Hedge Fund News: Stanley Druckenmiller, John Paulson & Starboard Value LP

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Stratton Street Co-Founder Main Retires (Finalternatives)
One of Stratton Street Capital’s four founders has retired from full-time work at the Asia-focused hedge fund. Andrew Main has stepped down from day-to-day responsibilities at the firm 11 years after its founding. He remains with Stratton Street as a consultant. Main’s co-founders, Mark Johns, Andy Seaman and Trever Sliwerski, remain as partners and portfolio managers at the Asian fixed-income specialist. The firm has US$1.6 billion in assets under management.

At hedge-fund conference, Christie says he’s in ‘no rush’ to decide on 2016 (NJBiz)
In an interview Wednesday before Wall Street leaders at the Delivering Alpha conference in New York City, Gov. Chris Christie said he’s in “no rush” to decide whether or not he’ll run for president in 2016. “I have a pretty good day job as governor of New Jersey,” Christie told CNBC’s John Harwood. The interview was televised live on the channel, which cosponsors the annual hedge-fund conference alongside Institutional Investor.

KKR Takes Minority Stake in Hedge Fund BlackGold Capital (HedgeCo)
Global investment firm KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR) is acquiring a 24.9% interest in credit-oriented hedge fund BlackGold Capital Management, the WSJ reports. Founded in 2006 by co-founders Erik Dybesland and Adam Flikerski, Blackgold manages $1.4 billion in assets and specializes in energy and hard asset investments. The investment in BlackGold is part of KKR’s efforts to develop the firm’s hedge fund platform, which is co-led by Girish Reddy and Todd Builione, and to expand the firm’s energy business, which is led by Marc Lipschultz.

Time Warner Shareholders Call Murdoch Bid Hard to Resist (BusinessWeek)
Two billionaire money managers who own shares in Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) said Rupert Murdoch’s bid for the media company will be hard to resist, particularly if he comes back with a higher offer. Ken Griffin, chief executive officer of hedge-fund firm Citadel LLC, said the deal makes sense for the company’s shareholders, and Mario Gabelli, CEO of Gamco Investors Inc (NYSE:GBL), called it “hard for a board to turn down.” “It’s going to get tough to say no,” Griffin, 45, said in a keynote speech at the fourth annual CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference in New York today.

Hostile hedge fund Starboard boosts stake in Darden to 7.1% (OrlandoSentinel)
Starboard Value, a hedge fund with a hostile plan to replace Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)’s board and management, has been buying more Darden stock. Starboard’s ownership surge – now 7.1 percent, up from 6.2 in May – comes as the hedge fund has been blasting the current company leadership for allegedly devaluing the company. In a July 15 letter, Starboard says it bought more stock because it is confident that its board replacements can turn the company around. Starboard pleads with the current board to step aside now, before an upcoming shareholder vote on the board.

How Tom Steyer sees the New Hampshire Senate race (ConcordMonitor)
Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer sees a clear difference between Scott Brown and Jeanne Shaheen on the divisive issue of climate change. A difference so big, in fact, that he’s willing to spend a lot of money here to make sure Shaheen wins re-election to the U.S. Senate. “I don’t think we’d be in New Hampshire if Scott Brown hadn’t run,” Steyer said this morning in an interview with the Monitor. Steyer is the founder of NextGen Climate, a super PAC that’s playing in seven races this fall where Steyer sees a major gap between the candidates on climate change.

Recommended Reading:

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