Bain Capital is Raising a $1 billion Tech Fund for Buyouts and Late-stage Investments (CNBC)
Bain Capital, the 35-year-old private equity firm known for takeovers of companies like Varsity Brands and the now bankrupt Toys R Us, is raising $1 billion for a new technology fund that will be used for buyouts and late-stage minority investments, according to people familiar with the matter. The new fund – Bain Capital Tech Opportunities – will target $50 million to $200 million equity investments, primarily in enterprise software and cybersecurity, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plans are private. The fund will also look to acquire smaller companies, the people said.
Canaccord Genuity Invests in AI-powered Hedge Fund (Opalesque.com)
Global investment banking and financial services company Canaccord Genuity Group has made a strategic investment in Artificial Intelligence powered hedge fund, Castle Ridge Asset Management. The investment will enable Castle Ridge to expand its distribution channel with Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management, which manages over $60bn in client assets in Canada, the UK & Europe and Australia. Adrian de Valois-Franklin, CEO of Castle Ridge, stated, “We are thrilled to be backed by an investor with global reach. Together, we believe Castle Ridge represents the future of asset management. Our proprietary WALLACE AI platform constantly adapts to ever changing financial markets.”
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Someone Wants to Pay $3.5 Million to Have Lunch With Warren Buffett (The Wall Street Journal)
A charity auction to have lunch with Warren Buffett has hit a record before it is even over. Bidding for the annual lunch auction reached $3,500,100 late Monday, one day after the auction opened at $25,000. The auction to meet the billionaire and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman ends Friday night. All bidders have to be prequalified to submit an offer. The auction is run by eBay and auction manager Matchfire.
New Jersey’s Pension Fund to Cut Hedge Fund Allocation in Half (Bloomberg)
The New Jersey State Investment Council unanimously voted to cut its target allocation to hedge funds in half, reducing investments in these partnerships to about $2 billion. The pension fund approved the plan on Wednesday to trim the exposure to 3% from 6% under pressure from labor unions looking to reduce fees to investment managers. The state’s hedge fund allocation had a market value of $4.3 billion as of April 30.
Texas Emerging as Hedge Fund Hot Spot (HFAlert.com)
Texas is attracting a disproportionate number of new managers. In the past five years, the number of fund-management firms in the Lone Star State has jumped 27% to 136, according to Hedge Fund Alert’s Manager Database. During the same period, the total number of firms operating in the U.S. has increased 8% to 3,172. Meanwhile, manager rosters in the hedge fund bastions of New York, Connecticut and Illinois have shrunk. The Manager Database captures firms reporting to the SEC either as registered investment advisors or so-called exempt managers. Based on its share of hedge fund businesses, Texas now ranks fifth, while Illinois slipped to sixth position with 116 firms, down from 121 five years ago.
Asia Hedge Funds Struggle to Benefit from Investor Enthusiasm (Reuters)
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian hedge funds are struggling to benefit from strong investor interest in the region in the face of patchy liquidity, country-level restrictions and general market jitters over the U.S.-China trade war. The Asia Pacific was the top region identified by investors globally in 2018 and 2019 for increased exposure to hedge fund investments, a JP Morgan survey showed, reflecting demand for exposure to strong economic and demographic trends.
Female Hedge-Fund Veteran Has Contemplated a Comeback (The Wall Street Journal)
Anne Dias, once one of the few women to run her own hedge fund, has been considering a return to money management. She has discussed a potential launch with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and others in the industry, people familiar with the matter said. It isn’t known if she plans to move forward, and her plans could change. A Goldman Sachs spokeswoman declined to comment.
Eddie Lampert, Former Sears CEO, Says He shouldn’t have to Pay Severance to Laid-off Workers (CBS News)
When Eddie Lampert sweetened his offer to buy Sears out of bankruptcy, the increased ante included a provision setting aside up to $43 million for severance for laid-off workers. Lampert is now asking a judge to relieve him of the obligation, arguing he didn’t get what he paid for in buying the struggling department-store chain for $5.2 billion earlier this year.
This Hedge Fund Superstar Thinks Climate Change Will Impact All Your Investments—And Soon (Forbes)
Since November, Robert Gibbins has crisscrossed the globe attending scientific conferences, traveling from his home in Geneva, Switzerland, to Arizona, Spain and Austria. The events had a common theme-climate change-and were well attended by academics, bureaucrats and politicians. One group was conspicuously absent. “I didn’t see any other investors there,” he says. That boggles his mind. “Climate change is something we have to include in every single analysis, every investment,” he says. Most people think-or hope-that global warming is something their children or grandchildren will have to reckon with. Gibbins disagrees. The 49-year-old founder of Autonomy Capital ($5.5 billion in assets) thinks that climate change is happening suddenly and soon.
Insider Buying In Chesapeake: Assessing What Happens Next (Seeking Alpha)
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) is testing December lows as wary investors try to price a company with over $10B in debt and a rising share count. Shareholders in Chesapeake Energy, hereby referred to as CHK have suffered a 45% sell-off over the last 6 weeks. Insider Buying, Insider Selling? According to an after hours Form 4 SEC filing today, Dominic Dell’Osso Jr. bought 50K shares and now holds over 2M shares. Here is the clip. CEO Robert Lawler also purchased 50K shares and now holds over 5 million shares.
Wednesday 5/29 Insider Buying Report: IDYA, LOW (Nasdaq.com)
On Tuesday, Ideaya Biosciences (IDYA)’s Director, John D. Diekman, made a $2.5M purchase of IDYA, buying 250,000 shares at a cost of $10.00 each. So far Diekman is in the green, up about 16.5% on their purchase based on today’s trading high of $11.65. Ideaya Biosciences is trading up about 1.3% on the day Wednesday. And at Lowe’s Companies ( LOW ), there was insider buying on Friday, by CEO Marvin R. Ellison who purchased 10,000 shares at a cost of $95.05 each, for a total investment of $950,538. Lowe’s Companies is trading up about 1.2% on the day Wednesday. Investors can pick up LOW at a price even lower than Ellison did, with the stock trading as low as $91.60 in trading on Wednesday which is 3.6% under Ellison’s purchase price.
A Director at Sonic Foundry (Other OTC: SOFO) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, a Director at Sonic Foundry (SOFO), Mark Burish, bought shares of SOFO for $2.08M. Following this transaction Mark Burish’s holding in the company was increased by 30.81% to a total of $1.71 million. Currently, Sonic Foundry has an average volume of 4,900. In the last 30 days, insiders have sold $1.13M worth of SOFO shares and purchased $2.94M worth of SOFO shares. The insider sentiment on Sonic Foundry has been positive according to 14 insider trades in the past three months. This sentiment is slightly higher than the average sentiment of company insiders in this sector.
McKesson Executives Reaped Personal Gains from Generics Price-fixing Scheme, Lawsuit Claims (Fierce Pharma)
So far, the massive generic drug price-fixing probe that’s wrapped up the biggest names in the business has seemingly centered on generic manufacturers. Now, an investor lawsuit says drug distribution giant McKesson is in the mix, too—and that executives personally profited off the scheme. In a lawsuit filed in San Francisco last week, McKesson shareholder Jean Henry says the company’s board and officers made misleading statements about the company’s performance amid a years-long stretch of price-fixing by generic drug companies. When the company’s shares were riding high thanks to higher drug prices, investors and board members dumped their holdings in a “massive insider trading binge.”
SEC Charges Investment Adviser With Fraud (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged investment adviser Stephen Brandon Anderson with defrauding clients by overcharging advisory fees of at least $367,000. According to the SEC’s order, Anderson owned and operated River Source Wealth Management, LLC, a now-defunct registered investment adviser in North Carolina. River Source’s primary revenue stream was customer advisory fees. Customer agreements provided that those fees would be based on each customer’s assets under management. The SEC’s order finds, however, that in 2015 and 2016, Anderson overcharged a majority of his clients.
