Hedge Fund News: Bill Ackman, Paul Singer, Steve Cohen

Round Earth’s Dorea Buys Partner Whelahan’s Stake in Hedge Fund (Bloomberg Business Week)
Marcelo Dorea, founding partner of Round Earth Capital Management LP, took full control of the New York-based hedge fund after buying his partner’s stake. The transfer of Carl Whelahan’s share in Round Earth, which trades sugar, cocoa and coffee, was completed Dec. 31, Dorea said today in a letter to investors. Mike Geller, an external spokesman at Edelman for Whelahan, declined to comment on his departure.

Another Win for Starboard at MeadWestvaco (The Wall Street Journal)
Chalk up the $16 billion merger between packaging companies Rock-Tenn Co.RKT +6.13% and MeadWestvaco Corp. (MWV) +14.01% as yet another win for activist hedge fund Starboard Value Partners LP. Starboard announced a 5.6% stake in MeadWestvaco in June and sent a letter to the company’s CEO calling the company “deeply undervalued.” Starboard said that the company’s conglomerate structure was one of the things obscuring the company’s value.

Axis Capital to Merge With PartnerRe to Create $11 Billion Reinsurer in Bermuda (Bloomberg)
Axis Capital Holdings Ltd. (AXS) agreed to merge with PartnerRe Ltd. (PRE), combining two Bermuda-based reinsurers with a total market value of almost $11 billion amid accelerating consolidation in the industry. PartnerRe shareholders will own 51.6 percent of the new insurer, and the company declined in New York trading while Axis advanced. The combined entity will be among the world’s five largest reinsurers, with more than $10 billion in policy sales, according to a statement late Sunday in New York. Invested assets and cash will be more than $33 billion.

Hedge Funds Bet Oil Will Fall Further (Bloomberg Business Week)
Hedge funds boosted bearish wagers on oil to a four-year high as U.S. supplies grew the most since 2001. Money managers increased short positions in West Texas Intermediate crude to the highest level since September 2010 in the week ended Jan. 20, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Net-long positions slipped for the first time in three weeks.