Pine Labs Raises $75-100 Million in Fresh Funding at $2 Billion Valuation (Economic Times)
Pine Labs has raised $75-$100 million led by US-based billionaire Stephen Mandel‘s hedge fund Lone Pine Capital, valuing the Noida-based merchant-commerce startup at more than $2 billion. This makes Pine Labs the third-most valued fintech company in India behind Paytm and PhonePe.
Billionaire Ray Dalio’s Son Killed in Car Accident: ‘My Family and I are Mourning’ (Financial News)
Billionaire hedge fund investor Ray Dalio has tweeted about the death of his 42-year-old son, Devon Dalio, killed in a car accident earlier this week. Devon Dalio was driving when his car crashed into a Verizon store in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Thursday, according to the Connecticut Post newspaper. Dalio tweeted: “It is with great pain that…
Apollo Raises Offer for Great Canadian Gaming, Winning Over Key Shareholders (MSN Money)
New York-based hedge fund Apollo Global Management has won over key investors in its bid to take Great Canadian Gaming Corp. private, after raising its offer to $45 per share. The new price represents a 15.4 per cent increase over its previous offer of $39 per share, enough to win support from major shareholders like Toronto-based hedge fund BloombergSen, which had threatened to oppose the deal.
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Inside the Rise and Fall of Coatue’s Much-Hyped but Short-Lived $350 million Quant Fund (Business Insider)
Last spring, Coatue Management, a $25 billion hedge-fund giant, did something unusual: It made an appearance. The secretive, tech-focused investment manager has had a stellar track record under billionaire Philippe Laffont. But the “tiger cub” usually demurred when it came to discussing business publicly. In May 2019, though, two Coatue execs – cofounder Thomas Laffont, Philippe’s brother and the leader of the firm’s private-investment strategies, and Alex Izydorczyk, its 26-year-old head of data science – spoke for nearly 45 minutes at Domino Data Lab’s Rev conference.
Camille Fournier on Building Tech at Two Sigma (Bloomberg)
Hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway take you on a not-so-random walk through hot topics in markets, finance, and economics. We talk a lot about quantitative trading on the podcast, but typically from a rather big picture perspective, and not at the level of actually building the systems needed for trading and data analysis. On this episode, we speak with Camille Fournier, the head of Platform Engineering at Two Sigma, the financial services firm that, among other things, runs a large hedge fund. Fournier, previously the CTO at Rent the Runway, discusses how her job works, the challenge of managing software engineers, and how tech within a financial services company is different than tech within a consumer-facing startup.
The SEB Quant Team Leaves (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – The SEB Global Quant team led by Hans-Olov Bornemann is leaving SEB Investment Management on December 31, which served as a triggering mechanism for a wave of changes at the range of funds run by the team. One fund will be managed by a new team, another one will be closed down in January next year and two other funds will likely be put into liquidation after a shareholder vote in January. SEB Asset Selection Fund, a purely quant-driven trend-follower investing across four different asset classes, will be managed by SEB’s Quantitative Investments & Liquid Alternatives with Otto Francke and Mikael Nilsson in charge as portfolio managers.
Heptagon Capital UCITS Platform Marks 10-Year Anniversary (Institutional Asset Manager)
London-based Heptagon Capital (Heptagon), a USD11.5 billion asset management firm, has marked the tenth anniversary of it UCITS platform. Heptagon’s first UCITS Fund; the Yacktman US Equity Fund, with sub-investment manager Yacktman Asset Management based in Austin Texas, launched on 14 December 2010. Over the past decade, Heptagon has partnered with truly exceptional best in class boutique managers who focus on risk-adjusted returns rather than a benchmark, and made them accessible for the first time to UCITS fund investors around the world.
Christmas Lunch Hedge Fund Is Bad for Your Wealth (Bloomberg)
Contrarian trades are where the big money is. Investors who hold their nerve and are greedy when everyone else is fearful, and vice versa, can make huge bucks. The nature of the market, and its tendency to overshoot, more or less guarantees this. But while the market is unquestionably inclined to go to unjustified extremes and overshoot, the problem for a contrarian strategy is that most of the time the market by and large gets it right. This means that a strategy of mechanically betting against the market’s most extreme positions tends not to work – even though it occasionally works spectacularly.
Opalesque Roundup: Hedge Fund Managers Record Strongest Return Since 2009, Up 4.50% in November: Hedge Fund News, Week 51 (Opalesque.com)
In the week ending December 18th 2020, a report from Eurekahedge revealed that hedge fund managers recorded their strongest return since 2009 and were up 4.50% in November, supported by the strong performance of the global equity market as represented by the MSCI ACWI (Local) which generated an 11.63% return throughout the month. Assets under management for the global hedge funds industry have rebounded increasing by US$128.0 billion over the past eight months since March 2020, said Eurekahedge. This has come from performance-driven gains of US$139.8 billion and net investor outflows of US$11.8 billion. This marks a sharp recovery following a US$264.1 billion asset decline in Q1 2020.
Zoom Video Communications Inc (ZM) CEO Eric S. Yuan Sold $56.4 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO of Zoom Video Communications Inc, Eric S. Yuan, sold 140,284 shares of ZM on 12/17/2020 at an average price of $402.34 a share. The total sale was $56.4 million. Zoom Video Communications Inc has a market cap of $116.12 billion; its shares were traded at around $406.010000 with a P/E ratio of 283.91 and P/S ratio of 61.68. GuruFocus has detected 1 severe warning sign with Zoom Video Communications Inc.
The Executive Vice-President & Divisional Head of Repare Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RPTX) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the Executive Vice-President & Divisional Head of Repare Therapeutics (RPTX), Kim Seth, sold shares of RPTX for $1.2M. In addition to Kim Seth, 2 other RPTX executives reported Sell trades in the last month. The company has a one-year high of $40.00 and a one-year low of $21.45. Currently, Repare Therapeutics has an average volume of 566.75K. RPTX’s market cap is $1.23 billion and the company has a P/E ratio of -8.00.
Medpace Holdings Inc (MEDP) President & CEO August J. Troendle Sold $30.6 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
President & CEO of Medpace Holdings Inc, August J. Troendle, sold 216,048 shares of MEDP on 12/18/2020 at an average price of $141.85 a share. The total sale was $30.6 million. Medpace Holdings Inc is a clinical contract research organisation. It is engaged in providing scientifically-driven clinical research-based drug and medical device development services to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries.
Insider Weekends: Victoria Livschitz Purchases $1.5 Million Worth Of Grid Dynamics (Seeking Alpha)
Insider buying increased significantly last week. Notable Insider Buys: Grid Dynamics Holdings, Inc., Southern National Bancorp of Virginia, Inc., CuriosityStream Inc., StoneX Group Inc., Progenity, Inc. Notable Insider Sells: Walmart Inc., Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc., Facebook, Inc., Paylocity Holding Corporation, Napco Security Technologies, Inc.
Insider Trading: December 21, 2020 (BIV.com)
Insider Bruce Linton, 10% owner. Company: Vireo Health International Inc. (CNSX:VREO). Shares owned: 541,515. Trade date: Dec 11, 14. Trade total: $314,703. Trade: Sale of 208,100 shares at prices from $1.48 to $1.53 per share. Insider Jerry Kroll, Director. Company: ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Corp. (Nasdaq:SOLO). Shares owned: 3,604,797. Trade date: Dec 11. Trade total: US$307,957. Trade: Sale of 46,802 shares at a price of US$6.58 per share.
Notable Insider Buys of the Past Week: Mylan, Sonabank, Steak ‘n Shake, U-Haul And More (Benzinga)
Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases that were reported in the past week, as the year winds down and investors ponder the new year. A 10% owner purchased a big block of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (LXRX) shares at $3.20 apiece. The total for the more than 10.93 million shares that the owner acquired added up to about $35 million. The shares ended the week’s trading at $33.38. Southern National Banc. of Virginia, Inc (SONA) CEO Dennis Zember acquired 100,000 shares of this bank holding company, while other insiders bought more than 10,500 shares as well. Prices ranged from $11.57 to $12.47 per share, and altogether these transactions added up to more than $12.77 million.
