Alan Howard Goes Back to His Secret Sauce (Bloomberg)
Alan Howard stepping down as chief executive officer of Brevan Howard Asset Management is a logical step after his 2017 decision to return to running money directly himself. That’s all he will do now (or at least that’s the idea). But there’s a broader trend at play here in the hedge fund and asset management industry. Being too big or too diverse is no longer a good look for a money manager with a celebrity name attached. Fickle institutional money is demanding that the star chef is actually in the kitchen and not just sticking their brand on the sauce bottle.
Leon Cooperman Rips Elizabeth Warren in New Letter for ‘Soak-the-Rich Positions,’ and Treating Him Like ‘an Ungrateful Child’ (CNBC)
Leon Cooperman sent a critical letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the top Democratic presidential candidates, marking the latest salvo in the war of words between the billionaire investor and the economic populist politician. Cooperman laced into Warren right from the beginning of his letter for her Oct. 23 tweet criticizing him. “You proceeded to admonish me (as if a parent chiding an ungrateful child) to ‘pitch in a bit more so everyone else has a chance at the American dream,’” Cooperman writes.
Exclusive: Hedge Fund Sachem Head Pushes Instructure to Explore a Sale – Sources (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Hedge fund Sachem Head Capital Management has built a stake in Instructure Inc (INST.N) and plans to push the U.S. educational software company to explore alternatives, including selling itself, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. New York-based Sachem Head, which has been buying Instructure’s shares over time, wants the Salt Lake City-based company to pursue a full sale process, the sources said. The exact size of Sachem Head’s position could not be determined.
Alex Oakenman / shutterstock.com
Einhorn’s Greenlight Fell 6% in October, Paring Gains for Year (Bloomberg)
David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital had a losing month in October, paring gains for this year to 16%. Greenlight, which follows a value-oriented strategy, fell 6.3% across its hedge funds in the month, according to an update seen by Bloomberg. The S&P 500 Index returned about 2.2% with dividends reinvested, while value stocks gained about 1%.
An SEC Official is Siding with Big Asset Managers that Say Hedge Funds Like Saba Capital Should be Banned from Taking Activist Stakes in Closed-end Funds (Business Insider)
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Robert Jackson hopes to prevent the kind of closed-end fund activism that funds like Boaz Weinstein‘s Saba Capital have engaged in. Jackson, in an interview with Business Insider, said the SEC needs to protect the retail investors who choose closed-end funds for the fixed payouts the structure offers, and hopes to get the issue in front of the full commission before the end of the year. “I’m not interested in protecting funds. I’m interested in protecting investors,” the SEC commissioner told us.
AT&T Decides Not To Make Paul Singer Angry (Deal Breaker)
Less than two months ago, Paul Singer let AT&T know all of the ways he thought it sucked: It sucked in the boardroom, where it really should have the CEO and chairman roles separated, and also a few Elliott Management representatives. It sucked in terms of strategy, and should both stop buying giant things, and un-buy several of the giant things it had already bought, like DirecTV, for instance. And, thanks in part to those things and other smaller areas of suckage, it sucked in the market, where it was trading for roughly half what it should be.
David Rubenstein Talks to Ray Dalio (Podcast) (Bloomberg)
Ray Dalio is the founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates, which manages $160 billion. Dalio has joined Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ pledge, promising to give more than half of his fortune to charitable foundations within his lifetime. Through his Dalio Foundation, he has directed millions of dollars in donations to the David Lynch Foundation, an organization that sponsors and promotes research on Transcendental Meditation.
Young Hedge Funds Do Better (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Many institutional investors require a track record from hedge funds before making allocations. Younger funds without a long track record, however, delivered higher returns than more established ones in the recent past, according to a study by Preqin and alternatives asset management firm 50 South Capital. Hedge funds early in their lifecycle are outperforming established players by 3.7 percent and 4.6 percent on a third- and five-year annualized basis, correspondingly. Early lifecycle hedge funds are defined as vehicles within the first three years of their existence. Once the funds reach the three-year threshold, they are classified as established funds.
