Hedge Fund Highlights: Bill Ackman, SAC Capital Advisors, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (ABX)

Hedge fund defends Billabong play (Business Spectator)
United States hedge fund Coastal Capital International has defended its investment in embattled surfwear retailer Billabong International Ltd, insisting it is interested in boosting returns for all shareholders, according to The Australian Financial Review. The hedge fund’s managing partner, Todd Plutsky, defended against suggestions it is a vulture fund and “serial pest”. “In all of our investments in Australia we have done nothing but seek improved value for all shareholders,” Mr Plutsky told the AFR.

Synergy Health fills gap left by Vinik hedge fund (Tampa Bay Business Journal)
The Synergy Health plc relocation to the SunTrust Financial Centre will not help downtown Tampa’s office space absorption. The surgical sterilization provider is moving into the 20,000-square-foot space recently vacated by Vinik Asset Management. Tampa Bay Lightning Owner Jeff Vinik was hailed last summer when he moved his Boston-based hedge fund to the 31st floor of the downtown tower. But Vinik closed the fund in May due to poor performance.

IndexIQ Announces August 2013 Performance of Its IQ Hedge Family of Investable Benchmark Hedge Fund (DailyFinance)
IndexIQ, a leading developer of index-based alternative investment solutions, today announced the performance of its proprietary family of hedge fund replication and alternative beta indexes. Designed as investable benchmarks that replicate the performance characteristics of sophisticated hedge fund strategies, the IQ Hedge™ benchmark indexes were originally introduced on March 30, 2007, and have been calculating live since that date. IQ Hedge is the first family of investable benchmark indexes covering hedge fund replication/alternative beta strategies.

Forness joins hedge fund platform Multi Strat Re (The Insurance Insider)
Former Imagine Group executive Bob Forness has been appointed CEO and chairman of Bermuda-based Multi-Strat Re, a platform set up to help hedge funds tap into the reinsurance space. Forness said that Multi-Strat Re had a strong pipeline of sponsors and expected its aggregate capital to reach a figure comparable to that of some publicly traded reinsurers by 2015. Multi-Strat Re is not rated and therefore collateralises its liabilities through letters of credit.