Oaktree, Elliott Among Bargain Hunters Circling Mortgage Trusts (Bloomberg)
Americans hurt by the coronavirus pandemic are skipping home-loan payments, and the trusts that own the mortgages are feeling the pain. Opportunistic funds have noticed. Among the investors in talks to buy discounted assets in the distressed real estate investment trusts are Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. and Appaloosa Management, run by David Tepper, according to people involved in the deals who asked not to be identified discussing private transactions. Apollo Global Management Inc. and Howard Marks’s Oaktree Capital Group are also among interested investors, the people said.
Billionaire Bill Ackman Plowed More Than $200 million into Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway After the Coronavirus Sell-off (Business Insider)
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman bought more than $200 million worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock after the novel coronavirus ravaged stock markets, signaling his confidence in Warren Buffett‘s conglomerate. “Berkshire Hathaway was built by Warren Buffett to withstand a global economic shock like this one,” Ackman said in Pershing Square’s 2019 annual report, published this week. The hedge fund boosted its stake in Berkshire by 39% last month using some of the $2.6 billion windfall from its coronavirus hedges, Ackman said in the report. It also added to its investments in Hilton, Lowe’s, and Burger King-parent Restaurant Brands, and bought back into Starbucks.
Kansas City Employees Redeems $19 million AQR Hedge Fund Investment (Pensions&Investment)
Kansas City (Mo.) Employees’ Retirement System redeemed its $19 million investment in a diversifying hedge fund managed by AQR Capital Management. The $1.1 billion pension fund temporarily reallocated the assets from the redemption from the AQR Delta XN Offshore fund into its investment in the BlackRock Market Advantage Fund, which currently has $36 million in its portfolio, said Barbara Davis, executive director, in an email. Both portfolios are in the pension fund’s opportunistic investment allocation, which is currently 10%, Ms. Davis said.
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Coronavirus Market Devastation Reveals Hedge Fund Strategy Successes and Failures (BeInCrypto.com)
The past month has seen radical changes in nearly every financial sector. Bonds, commodities, stocks, and Bitcoin have all experienced dramatic swings in value during the Coronavirus-induced crisis. This is also true of hedge funds, as the market has tested the mettle of various management investment strategies. While some have seen dramatic losses due to the virus, others have managed excellent returns. Coronavirus Crushes Major Hedge Funds: One notable point of failure is the PointState Hedge Fund, managed by Zach Schreiber. To date this year, the fund has already lost 9.5%, leaving investors desiring to redeem funds.
Starbucks Rises After Bill Ackman Reinvests $720 Million (The Street)
Starbucks (SBUX) – shares got a boost from activist investor Bill Ackman, who reestablished a position with the coffee retailing giant with a stake valued at about $720 million. Shares of the Seattle company at last check were 5.4% higher at $71.47. “In advance of recent market declines, in January we sold our stake in Starbucks as it approached our estimate of intrinsic value,” Ackman’s Pershing Square hedge fund said in its 2019 annual report. Pershing sold off its position in Starbucks in January, the report said.
The Story Behind CABA’s March Performance (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – The Nordic hedge fund industry has taken a hit in the broad sell-off across markets in March, with the Nordic Hedge Index on track for the biggest monthly decline on record. Some hedge funds, however, have performed very well amidst the carnage. Copenhagen-based fixed-income hedge fund CABA Hedge navigated well through the storm, gaining 5.6 percent in March.
