The closely watched battle of the hedge-fund billionaires over Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) is about to get a lot nastier. Bill Ackman has filed a complaint with regulators against George Soros’ family fund and unidentified co-conspirators alleging Soros’ firm broke insider-trading rules by tipping hedge funds about its purchases of shares in the LA-based multi-level marketing company, The Post has learned. Soros Fund Management has been trying to use the reputation of the 82-year-old financier to orchestrate a short squeeze against the $1 billion Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) short bet of Ackman’s Pershing Square hedge fund, Ackman alleged in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, according to sources.
Hedge funds copy Soros’s regulatory sidestep (Financial Times)
Meanwhile, William Collins, the veteran New York hedge fund manager, returned money to external investors and transformed his fund, Brencourt Advisors, into a family office earlier this year. The fund was set up in 2001. These developments come after George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund manager, returned money to investors in his Quantum hedge fund and converted the business to a family office in 2011. The move was in response to US rules requiring hedge funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US regulator. Mr Soros avoided this by running his $24bn fund as a family office.
Ex-Soros Adviser Fujimaki Sees JGB Bust From Tax Delay, Fed (Bloomberg)
Takeshi Fujimaki, a former adviser to billionaire investor George Soros who won a seat in Japan’s upper house of parliament last month, said a delay in increasing the sales tax and reduction of Federal Reserve stimulus could cause the nation’s government bond “bubble” to burst. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration plans to release later this year its medium-term fiscal plans and a final decision on a two-step doubling of the consumption levy to 10 percent in 2015. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in June the U.S. central bank may start scaling down its third round of quantitative easing of asset purchases this year and end it altogether in mid-2014.
Herbalife up 100% this year (CNBC)
Why George Soros’ Investment In Herbalife Is Terrible News For Bill Ackman (Forbes)
It’s never good when a stock you are shorting jumps by 9% in a single day. But for billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman, the news that CNBC broke yesterday about George Soros taking a large long position in Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) stock is particularly awful. The Soros investment means that in continuing his massive bet against Herbalife’s stock, Ackman’s Pershing Square hedge fund is on the opposite side of arguably the two greatest traders in the history of Wall Street. George Soros has an estimated net worth of more than $19 billion, earned over decades of legendary bets, including his hugely successful short of the British pound that is known for breaking the Bank of England, an institution with a little more historical staying power than a seller of diet shakes based in Los Angeles. Soros, 82, would be worth even more but he has given much of his fortune to charity.
