Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Jaime Sterne, Kyle Bass, Alden Global, Standard General LP, Vector Group Ltd (VGR), TransDigm Group Incorporated (TDG), Carnival Corp (CCL), and More

Jamie Sterne’s Skye Global Finished 2020 With a Bang (Institutional Investor)
The one-time Institutional Investor Hedge Fund Rising Star plans to close his fund to additional capital in the coming months. Skye Global Management further cemented its distinction as one of the most successful hedge fund launches in recent years.The long-short fund headed by one-time Institutional Investor Hedge Fund Rising Star Jamie Sterne posted another huge gain last year, finishing up 68.6 percent, according to two investors – continuing a streak…

Kyle Bass Barred From Making Stuff Up About Lawyers For REIT He Accuses Of Making Stuff Up (Deal Breaker)
Whether or not Hayman Capital Management’s Kyle Bass can say what he likes about real-estate investment trust manager United Development Funding – and those things include that it is a worthless Ponzi scheme engaged in all sorts of self-dealing, among others—remains an open question. What has been rather definitely settled, by a rather pissed-off judge, is that Kyle Bass and his representatives cannot say what they like about UDF’s lawyers, at least without being rather roundly sanctioned.

Hedge Fund Alden Global’s SPAC Oyster Enterprises Acquisition Prices $200 million IPO (Nasdaqa.com)
Oyster Enterprises Acquisition, a blank check company led by executives from hedge fund Alden Global targeting media, tech, and other industries, raised $200 million by offering 20 million units at $10. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one-half of one warrant, exercisable at $11.50.

Insider Trading Wall Street Trader Panic

Luis Louro / shutterstock.com

American Apparel Founder’s Fraud Claim Tossed in Hedge Fund Suit (Bloomberg Law)
A securities fraud claim brought by the former CEO of American Apparel Inc. is precluded by a Delaware court order requiring him to repay around $20 million that he borrowed from a hedge fund in an attempt to regain control of the company, a California appeals court said Tuesday. Dov Charney was ousted from the clothing retailer by its board of directors in 2014 over misconduct and mismanagement concerns. Charney said hedge fund Standard General LP approached him shortly after and offered an opportunity for him to regain control of the company.

Hedge Fund Performance Update: December 2020 (Preqin)
The Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark had a strong end to 2020, posting +3.99% in December. This pushed the YTD return to +16.69%, and the three-year annualized return to +8.20%. This factsheet presents the hedge fund performance benchmarks for December 2020. Plus, the YTD and 12-month return figures for all top-level strategies, structures, denominations, and size classifications.

JP Morgan Asset Management Forecasts “Rich Environment” for Hedge Funds as ‘Megatrends’ Take Centre-Stage (Hedge Week)
The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is set to unlock global “megatrends” this year, including consumer and corporate technology, healthcare, and sustainability themes – and hedge fund investors can expect a “rich environment for growth”, a major new study by JP Morgan Asset Management suggests. The firm’s 2021 Global Alternative Outlook also predicts a rebound in equity market fundamentals as economies recover from the Covid crisis, as well as continued momentum in special purpose acquisition vehicles (SPACs), which have seen a surge in activity among several high-profile, brand name hedge funds over the past year.

Son of Powerful Denver Lobbyist Gets Last-Minute Pardon from Trump (The Denver Post)
Former hedge fund manager Drew “Bo” Brownstein was among 143 full granted a full pardon by President Donald Trump. Late Tuesday night, President Donald Trump granted a full pardon to Drew “Bo” Brownstein, a former hedge fund manager, insider trader and son of a powerful Denver lobbyist. The White House cited Brownstein’s volunteer work with the Boys & Girls Club in Denver and Jewish Family Services of Colorado in announcing the pardon. It also noted Brownstein has “paid his fines and forfeitures in full.”

Hedge Funds See Third Year of Outflows as JPMorgan Spots ‘New Low’ for Industry (Financial News)
The hedge fund industry witnessed outflows of $30bn in 2020 – the third consecutive year of outflows and the fourth year of outflows in the last five years. JPMorgan analysts, in a report dated 19 January, noted the trend as hedge funds have struggled to match the returns of so-called passive funds that track the performance of some of the major indexes.

Hope Not Lost for Mortgage-Agency Play (Green Street)
Hedge fund operators haven’t given up all hope of profiting from the removal of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from government conservatorship. As the Trump Administration fast-tracked efforts to recapitalize the mortgage agencies last year, several managers built equity positions that they saw as likely to benefit from that process. But the outlook for those plays dimmed as it became clear that the privatization push would not gain traction before today’s inauguration of President Joe Biden. The odds of a near-term exit also shrank when the U.S. Treasury Department said on Jan. 14 that it was looking at a timeline under which it would take years for Fannie and Freddie to build up the capital needed to exit government control.

Wednesday 1/20 Insider Buying Report: VGR, ADVM (Nasdaq.com)
On Friday, Vector Group’s EVP/COO, Richard Lampen, made a $181,500 buy of VGR, purchasing 15,000 shares at a cost of $12.10 a piece. Lampen was up about 4.3% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with VGR trading as high as $12.62 in trading on Wednesday. Vector Group is trading up about 4% on the day Wednesday. Before this latest buy, Lampen bought VGR at 3 other times during the past twelve months, for a total investment of $849,125 at an average of $10.29 per share. And at Adverum Biotechnologies, there was insider buying on Friday, by Director Patrick Machado who bought 10,000 shares for a cost of $11.52 each, for a total investment of $115,174. Adverum Biotechnologies is trading up about 17.3% on the day Wednesday. So far Machado is in the green, up about 24.9% on their purchase based on today’s trading high of $14.38.

Transdigm Group Inc (TDG) President & CEO Kevin M Stein Sold $5.7 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
President & CEO of Transdigm Group Inc, Kevin M Stein, sold 9,900 shares of TDG on 01/19/2021 at an average price of $580.52 a share. The total sale was $5.7 million. TransDigm Group Inc is a designer, producer and supplier of engineered aircraft components for use on commercial and military aircraft in service. TransDigm Group Inc has a market cap of $31.26 billion; its shares were traded at around $574.290000 with a P/E ratio of 64.10 and P/S ratio of 6.45.

The Chief Financial Officer & Chief Accounting Office of Carnival (NYSE: CCL) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the Chief Financial Officer & Chief Accounting Office of Carnival (CCL), David Bernstein, sold shares of CCL for $1.04M. In addition to David Bernstein, 5 other CCL executives reported Sell trades in the last month. The company has a one-year high of $51.94 and a one-year low of $7.80. CCL’s market cap is $22.95 billion and the company has a P/E ratio of -2.00. Currently, Carnival has an average volume of 21.27M.