A Utilities-Focused Hedge Fund that Managed $319 million is Shutting Down, with Its Staff Moving to Point72 (Business Insider)
Blackstart Capital, which listed $319 million under management on a recent disclosure form, has terminated its registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund focused on North American utilities, power and related infrastructure sectors. Jamie Waters, a partner and portfolio manager there, said on his LinkedIn profile that he and some number of others moved to Point72 earlier this month, and Point72 confirmed the move to Business Insider.
Warren Buffett Wants more Small-Business Aid, Less Income Inequality, and a Robust Economic Recovery. He’ll be Happy to Have Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary (Business Insider)
Warren Buffett may be celebrating President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to appoint Janet Yellen as treasury secretary. The famed investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO praised Yellen soon after she took over as Federal Reserve chair in 2014. Buffett said at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting that year that Yellen’s predecessor, Ben Bernanke, did a “masterful job” of recognizing the severity of the financial crisis and taking action to address it. “From everything I’ve seen about Janet Yellen, I feel the same way about her,” he added.
Credit Suisse Flags $450 million Impairment on York Capital Management Stake (Reuter)
ZURICH (Reuters) – Credit Suisse expects to take a roughly $450 million impairment on alternative investment firm York Capital Management’s retreat from its core hedge funds business, the Swiss bank said. The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported the New York-based firm had informed employees and investors about plans to leave its original line of business, wind down its European hedge funds business and convert its U.S. hedge fund into one primarily managing internal money.
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How The EU Learned To Stopped Worrying And Love Hedge Funds (Deal Breaker)
With the departure of the U.K. and its influential (at one time, anyway) financial services industry from the European Union, it seemed at last the bloc would finally get to do what it always wanted to do vis-à-vis hedge funds, which is to say regulate them out of existence, or at least into friendly mutual-fund-type things. As it turns out, however, the wily French and practical Germans have other, more pragmatic plans which may prove even worse for the liberated but irrelevant island nation: Open arms and a firm nudge across the Channel.
Hedge-Fund Copycats Rally as Academics Defend Embattled Strategy (Bloomberg)
Investing products designed to bring hedge-fund strategies to the masses are on course for one of their best months in more than a decade, as the latest research argues the oft-maligned trades have robust foundations. So-called liquid alternatives mimic the fast money through short selling, leverage and derivatives in order to capture popular sources of market returns known as risk premia. Yet they have underperformed both hedge funds and 60/40 portfolios over the past decade — and look set to do so again this year.
Breakingviews – Elliott’s Swiss Cookie Raid Merits Activist Slap (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters Breakingviews) – Elliott Advisors is trying to raid the cookie jar. The U.S. hedge fund, led by billionaire Paul Singer, is planning a 793 million Swiss franc (733 million euros) bid for debt-laden baker Aryzta, maker of Otis Spunkmeyer biscuits. Yet with the pandemic easing, the Swiss group’s shareholders, which also include some activists, have good reason to hold out. Aryzta has all the criteria of a value stock. The baker, which supplies sesame-seed buns to McDonald’s, was once worth over $9 billion after the merger of IAWS and Hiestand in 2008.
