Bonderman’s family office, Wildcat Capital, is led by Leonard A. Potter, who has served as President and CEO of the fund since its inception in 2011. Potter is also the CEO of Infinity Q Capital, an investment advisor launched by Wildcat in 2014. Prior to joining Wildcat, Potter had worked as a consultant to billionaire George Soros’ Soros Fund Management since 2008, which he joined after having worked as a Managing Director at Soros’ Soros Private Equity since 2005. Potter has a long resume of key management positions at many financial companies and is a board member on several public and private companies.
As stated earlier, little is known about Wildcat’s investment process aside from its publicly disclosed positions with the Securities and Exchange Commission. However, last year, the fund went activist, in a very rare move for a family office. Wildcat issued a letter to the board of Sorrento Therapeutics, accusing the board and management of destroying shareholder value. The investor, which held 6.5% of the company’s stock at the time (it currently holds around 5.3%), said that the company’s board and management had engaged in “egregious and improper self-dealing and are squandering the Company’s assets.”
At the end of June, Wildcat Capital held an equity portfolio worth $376.14 million, according to its latest 13F filing. What’s worth pointing out is that Wildcat’s stellar returns are mainly due to a single investment: Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE). The company, in which Wildcat owns 2.41 million shares, represents the fund’s largest holding, worth $249.85 million and amassing 66.4% of its equity portfolio’s value. Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE), a $10.2 billion biotech focused on cancer immunotherapy, has seen its stock surge by nearly 300% since the beginning of the year. Wildcat has held shares of Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE) since the fourth quarter of 2014. The stock surged on the back of positive data from its drug trials, and more recently, following the announcement that the company will be acquired by Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD).
Wildcat Capital is not the only fund tracked by us to benefit from Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE)’s strong stock growth. During the second-quarter, the number of investors in our database that were bullish on the company went up by five to 30. Among the newcomers were Kurt Von Emster’s VenBio Select Advisor and Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, which added 806,750 shares and 480,155 shares, respectively.
Even though Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE) might represent a forgone investment opportunity, since it won’t move much from the $180 level (the offer price from Gilead), it only underlines why it can be useful to follow funds like Wildcat.
Disclosure: None
