Ackman: HLF Execs Hiring Own Lawyers An Ominous Sign (CNBC)
Bill Ackman thinks shorting Herbalife is an even better short than it was when he first bet against the stock in 2012. The most recent indicator is that senior executives at the nutritional supplement company are hiring or looking to hire their own criminal defense attorneys, the Pershing Square Capital Management founder said Monday evening at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York. “People are at risk of going to jail,” Ackman said, noting the “very material” development.
Marathon Asset Buying Irish Real-Estate Loans, CEO Richards Says (Bloomberg)
Marathon Asset Management LP’s Bruce Richards says his firm is ramping up investment in Europe on bets that central-bank easing, a depreciating euro and the plunge in oil prices will buoy the region’s growth. The hedge fund, which manages about $13 billion, last week bought a non-performing loan from Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency, a group set up in 2009 to take control of banks’ toxic property loans. Backed by 588 multifamily units in Dublin, the loan marks Marathon’s 12th such purchase in two years in a country whose economic growth Richards says outpaces that of its European counterparts.
World’s Biggest Hedge Fund Plans Connecticut Campus Upgrades (CNBC)
The world’s largest hedge fund is proposing upgrades to its wooded campus in Connecticut, a project that brings a new set of hurdles after the collapse last year of a plan to relocate its offices to a peninsula on Long Island Sound. Bridgewater Associates, which manages some $169 billion, is proposing to overhaul its office buildings and create an underground parking garage on its headquarters at the confluence of two rivers in Westport. “This is not routine at all. This is a pretty ambitious project,” said Alicia Mozian, the town’s conservation director.
Embattled BNY Mellon CEO Gets Rebuke, Support At Annual Meeting (Reuters)
Embattled BNY Mellon Corp CEO Gerald Hassell, under fire from activist investors, received a public rebuke on Tuesday at the bank’s annual meeting for lagging past performance, but also a vote of support to make improvements going forward. The words of criticism and support came from Ed Garden, who joined BNY Mellon’s board in December. Garden is a senior executive at Trian Fund Management LP, the activist hedge fund run by billionaire Nelson Peltz that owns about 2.6 percent of BNY Mellon’s stock.
Ackman Says Student Loans Are the Biggest Risk in the Credit Market (Bloomberg)
Bill Ackman says the biggest risk in the credit market is student loans. “If you think about the trillion dollars of student loans we have outstanding, there’s no way students are going to pay it back,” Ackman, who runs $20 billion Pershing Square Capital Management, said today at 13D Monitor’s Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York. The balance of student loans outstanding in the U.S. – also including private loans without government guarantees – swelled to $1.3 trillion as of the second quarter 2014, based on data released by the Federal Reserve in October.
Former Massachusetts Governor Patrick to join Bain Capital – Paper (CNBC)
Former Democratic Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is joining the Boston-based private equity firm Bain Capital founded by his predecessor, Republican Mitt Romney, the Boston Globe reported on Tuesday. Patrick said last year when he decided not to run for a third term in office that he planned to return to the private sector. He will work at a new Bain arm focused on “social impact” investing, addressing issues such as climate change or hunger, the Globe reported. “This is a chance to have real meaning and mission in my work,” the newspaper quoted Patrick as saying.
Goldman Has Some Tips for Hedge Funds That Can’t Short Straight (Bloomberg)
Short selling stocks in the U.S. is sort of like playing the theremin — it’s not exactly a lost art form, but neither is it a very profitable one for many people these days. A six-year bull market that has tripled the value of the stock market has taken its toll on hedge funds that bet shares will fall. Apart from an occasional master stroke from the likes of Carson Block or Whitney Tilson, the whole practice in general has been somewhat of an exercise in frustration.
Embattled BNY Mellon CEO Concedes Improvement Is Needed (Reuters)
Embattled BNY Mellon Corp CEO Gerald Hassell, under fire from activist investors, said on Tuesday the direction of the bank has broad-based support from shareholders, but acknowledged improvements need to be made. “We know there are things we have to do better,” Hassell said at the bank’s annual meeting in New York City. Earlier this month, activist hedge fund Marcato Capital Management said BNY Mellon’s employee base is “bloated” and disproportionately larger than its rivals.
Investors Trim Hedge Fund Bets in April – Data (Reuters)
Investors reduced their allocation to hedge funds in April, pulling out more cash than they invested, data showed on Monday. The SS&C GlobeOp Capital Movement Index (CMI), which calculates monthly hedge fund subscriptions minus redemptions, fell 1.14 percent at the beginning of April, compared with a rise of 0.63 percent in March, the data showed. “The negative CMI for April reflects the typical seasonal pattern,” Bill Stone, chairman and CEO of SS&C Technologies, said. “So far in 2015, the overall trend suggests stability in allocations to hedge funds.”
