Glenview Takes a Small Hit in January (Institutional Investor)
Larry Robbins’ healthcare-heavy hedge fund was able to post much smaller losses than the various health care indices. Glenview Capital Management did a good job of sidestepping the worst of the January carnage. The healthcare driven long-short fund headed by Larry Robbins lost just 2.25 percent for the month, according to an investor. This compares with a loss of 5.3 percent for the S&P 500 and 9 percent for…
George Soros Warns Against Investing in China Amid Real Estate Crisis (Business Standard)
Hedge-fund billionaire George Soros has warned against investing in China which is witnessing a decline in the real estate boom, citing the example of Evergrande which is finding it difficult to pay its debts in the face of government policies designed to curb the boom. China is facing an economic crisis after a real estate boom ended with a bang last year, according to investor Soros, reported CNN.
Inside Elliott Management’s $16.5 Billion Deal to Buy Software Giant Citrix — and Why More Buyouts are on the Horizon for the Activist Hedge Fund (Business Insider)
When workplace software company Citrix said on Monday that it would be taken private through a $16.5 billion buyout, it was sign that the leveraged buyout boom of 2021 might still have legs. But the firms financing the buyout weren’t the typical leveraged buyout titans. They included Elliott Management, the Paul Singer-led hedge fund known for buying up stakes in big companies, like Twitter and AT&T, and pushing for changes that will raise the stock price.
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Ackman’s Pershing Square Ends January Down 8.2 Pct (Reuters)
TORONTO, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Billionaire investor William Ackman‘s hedge fund Pershing Square Holdings lost 8.2% in January, clawing back returns in the last week of the month after recording heavier losses. Ackman’s Pershing Square Holdings portfolio ended the first three weeks of January down 13.8%, the worst performance to start a year for Ackman in years.
Bridgewater Sees Market Turmoil on ‘Aggressive’ Fed Tightening (Bloomberg)
Investors may be underestimating the need for “aggressive” monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve and other central banks to combat inflation, resulting in “significant risks” for markets, according to Bridgewater Associates. Following hawkish comments from the Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week, investors have brought forward expectations of tightening, pricing in five quarter-point rate hikes this year. Further out, however, they’re predicting fewer rate increases, anticipating the Fed will end the cycle with the policy rate at about 1.65% and long-term inflation expectations anchored around 2%. Consumer prices surged 7% in December from a year earlier, the fastest pace since 1982.
Activist Investors Take Aim at U.K. Inc. (The Wall Street Journal)
U.S. and European activist investors are targeting some of the U.K.’s biggest publicly traded companies, taking advantage of slumping stock prices to push for company breakups and other changes. Florida-based hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. is making waves at U.K. pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC and SSE PLC , an electricity network and alternative energy provider. Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC is calling for a breakup of Shell PLC. And Trian Fund Management LP, another well-known U.S. activist hedge fund, headed by Nelson Peltz, owns a stake in Unilever PLC, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.
An Upcoming “Protean” Hedge Fund (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After launching Protean Capital Management in mid-August 2021 to pool and invest capital in listed Nordic equities via a family office setting, Pontus Dackmo – later joined by Carl Gustafsson from Didner & Gerge – is planning the launch of a long-biased equity hedge fund. The fund, called Protean Select, is expected to launch in April this year.
Research Reveals Strong Increase in Allocations to Digital Assets from Professional Investors, Says Digital Assets Hedge Fund Manager Nickel (Hedge Week)
New research from London-based Nickel Digital Asset Management (Nickel), Europe’s largest regulated digital assets hedge fund manager, reveals that institutional investors and wealth managers have dramatically increased their allocation to cryptocurrencies and digital assets over the past 12 months. According to the survey of professional investors from the US, UK, Germany, France, and the UAE, who collectively have around USD108.4 billion in assets under management, 94 per cent increased their allocation to crypto and digital assets over the past 12 months, with one in four (25 per cent) increasing it by over 100 per cent. Just over nine out of ten (94 per cent) plan to invest more in crypto and digital assets over the next year, with 29 per cent expecting to at least double their allocation.
Activist Investor Activity Picks Up in London as Shares Attract Value Hunters (Proactive Investors)
There are at least 12 companies in the FTSE 350 with activist funds on the share register, including Vodafone, GSK and Unilever. Investors in FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies should expect more shake-ups from activist investors this year, if recent activity is anything to go by. Last weekend, it was revealed that Vodafone PLC is the latest FTSE 100 company to have been targeted by these interventionist funds. The stake taken in the telecoms giant by Swedish hedge fund Cevian Capital makes it nine companies in London’s blue chip index that have activists on their shareholder register, along with several peers on the FTSE 250.
Cathie Wood’s True Believers Are Sticking With Her (Bloomberg)
By the time the mania surrounding ARK Investment Management peaked last year, investors had pumped a staggering $42 billion into its exchange-traded funds. What’s more incredible: Three-quarters of those inflows are still there today. After a stellar 2020 in which it outshone just about everyone on Wall Street, ARK’s had a brutal 12 months. Its flagship fund, the ARK Innovation ETF, has plunged more than 45% because of its big bets on speculative technology-related companies. The S&P 500 index has returned about 20% over the same period. Manager and ARK founder Cathie Wood is perhaps best known for her huge commitment to Tesla Inc., and that stock is still positive compared with a year ago.
Wednesday 2/2 Insider Buying Report: MSFT (Nasdaq.com)
On Monday, Director Emma N. Walmsley bought $1.00M worth of Microsoft, buying 3,300 shares at a cost of $303.26 a piece. Before this latest buy, Walmsley made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $1.02M shares for a cost of $236.80 a piece. Microsoft is trading up about 1.7% on the day Wednesday. Walmsley was up about 3.9% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with MSFT trading as high as $315.12 in trading on Wednesday.
