David Tepper and Barry Rosenstein Profit From Smurfit-Stone Container Takeover

Barry Rosenstein’s Jana Partners started a brand new position in their portfolio during the most recent third quarter. They bought more than 500,000 shares of Smurfit-Stone Container (SSCC), valued at less than $10 Million at the end of September. Today, Smurfit-Stone announced that it will be acquired by Rock Tenn Co (RKT) for $35 a share. This means Jana Partners made more than 80% from its SSCC investment in less than 4 months.

The deal also boosted the paper sector. International Paper increased more than 3%, Temple Inland Inc (TIN) gained 5.3%, KapStone Paper & Packaging Corp (KS) was up 4.6%, and Boise Inc. (BZ) increased 3.4%. Surprisingly, Rock Tenn also gained 3.7% after the announcement.

Appaloosa Management’s David Tepper was another hedge fund manager who profited handsomely from this deal. David Tepper had more than 200,000 shares of Smurfit-Stone at the end of September. He also had 570,000 shares of Temple Inland (TIN) and 1.9 million shares of International Paper (IP). David Tepper is a sector investor. At the end of September he had sizable positions in healthcare and semiconductors as well.