US Hedge Fund Snaps Up Woodfords’ Malin Stake (The Irish Times)
US hedge fund Pentwater Capital has emerged as the buyer of the 23 per cent stake in Irish life science investment company Malin Corp that was sold in recent weeks by troubled UK asset manager Woodford Investment Management. The move increases Pentwater’s stake to 26 per cent, Malin said on Tuesday, making it the company’s largest investor after taking advantage of the stock’s depressed value.
Two Hedge Funds Dodge a Russian Poison Pill (Bloomberg)
Any takers for a couple of big stakes in an old-style, carbon-emitting power generator? Germany’s Uniper SE is not a business that fits with the times. Yet hedge funds Elliott Management Corp. and Knight Vinke have just succeeded in squeezing a high price from the one keen buyer of their combined 21% holding, the Finnish utility Fortum Oyj.
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BlueMountain is Shuttering its Flagship Hedge Fund, and Cofounder Stephen Siderow is Leaving. The Struggling Firm will be Almost Entirely Out of the Hedge Fund Game (Business Insider)
BlueMountain – which has been a major player in the hedge fund game for more than 15 years — is winding down its flagship BlueMountain Credit Alternatives fund. Affiliated Managers Group recently sold its majority stake in the struggling firm to bond insurer Assured Guaranty, which also purchased the remaining equity in the manager. BlueMountain closing the credit fund marks a huge retreat from the highly competitive hedge fund industry.
Odey licking his wounds after challenging September (Portfolio-Adviser.com)
Crispin Odey is licking his wounds following a challenging month for his European long/short equity fund in which several of his bets against the UK market and sterling failed to pan out amid rising equity and bond markets. In a letter to investors seen by the Financial Times, Odey Asset Management confirmed the eponymous founder’s European hedge fund had racked up losses of 12.7% in September.
Amag Settles with activist Caligan, Adds Two Board Directors (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Amag Pharmaceuticals Inc (AMAG.O), whose shares have tumbled more than 45% in the past year, on Tuesday agreed to add two directors proposed by Caligan Partners after the hedge fund pressured the drugmaker to conduct a strategic business review. Amag, which won U.S. approval for a female libido drug in June, said it will expand its board to 11 people, making room for Caligan Partners’ founder David Johnson and Paul Fonteyne, a former head of Boehringer Ingelheim USA.
Franklin Templeton Launches New HF Range (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Franklin Templeton has launched a new Luxembourg-domiciled fund range that offers European investors access to five hedge fund strategies in a daily liquidity format. The new range features five liquid hedge fund strategies from the Managed Account Platform of Franklin Templeton’s subsidiary, K2 Advisors. K2 has maintained a long relationship with the five hedge fund managers in the recently-launched range. The range includes the Bardin Hill Arbitrage, Chilton Equity Long Short, Electron Global, Ellington Structured Credit, and Wellington Technology Long Short funds, all marketed under the Franklin K2 label.
Hedge Fund Team Exits Julius Baer’s Unit to Start Own Stock Firm (The Wall Street Journal)
A group of investment managers has left Julius Baer Group Ltd.’s Italian subsidiary Kairos to start a new equity hedge fund. Federico Riggio, Michele Fiumara, David Grazzini, Vittorio Villa and Flavio Russo, who were overseeing the Kairos Pegasus Fund S.A., departed at the end of September, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The new company, Helikon Investments Ltd., will have offices in London and Milan.
Hedge Funds Down 0.32 percent in September as CTAs and Macro Hedge Funds Struggle to Perform (Hedge Week)
Hedge fund managers were down 0.32 per cent in September, dragging their year-to-date return to 5.67 per cent despite the recovering investor risk sentiment, which pushed the global equity market up 2.04 per cent over the month. The MSCI ACWI (Local) is still up 14.89 per cent as of September 2019 year-to-date. Roughly 50.6 per cent of the underlying constituents of the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index posted positive returns in September, and 25.9 per cent of the hedge fund managers in the database were able to maintain double-digit returns over the first three quarters of 2019.
Saba’s Tender Proposal of Neuberger Berman’s High Yield Strategies Fund Passes (TMCnet.com)
Saba Capital Management, L.P. and certain investment funds managed by it (collectively “Saba”) today issued the following statement regarding its campaign to effect change at the 2019 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the “Annual Meeting”) of Neuberger Berman High Yield Strategies Fund Inc. (“NHS” or the “Fund” or “Neuberger”) (NYSE American: NHS). In an attempt to mislead the public, Neuberger has declared “resounding” support from shareholders, if you don’t count the shareholders who voted against them.
Notable Insider Buying In 3 Equities (Seeking Alpha)
Let’s start with a name my Golden Retriever Cooper is very familiar with. That is Chewy (CHWY). This online pet retailer is based approximately 30 miles up the road from me in Miami. Two directors bought just over $1 million worth of shares on September 30th and October 1st.
Harvest Capital Credit Corp (HCAP) CEO Joseph A Jolson Bought $66,718 of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO of Harvest Capital Credit Corp., Joseph A Jolson, bought 6,808 shares of HCAP on 10/07/2019 at an average price of $9.8 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $66,718. Harvest Capital Credit Corp is an externally managed, non-diversified closed-end investment company. It provides customized financing solutions to small to mid-sized companies to generate both current income and capital appreciation.
Chris Collins is Pleading for Leniency. His Critics have Other Ideas (The Buffalo News)
WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Chris Collins Monday sent an email to friends and associate asking them to reach out to the judge in his insider trading case and argue for leniency. But longtime Collins critics plan on writing to the judge, too – to press for just the opposite. That means U.S. District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick is likely to get radically different portrayals of the now-departed four-term lawmaker from Clarence – who recently moved to Florida – before the sentencing hearing next Jan. 17.
READ: Plea Deal Between Chris Collins and Federal Prosecutors (RochesterFirst.com)
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The plea deal between former Congressman Chris Collins and federal prosecutors can be read in its entirety here. Last week in federal court, Collins pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and lying to the FBI related to insider trading. Collins’ son Cameron and Cameron’s fiancee’s father, Stephen Zarsky, also admitted to their roles in the case. Collins’ guilty plea came hours after he formally left his position as one of western New York’s representatives in Congress.
Insiders Quietly Buying JPMorgan Chase & Co. (IncomeInvestors.com)
Case in point: JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that, in August, director Mellody Hobson bought 18,200 shares valued at $2.0 million. And she’s not the only one bullish on the financial giant. Over the past year, other company insiders have purchased more than 3.4 million shares combined. (Source: “Insider Actions for JPMorgan Chase & Co.,” MarketWatch, Sept 26, 2019.)
