Hedge Fund and Insider Trading News: Kyle Bass, Mike Novogratz, Aurelius Capital, Hemispherx Biopharma Inc (HEB), Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (LOW), and More

Hedge Fund Manager Kyle Bass Says the US has More Leverage Over China than Ever Before (CNBC)
Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass believes the United States now has more leverage over China in trade negotiations than ever before and encouraged President Donald Trump to follow his hard-line tactics to force concessions from Beijing. In an interview with CNBC’s David Faber, Bass said that the strength of U.S. business affords Trump the ability to press China’s Xi Jinping for a better deal during their planned meeting at the G-20 summit in Japan next week.

Pro Bankruptcy Briefing: Aurelius Nudges Frontier on Debt Strategy | Puerto Rico Board Gets Top Court Review | Promise Creditors Can’t Stop Price Cut (The Wall Street Journal)
Good day. As Frontier Communications Corp. stares down a $17 billion debt load, Aurelius Capital Management LP is prodding the telecom not to use chapter 11. The U.S. Supreme Court will review the appointments of Puerto Rico’s financial supervisors, potentially upending the U.S. territory’s bankruptcy proceedings. And unsecured creditors failed to derail Promise Healthcare Group LLC’s cut-rate hospital sales.

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Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital Rolls Out Crypto Options Business as Institutional Demand Grows (The Block Crypto)
Former hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz’s cryptocurrency merchant bank, Galaxy Digital, has expanded its trading business to offer cryptocurrency options contracts amid the crescendo in demand from institutional investors. Galaxy Digital’s global head of business development, Yoshi Nakamura, told The Block in an interview at Galaxy’s New York office that cryptocurrency companies like mining firms, lenders, and other projects, including those sitting on treasuries, want to hedge the “inherent volatility risk” of cryptocurrencies.

Hedge Funds’ New Competitive Edge: Copious Free Food (eFinancialCareers.com)
If you work for a hedge fund, you might feel the pressure to have some kind of warrior physique – particularly if you’re trying to channel George Soros and work well past your fifth decade. However, you will also need to have pretty strong self-control: most big hedge funds now reward their employees with food, and lots of it. At Citadel, for example, the food starts with a complimentary breakfast and flows on to a complimentary lunch, supplemented by snacks throughout the day. At Point72, employees describe a “wonderful pantry of free food and drinks.” At Bridgewater there’s free lunch, snacks, and dinner for those working past 7pm. And at Two Sigma there are “tons of snacks,” if not actual full meals.

Short Selling Hedge Fundies VGI Partners Just Hit the ASX Boards (The Motley Fool)
Sydney-based hedge fund VGI Partners Limited (ASX: VGI) became a public company today after issuing 13.6 million shares to investors at $5.50 per share. In total it will have 67.07 million shares on issue, which are already trading as high as $10 this afternoon to provide its select IPO investors an instant stag profit. It also reports it has another 35.7 million shares on issue in escrow that are all held by shareholders of VGI Partners Inc. If we generously take the 67.07 million shares currently on market we can see that the group now has a market value around $670 million to mean at that valuation it trades around 16x pro forma calendar year 2018 adjusted net profit.

Global Hedge Fund Industry AUM Grows by $0.5bn as of May 2019 YTD: Eurekahedge (Opalesque.com)
The global hedge fund industry AUM has grown by $0.5bn as of May 2019 year-to-date, said the June 2019 Eurekahedge report. Final Q1 2019 net outflows figure stood at $46.4bn, just under half of the investor redemptions totalling $94.7bn seen in the final quarter of 2018, it said. Following four consecutive positive months since the beginning of the year, the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index was down 0.71% in May, bringing its year-to-date return to 4.32%. Hedge fund managers struggled to generate returns amidst the risk-off environment resulting from the re-escalation of the US-China trade war.

Why This U.S. Billionaire Chose Oxford University for Record $188 million Gift (NBC News)
American hedge fund billionaire Stephen Schwarzman chose Oxford University as the recipient of a record-setting $188 million gift this week. The donation will go toward the study of humanities and the “ethical implications of artificial intelligence and other new computing technologies,” according to Oxford’s website. It also noted that Schwarzman’s gift represents the largest single donation the university has received “since the Renaissance.”

The Exec. Vice Chairman of Hemispherx Biopharma Inc (NYSE MKT: HEB) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Exec. Vice Chairman of Hemispherx Biopharma Inc (HEB), Thomas Equels, bought shares of HEB for $118.5K. Following this transaction Thomas Equels’ holding in the company was increased by 2.16% to a total of $5.62 million. Currently, Hemispherx Biopharma Inc has an average volume of 213.3K.

Friday 6/21 Insider Buying Report: LOW, IMMU (Nasdaq.com)
On Wednesday, Lowe’s Companies’ EVP, Supply Chain, Donald Frieson, made a $200,342 purchase of LOW, buying 2,030 shares at a cost of $98.69 a piece. So far Frieson is in the green, up about 4.3% on their purchase based on today’s trading high of $102.96. Lowe’s Companies Inc is trading off about 0.4% on the day Friday. And at Immunomedics, there was insider buying on Thursday, by Chief Quality Officer Bryan Ball who purchased 5,000 shares at a cost of $13.35 each, for a total investment of $66,750. Immunomedics, is trading off about 2.8% on the day Friday. Investors have the opportunity to bag IMMU even cheaper than Ball did, with the stock changing hands as low as $12.91 at last check today which is 3.3% under Ball’s purchase price.

Taipei Court Clears OBI Pharma Execs of Insider Trading (Taipei Times)
The Shilin District Court yesterday found OBI Pharma chairman Michael Chang and four other company executives not guilty of insider trading. The acquittal was based on a lack of clear evidence that Chang, general manager Amy Huang, vice president Hsu Yo-gung, research and development director Yu Cheng-te and administration division manager Liao Tsung-chih committed insider trading, the court said in a statement.

Insiders Roundup: Anaplan, Chubb (Guru Focus)
Rob Ward, director of Anaplan Inc. (PLAN), sold 396,324 shares for an average price of $51.85 per share on June 20. The provider of software infrastructure has a market cap of $6.63 billion and an enterprise value of $6.31 billion. It has insider ownership of 1.36% and institutional ownership of 38.26%. Over the last three months, the stock has risen 34.04%. It is trading 3.11% below its three-month high and 52.87% above its three-month low. Evan G. Greenberg, Chairman and CEO sold 215.648 shares of Chubb Ltd. (CB) for an average price of $148.84 per share on June 19. The company has a market cap of $68.39 billion and an enterprise value of $76.93 billion. Over the last 12 months, the stock has gained 17.88% and is now trading 1.74% below its 52-week high and 24.95% above its 52-week low.

Colliers Accuses CEO of Insider Trading (EuroBuildCEE.com)
WORLD Dylan Taylor has been dismissed as chief executive officer of Colliers real estate services for misconduct including improper trading activity in Colliers securities in breach of his employment obligations. In turn Dylan Taylor has made undisclosed allegations, which he asserts as the basis for a potential constructive dismissal claim. The board has constituted a special committee to oversee an independent review of these claims.