Hedge Fund News: Bill Ackman, Seth Klarman, Viking Global

Hedge Fund Manager Ackman Still Betting Against Herbalife (Reuters)
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said on Thursday that he was still betting against Herbalife Ltd (HLF.N) shares and that the company needed to make “material changes to its incentive structure.” Ackman has waged a four-year campaign against Herbalife, making a $1 billion short bet against it in 2012 and accusing it of running a pyramid scheme which pays members more for recruiting new members than for selling the company’s supplements and weight-loss products. Short sellers borrow securities to sell on the belief that the price will decline and allow them to be repurchased for less later. Ackman, the founder and chief executive of Pershing Square Capital Management, said in a CNBC interview that the cost on carry of his $1 billion bet is about $20 million.

Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen’s Hedge Fund Backs Private Biotech Roivant Sciences (Forbes)
Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global Investors disclosed on Wednesday that it has made an investment in Roivant Sciences, the private holding company that claims to be in the business of rescuing the pharmaceutical industry’s forgotten drugs. Viking Global, a hedge fund that manages about $30 billion, made its investment in Roivant in December, Securities & Exchange Commission filings show. The investment was disclosed on Wednesday as part of Roivant’s announcement that it had appointed to its board Andrew Lo, a well-known finance professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. The size of Viking Global’s investment was not disclosed.

Klarman’s Baupost Posts 4% Return in First-Half Rebound (Bloomberg)
Seth Klarman is making money again after experiencing the third losing year in his history. Klarman’s $28 billion hedge fund rose about 1.25 percent in June, bringing its gain this year to about 4 percent, according to a person with knowledge of the firm who declined to be named. Baupost, whose multiple partnerships have varying returns, has seen some energy bets rebound after they dragged on performance in 2015.