Billionaire Says ‘Civic Hero’ Rittenhouse Should be Acquitted (Independent.co.uk)
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has called Kyle Rittenhouse a “civil hero” and claimed that the jury will find the 18-year-old innocent. Mr Rittenhouse is accused of shooting three demonstrators – two of whom died – during a night of unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after police shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back in August 2020.
Ken Griffin Says Bitcoin will be Replaced by Ethereum-Based Currency (Coin Telegraph)
Kenneth Griffin, billionaire CEO of American hedge fund Citadel, thinks a currency on the Ethereum network will replace Bitcoin (BTC) as crypto’s top dog. Citadel manages over $40 billion of capital — a quarter of the trading volume in the United States stock market. During this Wednesday’s Nov. 10 DealBook summit hosted by The New York Times, Griffin said that he anticipates that the “Bitcoin-based conception [will be] replaced by the Ethereum-based conception in the next generation of cryptocurrencies.”
AVI Calls for Third Point Director to be Ousted Amid Row Over Discount Control (Portfolio Adviser)
Activist shareholder retaliates after board of Dan Loeb’s UK feeder fund rejects proposals to narrow its discount. Activist shareholder Asset Value Investors (AVI) is urging shareholders to oust a director from billionaire Dan Loeb’s UK feeder fund in retaliation for the board’s refusal to put its discount control mechanism to a shareholder vote. Third Point Investors Limited (TPIL) is the UK-listed version of Loeb’s New York-based hedge fund, Third Point. AVI, which owns 10% of TPIL, has been pushing to allow shareholders to sell shares back at price reflecting the underlying assets instead of the share price, which carries a 15% discount.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
U.K. Hands Out £600,000 Broker Fine Linked to Tax Scandal (Bloomberg)
The U.K. markets regulator handed out its second penalty in relation to Cum-Ex trades, fining a broker more than 600,000 pounds ($803,500) for missing suspect trades with one of the key figures in the European tax scandal. Sunrise Brokers LLP was fined over its relationship with hedge-fund manager Sanjay Shah, the Financial Conduct Authority said in a statement Friday. The watchdog said Sunrise traded in such huge volumes in 2015 that it amounted to more than 20% of the whole Danish stock exchange.
Hedge Funds Start Q4 on a High Note with Majority in the Black (Hedge Week)
The global hedge fund business started the fourth quarter of 2021 on a high note, with aggregate industry performance at +1.88 per cent in October and just over 70 per cent of funds reporting to eVestment seeing positive results for the month, according to the just-released October 2021 eVestment hedge fund performance data. Year to date (YTD) performance for the hedge fund industry stands at +10.86 per cent, very close to surpassing the +11.07 per cent aggregate return the industry posted in 2020. Commodity-focused funds continue to be among the strongest performing segments of the hedge fund business, with October average returns at +3.10 per cent and YTD performance at +22.63 per cent. Commodities funds’ YTD 2021 performance is much stronger than the +5.84 per cent these funds posted for all of 2020.
Hilbert Rolls Out Crypto Fund Range (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Having started out as a pure digital-currency asset manager, Stockholm-based Hilbert Group has now been listed on Nasdaq First North as a digital asset investment firm focused on four business verticals: asset management, proprietary trading, private equity investments, and data and analytics. The asset management arm focuses on managing Hilbert Digital Asset Fund, its flagship product that offers investors broad exposure to the crypto market, and on expanding its product range with the upcoming launch of three additional funds.
Swoon Begone! Hedge Funds Return to Winning Ways with 1.68% Gain in October (Opalesque)
Opalesque Industry Update – The hedge fund industry shook off September’s swoon in October, posting a 1.68% return for the month, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge, a division of Backstop Solutions. By comparison, the S&P 500 Total Return Index gained 7.01% in October. For the year to date, the hedge fund industry was up 10.60% through October. The S&P 500 Total Return Index was up 24.04% over the same period. Undaunted by the previous month’s far-flung red ink, nearly all Hedge Fund subsectors did an about-face in October. The industry’s return to gains was led by the Technology Index which was up +4.39%, followed closely by the Distressed Securities Index, up +4.14% and the Emerging Markets Asian Equities Index which advanced +3.84%. Other sub-sectors gaining ground in October included the Equity Long Bias Index, returning +3.02%, the Emerging Markets Sub Saharan Africa Index, up +2.99%, and Option Strategies Index, at +2.16%.
Sequoia Capital’s New Structure Seems More Like VC’s Natural Progression Than A Game Changer (Crunchbase News)
When Sequoia Capital announced late last month it was changing its fund structure, some viewed the shift as revolutionary – with even the firm itself calling the old VC model of 10-year funds “obsolete.” However, while the change in the tried-and-true method of doing business in the venture world is noteworthy, it also in many ways seems like just the next logical step in the continued growth of an asset class that has become increasingly large and institutionalized.
Gary Gensler’s 2-and-20 Push Won’t Help Hedge Fund Investors (Bloomberg Quint)
(Bloomberg Opinion) — Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler gave a speech this week to the Institutional Limited Partners Association, a lobby group of hedge fund investors, and it seemed out of step with both the history of investment fund regulation and the needs of hedge fund investors today. It started with the standard paean to New Deal financial regulation that omits the most important point vis-a-vis hedge funds, which is that private funds were created to avoid the problems that legislation caused.
Notable Aspen Aerogels Insider Trades $1.5M In Company Stock (Benzinga)
Corby Whitaker, Insider at Aspen Aerogels (NYSE:ASPN), made a large buy and sell of company shares on November 9, according to a new SEC filing. What Happened: A Form 4 filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission states that Corby Whitaker exercised options to purchase 24,735 Aspen Aerogels shares at prices ranging from $3.63 to $4.60 per share for a total of $104,081 on November 9. They then sold their shares on succeeding transactions in the open market. They sold at prices ranging from $56.99 to $58.37 to raise a total of $1,427,947 from the stock sale.
The SVP, GC & Sec of Synaptics (NASDAQ: SYNA) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
On November 10, the SVP, GC & Sec of Synaptics (SYNA), John Mcfarland, sold shares of SYNA for $4.02M. Following John Mcfarland’s last SYNA Sell transaction on September 01, 2021, the stock climbed by 60.9%. In addition to John Mcfarland, 2 other SYNA executives reported Sell trades in the last month. Based on Synaptics’ latest earnings report for the quarter ending September 30, the company posted quarterly revenue of $373 million and quarterly net profit of $40.2 million.
SEC Charges Partner at Global Consulting Firm With Insider Trading (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Puneet Dikshit, a partner at a global management consulting firm, with illegally trading in advance of a corporate acquisition by one of the firm’s clients in September. The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan, alleges that in the course of providing consulting services, Dikshit learned highly confidential information concerning The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s impending acquisition of the consumer loan fintech platform GreenSky Inc. According to the SEC’s complaint, in the days leading up to the acquisition announcement on Sept. 15, 2021, Dikshit used this information to purchase out-of-the-money GreenSky call options that were set to expire just days after the announcement. The SEC’s complaint further alleges that Dikshit violated his firm’s policies by failing to pre-clear these options purchases, which he sold on the morning of the acquisition announcement for illicit profits totaling over $450,000.
