Legendary Investor Carl Icahn Slams McDonald’s For ‘Glaring Cruelty’ In Pig Supply Chain As Proxy Fight Intensifies (Forbes)
TOPLINE Ahead of McDonald’s annual shareholder meeting this year, billionaire investor Carl Icahn has doubled down on his effort to overhaul the fast-food chain’s animal welfare practices, sending a letter to investors slamming the company’s failure to meet a supply chain pledge from ten years ago and urging shareholders to vote in favor of his two activist board nominees.
Melvin Capital Management to Restructure as Losses Mount (The Wall Street Journal)
Buffeted by continuing losses, Gabe Plotkin’s Melvin Capital Management plans to shrink and take the unusual step of starting to charge incentive fees again even though clients remain significantly underwater on their investments. Melvin, which was burned badly in the meme-stock rally last year, plans to shrink to $5 billion from the $8.7 billion it managed at the end of March, according to a letter the hedge fund sent to clients Thursday that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The fund is also making a raft of other changes in the terms of its agreements with investors, Melvin told clients.
Ken Griffin Goes ‘All In’ to Make Mayor of Key Trading Hub the Governor of Illinois (Bloomberg Quint)
(Bloomberg) — You’d never guess that wealth and power in America converge here, at the intersection of Diehl and Eola roads, off Interstate 88, west of Chicago. But not everything is as it seems in Aurora, Illinois. This unassuming city — the setting of “Wayne’s World,” the Mike Myers and Dana Carvey comedy about two dweeby metalheads with a public-access TV show — has suddenly become a big-money political battleground. On one side is hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin, a rising power in Republican money circles. On the other is Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat and billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune.
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Lipper Awards for Nordic Hedge Funds (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Refinitiv Lipper has unveiled the winners of the 2022 Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards for the Nordic countries, with two members of the Nordic Hedge Index featuring among the winners. Nordea’s Alpha 10 MA Fund picks up two prizes and Rhenman Healthcare Equity L/S takes the top spot in the “Alternative Long/Short Equity Global” category. There were 3,717 funds eligible for a Refinitiv Lipper Fund Award in the Nordics, with the universe for the Nordic fund awards being composed of funds with a sales registration in at least one country out of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
David Einhorn Warns the Russia-Ukraine Conflict May Tip the US Economy into Recession — and Dismisses Fears of a Housing-Market Crash (Business Insider)
David Einhorn warned the Russia-Ukraine conflict could tip the US economy into a recession, and accused the Federal Reserve of moving too slowly to curb inflation, in his first-quarter letter to Greenlight Capital‘s investors, which was published by ValueWalk this week. The elite investor’s hedge fund returned 4.4% last quarter, bucking the S&P 500’s 4.6% decline. Einhorn explained why the US government may be exacerbating the energy crisis, and dismissed fears of an impending housing crash.
Bill Ackman Sells Netflix Stake After Post-Earnings Plunge (CNBC)
Pershing Square dumped its stake in Netflix Wednesday following the streaming service company’s disappointing quarterly report, founder and CEO Bill Ackman said in a letter to shareholders.
T. Rowe Price Says it Plans to Back Kohl’s Nominees in Proxy Fight with Macellum (Reuters)
BOSTON, April 20 (Reuters) – T. Rowe Price Associates, one of the biggest investors in Kohl’s Corp (KSS.N), said it plans to back all of the department store’s directors, dealing a setback to activist hedge fund Macellum Advisors as it tries to take control of the board.
Oaktree-Backed 17Capital Racks Up $2.9bn for Inaugural Credit Fund (Opalesque)
The London-based investment firm 17Capital, backed by Oaktree Capital, has made a final close of its inaugural lending fund at its hard cap of €2.6bn ($2.9 billion) and exceeding its initial €1.5bn target. The financier to buyout groups said that the 17Capital Credit Fund is the largest debut private credit fund raised globally since 2009 and is one of the largest debut funds ever raised. It will lend money to private equity funds that want to juice returns by using more leverage to strike deals.
Thursday 4/21 Insider Buying Report: CLNN, INZY (Nasdaq.com)
On Wednesday, Clene’s , David J. Matlin, made a $400,002 buy of CLNN, purchasing 132,891 shares at a cost of $3.01 a piece. Matlin was up about 5.0% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with CLNN trading as high as $3.16 at last check today. Clene is trading up about 0.7% on the day Thursday. Before this latest buy, Matlin bought CLNN on 6 other occasions during the past year, for a total investment of $2.93M at an average of $6.08 per share. And at Inozyme Pharma, there was insider buying on Tuesday, by SVP, COO Henric Bjorn Bjarke who purchased 27,100 shares at a cost of $3.69 each, for a total investment of $99,999. Inozyme Pharma is trading up about 18.4% on the day Thursday. So far Bjarke is in the green, up about 47.4% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $5.44.
Insiders Sell Around $140M Of 4 Stocks (Benzinga)
Hillman Solutions: The Trade: Hillman Solutions Corp. (HLMN) 10% owner CCMP Capital Associates Iii Gp Llc sold a total of 12,347,733 shares at an average price of $10.00. The insider received around $123.48 million from selling those shares. Target: The Trade: Target Corporation (TGT) Executive Officer Don Liu sold a total of 8,500 shares at an average price of $240.00. The insider received around $2.04 million from selling those shares.
