Editor’s Note: Related tickers: The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)
If Bill Ackman Were A Stock, I’d Be Buying Right Now (BusinessInsider) The piling on re: Bill Ackman – I would bet – has now reached its pinnacle. If he was a stock, and I a deep value investor, I’d be buying him in size here. Okay, maybe I’d be buying calls instead of common, but still – the beleaguered Ackman is probably a bargain here. It’s not that I agree with the way he’s gone about meddling with J.C. Penney to the point of disaster or the flamboyant rollout of his short position in Herbalife (in which his publicly-stated aim was to destroy a company and redistribute the profits to charity). It’s just that I believe Ackman to be a very smart investor and, more than that, a determined businessman.
Blackstone to buy HK construction company Tysan for $322 mln (Reuters)
The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX)‘s real estate arm has offered to buy Hong Kong-listed construction firm Tysan Holdings Limited for $322.6 million, according to a regulatory filing. The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX), one of the world’s biggest hedge fund investors, made the offer for Tysan at HK$2.86 per share, an around 10 percent premium to the previous close which values the company at HK$2,501,544,483 ($322.62 million). Tysan shares jumped 11.5 percent to a record high of HK$2.9 before closing up 6.5 percent at HK$2.77 a share on Monday. The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX), which is raising its first Asia real estate fund, made the offer through Tides Holdings II Ltd. Barclays Capital Asia advised The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX).
JPMorgan Hopes Bear Stearns Trouble Is Over (WallStCheatSheet)
A lawsuit by liquidators of the Bear Stearns hedge funds against JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has finally officially ended, reports Bloomberg. The parties came to a settlement back in June, say court records. The plaintiffs had been seeking $1.5 billion in damages. Bear Stearns is the infamous hedge fund that filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) in 2008. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) were Stillwater Capital Partners LP of New York, Essex Fund Ltd. of the Cayman Island along with two liquidators, Geoffrey Varga and William Cleghorn.
Icahn’s Dell suit falters (ITWeb)
Activist investor Carl Icahn‘s legal effort to derail a $25 billion takeover of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) stalled after a judge refused to fast-track his lawsuit against the personal computer maker, blunting an integral part of his months-long opposition campaign. Delaware Court of Chancery judge Leo Strine on Friday waved off Icahn’s request to accelerate the lawsuit, dismissing claims the company and its board wronged shareholders by accepting an undervalued offer from CEO Michael Dell. Icahn had hoped to head off a 12 September special shareholders’ vote on a takeover proposal that the hedge fund billionaire and other major investors argue cheapens the company.
Brevan Howard Traders Said to Depart as Fund Posts Loss in June (BusinessWeek)
Two Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP credit traders left in recent weeks, as the firm scales back after its biggest hedge fund had the worst monthly loss since 2008 in June, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Wayne Leslie, 38, departed less than a year after joining the London-based hedge fund from Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), where he was a managing director responsible for European investment-grade credit trading, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the departures haven’t been made public. Jason Feasey, 40, who focused on structured credit, had joined the hedge fund from Bank of America Corp in 2011.
Hedge funds positive market exposures reach historic levels – Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Opalesque)
Equity Market Neutral and Long/Short continued to increase their market exposure to above historical average. However, readings are not at extremes, according to the latest hedge fund monitor data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research. Despite increases in exposure, funds were up 0.93% for July, underperforming the S&P 500. According to the data, Market Neutral funds raised market exposure to 15% net long from 6% net long. Equity Long/Short also increased market exposure to 42% from 40% net long; slightly above the 35-40% benchmark level.
Ron Paul + Jim Rogers – On the Government, Martial Law and YOUR Freedom (YouTube)
SAC’s Money Market Lesson (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg News reports that investors in SAC Capital, the $14 billion hedge fund recently indicted for encouraging insider trading, want to get their money out as soon as possible. They are worried that their funds might be seized by the government. However, SAC Capital is under no obligation to return investors’ money before the end of the year because of a common hedge-fund practice known as “gating.” Investors in money-market mutual funds may soon be at risk for similar treatment. At least, that is the plan favored by the industry, which the Securities and Exchange Commission cautiously endorsed as one option in June. If the rule becomes official, a fund facing mass withdrawals could temporarily deny investors their money, or impose steep redemption fees.
Hedge funds: Rock stars to fallen stars (Fosters)
Hedge funds were once the rock stars of the financial industry. The smartest people worked for them. The wealthiest gave them their money. They were an easy path to fortune. But if that get-rich-quick narrative was an exaggeration before the financial crisis, it’s even less true since. The hedge fund industry’s performance has been spotty in recent years; its public image, bruised. SAC Capital Advisors became the latest high-flyer brought low when the Justice Department last week accused it of allowing insider trading and making hundreds of millions of dollars illegally.
NY hedge fund threatens sale of RRMC parent company (VicksburgPost)
A New York hedge fund and minority stakeholder in Health Management Associates Inc. says it has the votes amongst shareholders to replace the health care operator’s entire board of directors and, in the process, stymie the announced buyout of the company by Community Health Systems, which owns River Region Medical Center. Glenview Capital Management LLC, owner of 14.6 percent of HMA stock, said this week it expects to transition to a new board following a vote. The action eyes Steven Shulman, a senior adviser to private equity firm Water Street Healthcare Partners, as new chairman of the board, the firm said. He would replace current chairman William Schoen.
Cohen: A dead man walking? (NYPost)
Steven A Cohen may be walking toward the exit of his fabled hedge-fund empire as another $1 billion in capital redemptions came into play for the third quarter on Friday. Among the storm clouds: Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors is wrestling with a federal indictment accusing it of running a criminal insider-trading network. The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging Cohen with failing to supervise employees allegedly engaged in insider trading. And $616 million has been extracted from his fund in two regulatory settlements. SAC is certainly on the brink.
Hedge fund linked to RBS collapse backs bid for branches (Telegraph)
Toscafund, the $1.3bn (£830m) fund chaired by ex-RBS chairman Sir George Mathewson, has emerged as a backer of Andy Higginson’s W&G Investments, which hopes to buy the Scottish bank’s “Project Rainbow” unit. W&G Investments is one of three bidders trying to buy the unit — alongside consortiums led by AnaCap and Corsair Capital — which will control 5pc of the SME market and have 2m retail customers. RBS is being forced to sell the 315-branch arm as a result of European state-aid rules following the Government’s £45bn bail-out — a direct consequence of its 2007 purchase of ABN Amro.
I would own physical gold: Dr Doom (MoneyControl)
Stocks are in “bubble territory,” making it a good time to move into gold, Gloom Boom & Doom Report Editor Marc Faber said Friday. “The S&P is down 3 percent from its high, 1,709, and yesterday we had over 400 new 12-month lows on the New York Stock Exchange. That is remarkable,” he said. “That shows that the internal picture of the market is very different than what the indices show. The indices Nasdaq, S&P, Dow are driven by just a few stocks that are very strong. They are in bubble territory.” Stocks closed lower for a third straight day.
Christopher Hohn Turns Up the Heat on EADS (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
Christopher Hohn seems irritated. The founder of the $6.5 billion London-based activist hedge fund firm the Children’s Investment Fund Management has launched a campaign against EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.), urging the European aircraft maker best known for its Airbus division to sell a key military airplane unit. However, he doesn’t understand why this public pugilism is not getting much attention in the U.S. even though the target has a $46 billion market capitalization…
Career building 101: Do what you love (PIOnline)
From day one after receiving a law degree from the University of Houston, Clint D. Carlson knew he liked markets. So, armed with the J.D., as well as an MBA from Rice University, Mr. Carlson began building a career that would move from traditional money management to risk arbitrage to managing money for the Bass family in Fort Worth, Texas, and finally, in 1993, to his own hedge fund firm, Carlson Capital LP in Dallas. His aim as a hedge fund manager was to apply a variety of strategies he knew well — risk arbitrage, convertible arbitrage, equity pairs trading — to his hedge funds. And his strategies are getting flows — $1 billion so far this year, mostly from institutional investors like the $139 billion New York City Retirement Systems, which hired Carlson to run $250 million, and the $39.6 billion Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, Springfield, $50 million.
