A $200 Million Hedge-Fund Trade In Your Bond ETF Is Normal Now (Bloomberg)
Don’t be surprised if you see a huge chunk of cash simply evaporate one day from your exchange-traded bond fund. There’s a good chance it’s just a hedge fund cashing in on a bet. An example of this can be found in BlackRock Inc.’s $5.1 billion long-term U.S. Treasuries ETF, which saw the greatest volume of withdrawals this year among similar funds. Among investors yanking cash was Passport Capital, the $4 billion hedge-fund firm run by John Burbank.
Greenlight Capital Takes $355 Million Stake In General Motors (The Wall Street Journal)
David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital Inc. hedge-fund firm bought a $355 million stake in General Motors during the first quarter, quickly making the automaker one of the firm’s five largest long positions, according to a quarterly filing. Mr. Einhorn, who manages about $12 billion in total, wrote to investors last month that he had “decided to take another drive” into General Motors, after holding an earlier stake for three years that he sold in early 2014. Now, he is sanguine on the company’s chances in Europe and believes low gas prices could stimulate demand for its sports utility vehicles and trucks.
Whale Watching: 8 Trades On Hedge-Fund Plays (CNBC)
Alibaba’s stock slide—partly reflected in some major hedge funds exiting positions—provides a strong entry point for investors, CNBC “Fast Money” traders said Friday. Dan Loeb’s Third Point Capital and John Paulson‘s Paulson and Co. both sold big Alibaba stakes in the first quarter, according to filings. The stock has fallen nearly 15 percent this year, driven down by disappointing fourth-quarter results.
Ackman’s Pershing Square Slashes Stake In Combined The Allergan/Actavis (The Wall Street Journal)
Pershing Square Capital Management LP sold down its position in the combined pharmaceutical companies Actavis PLC and Allergan Inc. after the activist failed to push Allergan into the deal it wanted last year. The activist fund run by William Ackman owned about 1.35 million shares of Actavis at the end of the first quarter, according to a filing Friday. Actavis closed its acquisition of the Botox maker on March 17.
Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management Increases Mondelez Stake (The Wall Street Journal)
Financier Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management LP continued to build its stake in Mondelez International Inc. and PepsiCo. Inc. in the first three months of the year, according to a securities filing Friday. Trian on disclosed it had increased its stake in Mondelez, spun off from Kraft Foods Group Inc. in 2012, to 48 million shares. Mr. Peltz was named to Mondelez’s board last year after criticizing that the snack maker had done too little to cut costs.
