Billionaire Steyer picks fights with Kochs, Rubio in climate change push (CNBC.com)
Tom Steyer has picked a lot a fights recently. The billionaire former hedge fund manager has continued his high-profile campaign against climate change this year, using his NextGen Climate group to create attack ads targeting conservative industrialists Charles and David Koch, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, and Terri Lynn Land, the GOP Senate candidate in Michigan. Steyer continued his digs at the Koch brothers–prominent supporters of conservative politicians–by challenging them to a debate on climate change and energy policy.
Citadel Marks First Global Hedge Fund to Raise Fund in China (Bloomberg)
Citadel LLC, led by billionaire Ken Griffin, became the first international hedge fund to complete yuan fundraising from Chinese wealthy individuals and companies through a local unit. Citadel (Shanghai) Foreign Investment won regulatory approval for currency exchange on March 26, marking the first qualified domestic limited partner, or QDLP, to have successfully completed fundraising in China, according to a statement from the Shanghai government’s information office.
Hedge Fund Mariner Hires Bowens for Rates as Banks Diverge (1) (Businessweek)
Mariner Investment Group LLC, the $11 billion hedge-fund firm, hired Marx Bowens from CRT Capital Group LLC to trade interest rates anticipating a divergence in global central bank policies. Bowens, 44, joined New York-based Mariner this month as a money manager focusing on rates strategies as part of its Silvermine team, according to co-chief investment officer Basil Williams. The unit manages $500 million and invests in sovereign debt, interest-rate derivatives and foreign exchange.
Hedge fund exit requests rise to five month high in May (Reuters)
Demand to pull out money from hedge funds rose to five month high in May as investors looked to adjust their portfolios ahead of the mid-year point. The SS&C GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator, a monthly snapshot of hedge fund clients giving notice to withdraw their cash expressed as a percentage of assets under administration, rose to 4.32 percent in May from 3.23 percent in April and the highest since December last year.
Hedge Fund Magnetar Sues McKesson Over Celesio Deal (Wall Street Journal)
Hedge fund Magnetar Financial LLC on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK) alleging that the U.S. drug retailer breached German law in its takeover of German rival Celesio AG earlier this year, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Magnetar accuses McKesson of offering a higher price to one large Celesio shareholder, Elliott Management Corp. McKesson officials weren’t immediately available to comment. An Elliott official declined to comment on the lawsuit.
When Alibaba may go public (CNBC.com)
Aberdeen plans new Brazil fund amid effort to lure pension funds (Reuters)
Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, Europe’s largest independent money manager, expects to complete within weeks the sale of a fund investing in Brazilian stocks and government debt, two executives said on Tuesday. Assets in the fundo multimercado, as the vehicle is known in Brazil, will be split evenly between domestic stocks and government debt, using the domestic IBX stock index and the interbank lending rate CDI as benchmarks, respectively, said George Kerr, Aberdeen’s senior business development manager in Brazil. Aberdeen wants to target pension funds as the vehicle’s main client, he noted.
U.K. Activist Fund Wants Japan to Sell Tobacco Firm Stake (Wall Street Journal)
Directly appealing to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a letter, U.K. activist fund The Children’s Investment Fund urged the government to sell its entire stake in Japan Tobacco Inc. The U.K. hedge fund, which has been investing in the world’s third-biggest tobacco maker since 2011, said the stake sale would allow the government to use the funds to stimulate employment and reduce corporate taxes.
Greylock Says It’s Negotiated Ecuador Defaulted Bond Repurchase (Bloomberg)
Greylock Capital Management LLC said it helped orchestrate a deal between Ecuador and bondholders that will allow the country to buy back about 80 percent of its remaining defaulted debt. Greylock Chief Executive Officer Hans Humes, who has helped negotiate restructurings from Belize to Greece, said Ecuador agreed to better terms than the 35-cent offer it made in an original buyback in 2009. He declined to give the exact value that Ecuador will pay for the notes that were due in 2012 and 2030. The New York-based hedge fund, which oversees about $850 million, is one of the debtholders, he said yesterday.
Post Capital Raises $52M For Lastest PE Fund (FINalternatives)
New York-based private equity firm Post Capital Partners has raised $52 million for its latest fund. The firm announced the first closing of Post Capital Equity Partners III, which has a target size of $100 million. Led by Michael Pfeffer and Mitch Davidson, Post Capital works with talented operating executives to identify attractive growth businesses that can be materially improved and repositioned to drive significant returns to investors.
FirstGroup back in the black (Telegraph.co.uk)
FirstGroup, the troubled rail and bus operator which came under fire from US activist investor Sandell Asset Management, is back in the black, reporting a full-year profit of more than £58m. However shareholders have been warned it will “take some time” before the FTSE 250 group can resume paying a dividend. FirstGroup reported a statutory pre-tax profit of £58.5m for the year to March 31, a significant turnaround from a £28.9m loss previously, although revenue was 2.7pc lower at £6.7bn after the company’s US yellow school bus business suffered from extreme weather conditions in the fourth quarter.
