Quant Hedge Fund Giant Graham Capital Brings “Novel Sources of Alpha” to Lombard Odier’s Alternatives Platform (Hedge Week)
Graham Capital Management, the long-running US quant hedge fund manager, is launching its multi-asset diversified quant strategy, the Graham Quant Macro fund, on Lombard Odier’s PrivilEdge UCITS fund platform. The PrivilEdge-Graham Quant Macro fund aims to generate a broad range of diversified returns across market cycles, trading global equity, fixed income, and currency futures on a long/short basis. The liquid strategy uses four distinct and complementary sub-strategies which build positions using an assortment of price and fundamental macro data, with volatility measures and market correlations used to manage risk and maintain diversification.
US hedge Fund D1 Takes Stake in £4bn Fintech Giant TransferWise (Sky News)
An American hedge fund which has placed substantial bets on some of the world’s biggest technology companies is taking a stake in TransferWise, the British fintech champion which has just hit a $5bn (£4bn) valuation. Sky News has learnt that D1 Capital Partners, which was set up two years ago by Daniel Sundheim, a prominent Wall Street investor, has agreed to buy roughly $200m worth of TransferWise shares as part of a secondary share sale that was signed last week.
Ackman’s Blank Check Company Raises IPO Target to $4 Billion (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Pershing Square Tontine Holdings Ltd, the blank check company backed by billionaire investor Bill Ackman, has increased the size of its initial public offering by $1 billion to $4 billion, the largest ever IPO by a special purpose acquisition company. The firm plans to go public with 200 million units at $20 each, according to a regulatory filing on Monday. A SPAC uses IPO proceeds and borrowed funds to acquire a company, typically within two years. Investors are not notified in advance which company a SPAC will buy.
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Pro Bankruptcy Briefing: McClatchy Auction Tightens Hedge Funds’ Grip on Newspapers | Brooks Brothers Nets Zero-Interest DIP | AMC Inks $300 Million Rescue (The Wall Street Journal)
Good day. It’s been a busy few days for bankruptcy dealmakers. Hedge-fund manager Chatham Asset Management won an auction to buy McClatchy’s newspapers out of bankruptcy, bringing more of the U.S. print-news business under the control of financial investors. Brooks Brothers landed an unprecedented zero-interest loan to carry it through bankruptcy, courtesy of licensing firm Authentic Brands Group and mall owner Simon Property.
Singapore Hedge Fund Gaining 27% Sticks With Asia Tech (Bloomberg)
A Singapore-based hedge fund is betting on continued recovery in Asian technology stocks, as it expects consumer demand held back by the coronavirus pandemic will soon rebound. Timefolio Asset Management SG Pvt’s Asia equity long short fund has gained 27% so far this year, with tech stocks contributing the bulk of the returns, according to the company. The $100 million asset manager is shareholder in companies including Japanese photomask inspection system developer Lasertec Corp, which rallied 107%, and MediaTek Inc., a Taiwan fabless semiconductor firm, that jumped 42%.
Hedge Fund Performance Picks in 2Q, with Event Driven-Activist Funds Dominating (Opalesque.com)
Opalesque Industry Update – Hedge funds gained an average of +2.07% in June, but year-to-date (YTD) average industry returns are still in the red at -3.37%. The second quarter was stronger for the industry, with 2Q 2020 average returns at +9.91%. Roughly 40% of the industry is producing positive results in 2020, with the average positive gain among that group of +9.12%. The average decline of those funds in the red is -10.85%. Among primary strategies eVestment tracks, a strong story is developing with Event Driven – Activist funds. Average positive returns among this group of funds stood at +4.71% in June and caps off a strong three months of performance that has these funds with an average performance of +22.58% for Q2 2020. Event Driven – Activist Funds are still in the red YTD at -6.44% following a volatile first quarter.
OQ Funds Management Deploys TORA’s Hedge Fund Tech (Hedge Week)
OQ Fund Management has deployed TORA’s OEMS software & functionality. The global trading platform for hedge funds & asset managers is known for its multi-asset, multi-region & unrivalled interoperability with other systems. TORA’s OEMS was one of the first to launch 13 years ago, and delivers advanced functions for portfolio rebalancing, pre-trade and post-trade TCA to improve execution quality combined with strong post-trade allocations and commission management tools.
Notable Insider Buys: Acceleron, Continental And Syneos Health (Benzinga)
Insiders continued to add shares despite overall market volatility and economic uncertainty. Here are some of the most noteworthy insider purchases reported in the past week. Continental Resources: Continental Resources, Inc. (CLR) saw its founder and executive chair, Harold Hamm, return and purchase more than 1.52 additional shares last week. At per-share prices between $16.23 and $18.10, that totaled nearly $26.74 million. His stake is up to more than 12.29 million shares. The total float is about 69.8 million shares. Acceleron: Acceleron Pharma Inc (XLRN) saw 10% owner and partner Celgene recently take advantage of a secondary offering to acquire more than 108,000 shares for $92.50 apiece. That totaled just shy of $10 million. Note that Celgene is a subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY).
Insider Trading: July 13, 2020 (BIV.com)
Insider Eric Sprott, 10% owner. Company: Chesapeake Gold Corp. (TSX-V:CKG). Shares owned: 5,789,099. Trade date: July 3. Trade total: $754,350. Trade: Acquisition of 160,500 shares at a price of $4.70 per share. Insider Wilhelm K. T. Zours, 10% owner. Company: Skeena Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:SKE). Shares owned: 10,382,468. Trade date: July 6. Trade total: $345,000. Trade: Acquisition of 150,000 shares at prices from $2.25 to $2.35 per share.
Cloudflare Inc (NET) CEO & Chair of the Board Matthew Prince Sold $7.3 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO & Chair of the Board of Cloudflare Inc., Matthew Prince, sold 185,764 shares of NET on 07/10/2020 at an average price of $39.12 a share. The total sale was $7.3 million. Cloudflare Inc has a market cap of $12.17 billion; its shares were traded at around $40.08 with and P/S ratio of 27.76.
What Did This CEO Just Do with Personal Shares of Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY)? (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the CEO-RPO, Pro. Srch. & Dig. of Korn Ferry (KFY), Byrne Mulrooney, sold shares of KFY for $462.1K. In addition to Byrne Mulrooney, one other KFY executive reported Sell trades in the last month. The company has a one-year high of $43.99 and a one-year low of $21.45. KFY’s market cap is $1.44 billion and the company has a P/E ratio of 14.70. Currently, Korn Ferry has an average volume of 248.13K.
Box Inc (BOX) CEO Aaron Levie Sold $6.3 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO of Box Inc., Aaron Levie, sold 301,000 shares of BOX on 07/10/2020 at an average price of $20.89 a share. The total sale was $6.3 million. Box Inc provides cloud content management platform that enables organizations to securely manage cloud content while allowing easy, secure access and sharing of content from anywhere, on any device. Box Inc has a market cap of $3.16 billion; its shares were traded at around $20.57 with and P/S ratio of 4.30. Box Inc had annual average EBITDA growth of 37.00% over the past five years. GuruFocus has detected 2 severe warning signs with Box Inc.
