Crispin Odey Reopens Flagship Fund Months After Soft Closure (Financial News)
High-profile hedge fund manager cites ‘improved opportunity set’ as he opens the floodgates to investors again. Crispin Odey has reopened his flagship European hedge fund after closing it to new investments four months ago to keep a lid on its ballooning assets. Odey European, his firm’s main hedge fund, is accepting new investors again, according to a client communication seen by Financial News, while the OEI Mac and Odey Swan funds, which the multimillionaire Conservative Party donor co-manages, are also allowing new subscriptions.
Schonfeld Appoints Regional Leaders to Equities Unit (Reuters)
U.S.-based hedge fund Schonfeld Strategic Advisors has appointed strategy heads of fundamental equity for the U.S. and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), according to a statement on Wednesday. Portfolio manager John Tompkins, who has been with Schonfeld for 10 years, will be the head of U.S. fundamental equity. In EMEA, portfolio managers Russell Hartley and Alex Codrington will become co-heads.
Icahn Launches Illumina Proxy Battle (Hedge Week)
Activist investor Carl Icahn is preparing to launch a proxy fight at Illumina, seeking three board seats, prompted by the biotech company’s $8 billion acquisition of cancer screening start-up Grail, which Icahn says is now costing the company $800 million per year, according to reports. Icahn has nominated Vincent Intrieri, Jesse Lynn, and Andrew Teno to Illumina’s board and claims that three shareholder representatives are needed to put an end to what he calls “reckless decision-making.”
Ray Dalio Warns SVB’s Collapse Shows Cracks Widening in Global Finance (BNN Bloomberg)
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio warned Silicon Valley Bank’s failure shows cracks widening in global finance, joining other U.S. billionaires raising the alarm on fallout from the lender’s collapse. “This bank failure is a ‘canary in the coal mine,’” Dalio said in a newsletter Tuesday. It’s an “early-sign dynamic that will have knock-on effects in the venture world and well beyond it.”
Billionaire Citadel Founder Says Biden Should not Bail Out SVB Depositors and Claims it would be a ‘Great Lesson in Moral Hazard’ – as His Fund Scoops Up 5% of Western Alliance, One of the Regional Banks Rocked in the Crisis (Dailymail.co.uk)
Billionaire Citadel hedge fund founder Ken Griffin has argued that the Biden administration should not have guaranteed the deposits of customers at failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature bank. ‘There’s been a loss of financial discipline with the government bailing out depositors in full,’ Griffin told the Financial Times in an interview on Monday, before Citadel on Tuesday said it bought a 5.3% stake in Western Alliance Bancorporation.
