Hedge Fund Marshall Wace Takes Short Position in Danske Bank (Reuters)
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Hedge fund Marshall Wace is betting on Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO) shares falling after taking a short position in the Danish lender of 0.5% of issued shares, the Danish FSA said on Friday. The hedge fund, co-founded by British financier Paul Marshall, is the first to take a short position in Danske Bank at or above 0.5% which is the threshold for disclosing a short position to the authorities, according to the FSA.
Bill Ackman Finishes 2019 With a Bang (Institutional Investor)
Pershing Square triumphs, making back four years of losses – and earning incentive fees. A little more than three years ago, a Vanity Fair headline asked the question: “Is Bill Ackman Toast?” At the time, Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital hedge fund firm was sinking under its disastrous bet on Canadian pharmaceuticals rollup Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, its investors were starting to bolt, and the naysayers were writing Ackman off. But while several star managers including John Griffin and Leon Cooperman have since closed up shop, and hedge funds in general have lost their golden sheen, Ackman has defied the odds – and then some.
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Lone Pine Beat the Market in 2019 (Institutional Investor)
The Tiger Cub posted big gains after Stephen Mandel, Jr. relinquished day-to-day control of the hedge fund. Talk about a seamless transition. Lone Pine Capital’s two main funds easily beat the major market indices in 2019 after posting strong returns in the fourth quarter, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. It was the first year founder Stephen Mandel, Jr. stopped running the portfolios on a day-to-day basis.
David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital Rebounded 14% in 2019 After a Record Slump the Year Before (Business Insider)
David Einhorn‘s Greenlight Capital trailed the S&P 500 in 2019, but still ended the year in the green after its worst performance ever in 2018. Greenlight returned nearly 14% in 2019 after dipping 0.3% in December, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The S&P 500 rose 29% in the same year, posting its best annual performance since 2013. His main fund had declined 34% in 2018, the worst performance since its creation in 1996. After, Einhorn called 2018 “the year where we didn’t get anything right” and reworked his portfolio at the start of 2019.
Living with Negative Rates on Danish Mortgages (Hedge Nordic)
London (HedgeNordic) – Some Danish individuals can now get a mortgage at a negative rate, and this could still be profitable for local Danish banks, which can fund themselves at interest rates that are even lower. The same logic applies to a number of leveraged investors. “Danish bullet mortgages now have a yield curve ranging from minus 65 basis points at one year to plus 10 basis points at ten year maturities, while convertible mortgages – with prepayment risk – might only pay 0.50% to 1% even at the most common thirty year maturity”, says Formuepleje portfolio manager, Rene Rømer. These rates have come down by at least 70 to 80 basis points over the past year. But Formuepleje’s cost of leverage has now also come down well below minus 0.5% from minus 0.40% a year ago.
Highland Capital Founder Could Not Be Happier To Not Be A Hedge Fund Manager Anymore (Deal Breaker)
You might think that Highland Capital Management founder James Dondero wanted to continue managing his hedge fund. After all, he’s been fighting his investors in court for years to retain that privilege. But then you remember that for Dondero, litigation is essentially sport, and now that said hedge fund is bankrupt, he can finally rid himself of those investors of whom he thinks so little. Plus, it frees him up to pursue his non-courtroom-based passion projects.
