Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Elliott Management, Third Point LLC, Viking Global Investors, Waitr Holdings Inc (WTRH), Cincinnati Bell Inc. (CBB), and More

Elliott-Funded Avocet Mining Goes into Administration (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Gold miner Avocet Mining Plc on Wednesday appointed Paul Williams and Geoffrey Bouchier from Duff & Phelps Ltd as joint administrators, as it started its insolvency process. The appointments, effective Aug. 21, come a few months after the struggling gold miner said its board proposed voluntary liquidation of the company as it faced mounting debt. Last week, the West Africa-focussed miner said it would pursue a formal insolvency process by appointing administrators to the company, but also remained open to exploring “viable funded investment opportunities”. However, no investment proposals were received, said the miner, which has been relying on loans from hedge fund Elliott Management Corp.

Third Point Names Former BH Macro Chair Huw Evans As Non-Executive (Morningstar.co.uk)
(Alliance News) – Hedge fund Third Point Offshore Investors Ltd said on Wednesday that it has appointed Huw Evans as a non-executive director effective immediately. Evans was chair of investment company BH Macro Ltd until June and is also a non-executive director at London-listed firms Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust Ltd and VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd. Third Point said he has also been a non-executive director at a number of companies in Guernsey, where Third the company is based. Shares in Third Point closed 0.3% higher at USD14.75 in London on Wednesday.

A Viking Global Hedge Fund is Growing its Private Investing Team After Pumping $107 million into Software Unicorn Druva Technologies (Business Insider)
Count Druva Technologies as one company that’s benefiting from hedge funds’ push into the private markets. The 10-year-old cloud company reached unicorn status in June after a $130 million funding round led by O. Andreas Halvorsen‘s Viking Global Investors. The firm’s Global Opportunities Fund accounted for $107 million of that round, according to an investor letter sent by Halvorsen on July 16. The $30 billion Viking said it believes that Druva, which has locations in six different countries, is positioned to grow quickly.

Seth Klarman’s 3-Step Approach to Valuation (Guru Focus)
Seth Klarman is widely considered to be one of the best value investors alive today. He has achieved annualized returns of around 20% per annum for investors at his hedge fund Baupost since inception by concentrating on finding undervalued securities, wherever in the world they may be hidden. The value investor approaches evaluation using three different methods. Rather than relying on one single valuation metric or process, such as the discount cash flow analysis, he uses a three-pronged approach. Specifically, when approaching valuation, Klarman calculates a company’s: Net present value. Liquidation value. Sum-of-the-parts stock analysis.

Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index up 0.62% in July, 6.48% YTD (Opalesque.com)
Opalesque Industry Update – The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index was up 0.62% in July, bringing its year-to-date return to 6.48%. Roughly 30.8% of hedge fund managers in the index have recorded double-digit gains over the first seven months of the year. The global hedge fund industry AUM remained mostly flat as of July 2019 year-to-date. Final Q2 2019 net outflows figure stood at US$40.0 billion, as investor redemptions continued to slow down. Hedge fund managers recorded US$46.4 billion and US$94.7 billion of net outflows in Q1 2019 and Q4 2018 respectively. The Eurekahedge North American Hedge Fund Index was up 6.90% year-to-date, as fund managers focusing on the region benefited from the equity market rally throughout the first seven months of the year.

When Going Gets Tough, Hedge Fund Traders Get Better, Study Says (Bloomberg)
Sometimes it takes a crisis to bring out your best. True in politics and marriage, and also, according to a new study, in active fund management. University of Manchester researchers Xinyu Cui and Olga Kolokolova found that during times of outflows, highly paid traders exhibit above-average stock-picking skills. Their paper is called “Do Hedge Fund Managers Work Harder Under Pressure?”

Hedge Funds are Dumping Tech Stocks for Health Care (CNBC)
With the U.S.-China trade war showing no resolution in sight, hedge funds are steering away from battered tech and semiconductor stocks, while bottom-fishing in health care names, according to Goldman Sachs. The fast money continued their rotation from tech to health care, according to Goldman’s latest research looking at 835 hedge funds with $2.1 trillion equity positions. Health care has become the biggest sector exposure for hedge funds at 18% by the end of the second quarter, based on their latest regulatory filings, Goldman said.

NEWSHedge Fund Company Sues Inside Trader’s Wife To Recover $$$ He Earned at Firm (The Jewish Voice)
In 2016, Sanjay Valvani was indicted by federal prosecutor for using private company information to swindle the stock market. Just days after he was indicted, Valvani committed suicide. His success at the Visium Asset Management company made him a health care industry star on Wall Street. Valvani graduated from Duke University and was at the firm to generate a substantial amount of money for his company. He emerged as Wall Street’s leading portfolio managers in the pharmaceutical sector.

SEBI Announces Rs 1 Crore Reward, Hotline Access For Informers Of Insider Trading (Bloomberg)
With an aim to uncover insider trading cases, the Securities and Exchange Board of India on Wednesday announced a new mechanism to reward informants with up to Rs 1 crore cash for any credible inside information through a specially created hotline and also proposed a possible amnesty or settlement for minor wrongdoings in return for cooperation in the probe. At a meeting held here, SEBI’s board approved a detailed set of rules for the new ‘Informant Mechanism’ under its Prohibition of Insider Trading Regulations.

Wednesday 8/21 Insider Buying Report: WTRH, CCO (Nasdaq.com)
At Waitr Holdings (WTRH), a filing with the SEC revealed that on Tuesday, Director Tilman J. Fertitta purchased 1,000,000 shares of WTRH, for a cost of $1.43 each, for a total investment of $1.43M. So far Fertitta is in the green, up about 26.2% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $1.80. Waitr Holdings is trading up about 18.1% on the day Wednesday. This buy marks the first one filed by Fertitta in the past year. And at Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings (CCO), there was insider buying on Friday, by Director Andrew W. Hobson who bought 200,000 shares for a cost of $2.32 each, for a total investment of $463,360. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings is trading flat on the day Wednesday. So far Hobson is in the green, up about 17.6% on their purchase based on today’s trading high of $2.73.

Procter & Gamble Co (PG) CEO – Beauty R. Alexandra Keith Sold $7.6 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO – Beauty of Procter & Gamble Co, R. Alexandra Keith, sold 62,930 shares of PG on 08/20/2019 at an average price of $119.98 a share. The total sale was $7.6 million. Procter & Gamble Co is a consumer goods company. The firm markets its products internationally through various channels which include mass merchandisers, grocery stores, membership club stores, drug stores, and department stores. Procter & Gamble Co has a market cap of $297.72 billion; its shares were traded at around $118.98 with a P/E ratio of 87.48 and P/S ratio of 4.59. The dividend yield of Procter & Gamble Co stocks is 2.46%.

A Director at Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, a Director at Cincinnati Bell (CBB), Martin Yudkovitz, bought shares of CBB for $25K. Following this transaction Martin Yudkovitz’s holding in the company was increased by 15.39% to a total of $201.4K. Based on Cincinnati Bell’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending June 30, the company posted quarterly revenue of $384 million and GAAP net loss of $5.5 million. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $297 million and had a GAAP net loss of $13.8 million.