Carl Icahn is on a Seven-Year Losing Streak, but the Market Still Loves His Stock. (Forbes)
In October 2013, when Carl Icahn started selling his large position in Netflix, many believed the vaunted billionaire investor had done it again. The company had successfully transitioned from a DVD-by-mail rental service to video streaming, and Icahn had made a 457% return in just 14 months. “As a hardened veteran of seven bear markets,” Icahn announced, it was time for him “to take some of the chips off the table.” Icahn’s son, Brett, begged his father not to sell. By 2015 Icahn was out, making a tidy $2 billion profit on Netflix. But since his departure the stock has appreciated another tenfold. Had Icahn held onto it, his profit would have been $19 billion.
Archegos’s Collapse Is a Wakeup Call for Regulators (The Wall Street Journal)
The big damage from Archegos’s collapse seems to have been limited to Credit Suisse and Nomura. But that doesn’t mean all is well in the financial system. As the dust settles on the fund’s implosion, the impact is becoming clearer. Credit Suisse and Nomura were slow to sell shares, costing them dearly relative to early movers Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank . The anticipated losses are enough to cause Credit Suisse and Nomura serious pain, but not to threaten their solvency.
Brevan Howard Runs $50 Billion Unit Like BlackRock’s Aladdin (Bloomberg)
Brevan Howard is making money for its billionaire co-founder Alan Howard and other partners through more than just hedge fund fees. The investment firm best known for running macro trading strategies has persuaded the likes of SoftBank Group Corp., hedge fund Penso Advisors and 15 others to use its high-tech operational infrastructure that once only served as the trading backbone for Brevan Howard’s more than $40 billion in assets.
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Cubic Accepts Sweetened Buyout Offer from Veritas Capital, Elliott (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Cubic Corp said on Wednesday it had agreed to a sweetened buyout offer from private equity firm Veritas Capital and U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management that values the defense electronics maker at about $2.38 billion. The move ends a bidding war for Cubic, which had also attracted a $2.4 billion, or $76 per share, approach from Singapore’s ST Engineering last month.
Billionaire Investor Bill Ackman Trumpeted a Record 70% Return, Touted a $500 million Hedge, and Teased a Second SPAC in his Shareholder Letter. Here are the 5 Key Takeaways (Business Insider)
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman trumpeted his fund’s record performance last year, revealed his latest hedge has tripled in value to nearly $500 million, and touched on his plans for a second blank-check company in his shareholder letter this week. Here are the five key takeaways from Ackman’s letter. Pershing outperformed thanks to pandemic bets: Pershing Square scored a 70% increase in net asset value including dividends in 2020, notching its best annual return in its 17-year history, Ackman said. The fund has delivered a compound annual return of 17.1% since its inception in 2004, outpacing the S&P 500’s 9.8% return over the same period.
Maples Group appoints new Head of MPMF (Private Equity Wire)
MPMF Fund Management (Ireland) Limited (MPMF), the Maples Group’s alternative investment fund manager and UCITS management company, has appointed industry expert, Declan McHugh who will have overall responsibility for MPMF’s business in Ireland. An evolving regulatory environment, new and extensive authorisation, operational and transparency requirements, and increasing demands from regulators and investors have made operational efficiency more important than ever. At the same time, the management company space has rapidly matured and has become increasingly integrated with investment manager operations. Given these dynamics, fund managers are looking for holistic solutions – including management company, legal, fiduciary and fund services – that can effectively address their resource, technology and governance requirements. With demand for this support expected to grow, Declan’s appointment will ensure MPMF is well positioned to continue to deliver best-in-class solutions to the market.
BlackRock Raises $3 Billion for First Dedicated Secondary Strategy (The Wall Street Journal)
Asset-management giant has raised it first ever fund to buy secondhand private-equity stakes. BlackRock Inc. has raised $3 billion to invest in the private-equity secondary market, as the world’s largest asset manager seeks to expand its presence in illiquid alternative investments. BlackRock Secondaries & Liquidity Solutions LP is among the largest debut funds ever raised to buy secondhand private equity stakes.
Danish Court Rules in Favor of Pre-Trial Detention for Hedge-Fund Trader Sanjay Shah (Bloomberg Quint)
(Bloomberg) — A Danish court has ruled that hedge-fund trader Sanjay Shah and an associate should be detained before their trial begins, after the two were charged with tax fraud as part of a wider Cum-Ex investigation. The decision, which was widely expected and announced by multiple local media outlets on Wednesday, paves the way for Denmark to seek formal extradition of Shah, who lives in Dubai, and his alleged accomplice, Anthony Mark Patterson, whose address is in the U.K. Both were charged earlier this year for their roles in claiming what police say were illegal refunds on dividend taxes.
CASI Pharma Trades Higher on Insider Buying (Seeking Alpha)
CASI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CASI) has added ~8.0% in the pre-market after its Chairman/CEO Wei-wu He disclosed the purchase of 3M company shares in a regulatory filing submitted yesterday. Making the company’s first insider transaction for the year, Wei-wu He has bought 3M common stock at an average price of $2.05 per share for a total value of $6.2M. CASI, a biopharmaceutical company with a hematology-oncology therapeutic focus targeting the global markets including the U.S. and China recently closed an underwritten public offering of 15.8M shares at $2.05/share.
MP Materials Corp (MP) Chairman and CEO James H. Litinsky Sold $155.5 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
Chairman and CEO of MP Materials Corp, James H. Litinsky, sold 4,603,123 shares of MP on 03/26/2021 at an average price of $33.78 a share. The total sale was $155.5 million. MP Materials Corp has a market cap of $5.86 billion; its shares were traded at around $34.310000 with and P/S ratio of 21.39.
What Did This CEO Just Do with Personal Shares of Transcat (NASDAQ: TRNS)? (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the President & CEO of Transcat (TRNS), Lee Rudow, sold shares of TRNS for $686.1K. Following Lee Rudow’s last TRNS Sell transaction on August 05, 2015, the stock climbed by 42.4%. This is Rudow’s first Sell trade following 6 Buy transactions. Based on Transcat’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending December 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $44.06 million and quarterly net profit of $1.76 million. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $43.18 million and had a net profit of $1.48 million. The company has a one-year high of $54.15 and a one-year low of $22.87. Currently, Transcat has an average volume of 59.74K.
