Oaktree Invests USD200m in WHP Global (Hedge Week)
WHP Global (WHP), a new brand management platform led by Chairman & CEO Yehuda Shmidman has launched backed by a USD200 million equity commitment from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management (Oaktree). WHP was founded to acquire and manage multiple global consumer brands, leveraging a shared platform to unlock competitive advantages at scale and fuel growth for each distinctive brand in its portfolio. The Company plans to deploy up to USD1 billion in capital over the next five years. The Company also today announced its first acquisition with the purchase of global fashion brand Anne Klein from Premier Brands Group. An iconic legacy women’s fashion brand founded in 1968, Anne Klein serves women around the world with classic American style.
Scaramucci Disinvited from Florida Republican Fundraiser for Calling Trump’s Tweets “Racist” (Salon.com)
Anthony Scaramucci, the financier who lasted 11 days as President Donald Trump’s White House communications director before being fired, was disinvited from a Florida Republican fundraiser after he denounced Trump’s “racist and unacceptable” tweets directed at a group of newly-elected congresswomen of color. “He suggested that the president’s comments were racist and that he was becoming a racist. Our board was infuriated,” said Michael A. Barnett, the Palm Beach County GOP chairman, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. “We believe the tweets were not racist, the president is not racist and that Scaramucci’s comments were unfair,” Barnett, who is African American, told Politico, which first broke. the story.
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Here’s Why Hedge Fund Manager Ray Dalio’s Gold Case May be Wrong (CNBC)
One commodity has proven a golden opportunity in the past week. The price of gold has moved 1% higher against a slight drop for the S&P 500 as investors favored a safety hedge following the stock market’s record run. Gold prices moved even higher Wednesday after billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio picked the commodity as one of his top investments. In a LinkedIn post, he said the asset could act as a defensive play as global markets undergo a “paradigm shift.”
Billionaire Tom Steyer Needs Your Money, or his Campaign is Doomed (San Francisco Chronicle)
Billionaire former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer inadvertently sent a message to potential donors when he promised to spend $100 million on his Democratic presidential campaign: I don’t need your money. The problem is, while Steyer doesn’t need money, he needs donors — 130,000 of them — to qualify for the Democratic National Committee’s Sept. 12 debate in Houston. That’s in addition to support of 2% or more in four national or early-voting-state polls.
Bill Ackman Finds Activist Attention Unappealing (BreakingViews.com)
The hedge fund boss’s $4 bln London-listed fund has incurred investor wrath over its low price and a bond issue. The prescription is activism 101: buy back stock and shake up the board. Ackman, for once a target, may find new sympathy for the defence that he just needs more time.
Agenta Gets New Multi-Asset Fund Off the Ground (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Stockholm-based asset manager Agenta Investment Management launched a multi-asset absolute return fund at the beginning of 2019. Agenta Alternativa Investeringar, a hedge fund that predominantly makes direct and indirect investments in equities and bonds, has now joined the Nordic Hedge Index. Agenta Alternativa Investeringar is a multi-asset absolute return fund with a broad investment mandate, which allows making both direct and indirect investments in listed and unlisted securities in various asset classes. Since launching on the first day of January, the fund has predominantly allocated capital to Nordic bonds, Swedish equities and long/short equity funds. The fund’s investments are predominantly focused in Sweden, but its investment mandate allows investing globally as well.
Hedge Fund Betting on Years of Low Rates Puts 99% Cash in Stocks (Bloomberg)
A hedge fund that’s delivered almost double the returns of the S&P 500 Index this year is going all-in on stocks — at least the safe and stodgy ones. Valley Forge Capital Management, whose $460 million of assets is invested in just nine stocks, has cut its cash holdings to 1%, the lowest in seven years and compared with an average 20% in the fund’s history, according to founder Dev Kantesaria.
