Brian Stark Doubled Down On Globalstar $GSAT

Brian Stark’s Stark Investments had 9.4 Million shares of GSAT in its portfolio at the end of March. Stark boosted his stake in Globalstar Inc (GSAT) to %7.1. The fund currently holds 20,646,470 shares of the company. Stark purchased 6 Million shares of GSAT by June 14^th. In the following 10 days, he purchased an additional 5 Million shares of GSAT at prices around $1.20 per share. The stock closed at $1.17 on Friday.

Stark Investments is the largest shareholder of GSAT with a $24 Million position. There are  other hedge funds in GSAT with relatively small holdings. Howard Marks’ Oaktree and Andy Redleaf’s Whitebox Advisors held Globalstar’s bonds in their portfolios. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group and D. E. Shaw are among the hedge funds with small stock positions.

Wisconsin-based Stark Investments was founded in 1992 by Brian Stark and Mike Roth. Brian Stark specialized in special situations and arbitrage in his early days of investing. He also published a book titled Special Situation Investing, Hedging, Arbitrage and Liquidation. Brian Stark invests in stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, loans, private equity, and intellectual property. The firm had $1.5 Billion in AUM in 2001 and nearly $14 Billion in 2007. In July 2010 Stark had only $4 Billion in AUM. His fund lost 22% in 2008, gained only 12% in 2009 and hit with redemption requests. Brian Stark holds a BA from Brown University and a JD from Harvard Law School.

According to Google Finance, Globalstar “is a provider of mobile voice and data communications services via satellite. Using 44 in-orbit satellites and 27 ground stations, which it refers to as gateways, it offers voice and data communications services in over 120 countries. It also sells communication services on a wholesale basis to independent companies, which operate 14 of these gateways, which it refers to as independent gateway operators (IGOs). As of December 31, 2009, it provided the telecommunications services, which included two-way voice communication between mobile or fixed handsets or user terminals and other mobile and fixed devices; two-way data transmissions (which it calls duplex) between mobile and fixed data modems, and one-way data transmissions (which it calls Simplex) between a mobile or fixed device that transmits its location or other telemetry information and a central monitoring station. In December 2009, it acquired certain assets and certain liabilities of Axonn L.L.C.”