)
When times are tough, stay optimistic. In particular, Ackman’s hedge fund grew more interested in Chipotle, in which it nows has a 60 percent stake, and it already helped double his returns that he gets from the S&P 500, the New York Post reports, which greatly outpaces the rest of the market. The fund is off to a good start thanks to the energy it pumped into investments instead of spending so much time on fundraising. “This has freed up substantial time and renewed focus, which have enabled me and the other members of the investment team to invest nearly all of our business time and attention on the identification, monitoring and oversight of our portfolio companies,” Ackman wrote.
Activists Seek Ouster of Bed Bath & Beyond Board, CEO (AI-CIO.com)
Three activist hedge funds are looking to shake up Bed Bath & Beyond’s entire board of directors in a proxy challenge. Ancora Advisors, Legion Partners Asset Management, and Macellum Advisors, with a combined 5% stake in the housewares retailer, seek to enlist other disgruntled shareholders to remove all 12 of Bed Bath & Beyond’s directors and its chief executive officer, Steven Temares. The company’s stock rose more than 20% the day they announced their challenge. Prior to the news, shares were down 35% over the past year.
Hedge Fund Manager Says Stock Price Gap Is Chance of Decade (Bloomberg)
The stock market’s near-historic gulf between the priciest and cheapest stocks creates the opportunity of a decade for investors, according to a portfolio manager at the Julius Baer Group Ltd.-controlled Kairos Investment Management Ltd. Even as this year’s rally added $9 trillion to the value of global equities, outflows have continued, preventing pockets of the market from erasing December’s sell-off and expanding a gap in valuations between some stocks.
Fund Manager Wars: Regal Lines Up Perpetual (AFR.com)
The country’s most talked-about hedge fund, Regal Funds Management, is understood to have made a big bet against crosstown rival Perpetual. Street Talk understands Regal is the fund that built a large short position in Perpetual, taking advantage of a share price spike that was brought about by buying from a global ETF fund. The short position is believed to be worth at least 2 million shares, or $80 million, which would represent almost 5 per cent of Perpetual’s shares on issue.
Trial Begins for Alleged Insider Trading of Vistaprint Stock (ASICentral.com)
A Boston-area restaurant owner obtained private financial data about Vistaprint from a former employee and her husband, and then used the illegal insider information to make trades in the firm’s stock that netted him over $850,000, a federal jury heard Tuesday during opening statements in the restaurant owner’s trial.
Ex-SeaWorld Lawyer Pleads Guilty After He Made $65,000 on Insider Trading (Orlando Sentinel)
An ex-SeaWorld corporate attorney pleaded guilty to securities fraud after he was accused of insider trading that made him $65,000 as the company’s stock soared last year, according to court documents filed Monday. Paul Powers took notes during company meetings and read confidential documents in summer 2018, so he knew the Orlando-based company would exceed Wall Street expectations with its quarterly earnings, according to the charges from the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal division filed in Orlando federal court.
Wednesday 3/27 Insider Buying Report: DNR, GRBK (Nasdaq.com)
As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy – they expect to make money. So let’s look at two noteworthy recent insider buys. On Tuesday, Denbury Resources (DNR)’s CEO, Christian S. Kendall, made a $299,460 purchase of DNR, buying 150,000 shares at a cost of $2.00 each. Denbury Resources is trading down about 0.5% on the day Wednesday. And on Friday, Director John R. Farris bought $174,000 worth of Green Brick Partners (GRBK), buying 20,000 shares at a cost of $8.70 a piece. Green Brick Partners is trading up about 0.5% on the day Wednesday. Farris was up about 5.2% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with GRBK trading as high as $9.15 in trading on Wednesday.
Swedish Police Raid Swedbank Offices in Insider Trading Probe (MENAFN.com)
(MENAFN – AFP) Sweden’s economic crime police on Wednesday raided the headquarters of bank Swedbank as part of a preliminary investigation into insider trading linked to a larger money laundering scandal, authorities said. The raid took place early Wednesday at the bank’s offices in Sundbyberg, a suburb outside Stockholm, and continued for several hours, according to an AFPTV journalist at the scene. A Swedish TV documentary that aired in February claimed to have seen documents showing that at least 40 billion kronor (3.8 billion euros, $4.3 billion) of suspicious transactions had been channelled to Baltic countries from Swedbank accounts between 2007 and 2015.
The EVP, Station Operations of Nexstar Media Group Inc (NASDAQ: NXST) is Selling Shares (AnalystRatings)
Today, the EVP, Station Operations of Nexstar Media Group Inc (NXST), Blake Russell, sold shares of NXST for $321.8K. Following Blake Russell’s last NXST Sell transaction on September 26, 2018, the stock climbed by 27.3%. In addition to Blake Russell, 7 other NXST executives reported Sell trades in the last month
