Investor Bill Miller Promises $75 Million to Johns Hopkins University Philosophy Department (The Baltimore Sun)
The renowned investor William H. “Bill” Miller III will donate $75 million to Johns Hopkins University’s philosophy department, setting a record for gifts to the university’s humanities departments. The gift, announced Tuesday morning, is thought to be the largest ever made to a university philosophy program, Johns Hopkins said in a statement. Miller was a graduate philosophy student at Hopkins in the 1970s before he left to pursue a career in investment management. He became renowned in financial circles when, as a fund manager for Legg Mason Capital Management, he beat the returns on the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index for an unparalleled 15 years in a row from 1991 to 2005.
Activist hedge Fund Elliott has Scooped a Stake in GKN Just Days After it Rejected a £7bn Bid (CityAM.com)
Activist hedge fund Elliott Management, which rose to fame last year after a drawn-out battle with Dulux maker AkzoNobel, has revealed it has grabbed a stake in engineering giant GKN just days after the company rejected a £7bn takeover bid. The US firm now owns a 1.7 per cent interest in GKN, which manufactures parts for Boeing and Volkswagen. Stock exchange filings also show that Elliott holds a 0.5 per cent short position in Melrose Industries, the turnaround specialist which made the approach and was rebuffed by GKN. This means Elliott would stand to benefit if Melrose’s shares sank, although they have generally been on the rise since news of its bid emerged.
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Partners Share £5.5m at Hedge Fund Launched by Ex-Cheyne Boss (FNLondon.com)
Partners at the hedge fund launched by the former head of Cheyne Capital‘s event-driven team shared more than £5.5m after profits surged last year — a period of strong returns for the strategy as a whole. Latest accounts filed at Companies House by Sand Grove Capital Management show that profits available to be shared among the eight partners rose to £5.4m in the 12 months to March 2017, up from £468,000 a year earlier. The partnership includes two corporate partners. The rise was driven by surging revenues, which climbed from £2.1m to £7.1m.
Can Hedge Funds Handle a Bitcoin Bust? (Bloomberg)
Hedge fund managers have been lying awake at night for years worrying about poor performance, weak volatility and whether it might be time to just move on and do something else — like get into Bitcoin maybe.The allure of 1,000 percent returns in a market of unsophisticated punters who behave in herd-like ways is undeniable. But how long before crypto fund managers start having their own bedtime terrors?
