Billionaire Investor Carl Icahn Defends Himself After ProPublica Says He Paid No Federal Income Taxes on $544 Million Declared (Business Insider)
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn declared $544 million in total income between 2016 and 2017, but he paid no federal income taxes in either year, ProPublica said in a bombshell investigation report on Tuesday. The Icahn Enterprises boss explained in a strongly worded statement to the news outlet that he didn’t owe those taxes because his taxable income was zero in those years. He also flatly rejected the idea that he was improperly avoiding taxation.
Greek Bank Stocks Surge, and One Lender Looks to Take Advantage (The Wall Street Journal)
Greek banks, once at the epicenter of Europe’s financial troubles, have been a hot bet for investors anticipating a strong economic rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic. But a surprise $1 billion share sale to fuel growth at one of the country’s big four lenders, Alpha Services and Holdings SA, is stretching the limits of some investors’ enthusiasm. Paulson & Co., Alpha’s biggest shareholder after a Greek state-owned fund, with around 7%, has voted against the capital raise, according to a person familiar with the matter. Proxy adviser ISS is also advising a vote against the proposal, which will be decided at a shareholder meeting on June 15.
Marqeta Prices IPO Above Range, Valuing Startup at $15 Billion (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. payments startup Marqeta, which counts the likes of Uber and hedge fund Coatue among existing backers, on Tuesday priced its initial public offering (IPO) well above the target range to raise $1.2 billion, the company said in a statement. Marqeta sold 45.45 million shares at $27 per share. It had earlier set a price range of $20 to $24 a share.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Problem Solvers: How Brevan Howard Spin-Out Quant Platform SIGTech is Building a “Data Refinery” for Hedge Funds and Asset Managers (Hedge Week)
Spun out from Brevan Howard Asset Management in 2019, SIGTech is a London-based fintech company providing what founder and CEO Bin Ren describes as a “next generation quant platform”. In the two years since launch, the firm has steadily built an information evaluation, curation and analysis platform supporting data-driven, rule-based systematic investment processes for asset managers and hedge funds globally. “We want to solve the technology and engineering problems for asset managers, hedge funds and asset owners who are repeatedly solving the same problems all by themselves, over and over again,” Ren says.
Credit Suisse Scraps Plan to Back Trader’s Fund Amid Crises (Bloomberg)
Credit Suisse Group AG canceled a plan to back star trader Hamza Lemssouguer’s credit fund in a stunning about-face as it dials back risk after the implosion of Archegos Capital Management and Greensill Capital. The Swiss lender agreed with Lemssouguer that he should take his Arini European Credit fund outside the bank, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg. Credit Suisse will not invest any money or retain an ownership stake, said a person familiar with the matter.
Difficult May for Danish Callables (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – The first five months of 2021 and the month of May in particular were more challenging for Nordic fixed-income hedge funds, on aggregate, than their international counterparts. Fixed-income vehicles within the Nordic Hedge Index were down 0.7 percent on average in May, whereas the 270 funds within the Eurekahedge Fixed Income Hedge Fund Index gained 0.4 percent on average last month. The discrepancy is partly explained by the struggle of Danish callable mortgage bonds.
Asian Hedge Fund Managers Favor Growth Over Bitcoin: Goldman Sachs Survey (Investing.com)
Earlier this week, a Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) survey found that American hedge fund managers favor Bitcoin (BTC) over tech, but a Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) poll with chief investment officers in Asia tells a different story. Goldman Sach Global Investment Research published a new survey polling 25 chief investment officers from different hedge funds in Asia. The results show that Bitcoin is the least favorite investment class for 35% of the participants.
SEC Charges Couple With Insider Trading on Confidential Clinical Trial Data (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a New York-based couple with insider trading in the stock of the pharmaceutical company where one of them worked as a clinical trial project manager. The defendants have agreed to pay more than $325,000 to settle the charges. According to the SEC’s complaint, Holly Hand was the senior project manager overseeing a clinical drug trial for a company then known as Neuralstem Inc. As alleged, after Hand learned of negative efficacy results from the trial, she tipped Chad Calice, who then sold all of his Neuralstem stock ahead of the public announcement of the negative news.
Distressed Debt Dry Powder Jumps as Mega Funds Close (Preqin)
Dry powder increases mirror the Global Financial Crisis. If history repeats itself, it will only be a matter of time before distressed opportunities emerge Dry powder at distressed debt funds is rising, as fundraising has been boosted by investors looking for post-COVID opportunities that have yet to emerge. At funds targeting Europe in the first five months of 2021, dry powder jumped by 53%, from $12bn at the end of 2020 to $18bn as of June 2021. This reversed the trend of decline that has seen dry powder fall steadily from a high of $19bn at the end of 2015 (Fig. 1). In North America, however, distressed debt dry powder has climbed from $48bn to $70bn over the same period.
Wednesday 6/9 Insider Buying Report: EVA, WAL (Nasdaq.com)
At Enviva Partners, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Tuesday, Director John C. Bumgarner Jr. bought 32,967 shares of EVA, for a cost of $45.50 each, for a total investment of $1.5M. Bumgarner Jr. was up about 9.0% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with EVA trading as high as $49.60 at last check today. Enviva Partners is trading up about 1.6% on the day Wednesday. Before this latest buy, Bumgarner Jr. made one other purchase in the past year, buying $48,429 shares for a cost of $48.43 a piece. And at Western Alliance Bancorporation, there was insider buying on Friday, by Director Bryan K. Segedi who bought 1,000 shares at a cost of $100.65 each, for a trade totaling $100,650. Western Alliance Bancorporation is trading down about 1.9% on the day Wednesday.
The President & CEO of Teradyne (NASDAQ: TER) is Buying Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, the President & CEO of Teradyne (TER), Mark Jagiela, bought shares of TER for $3.51M. Following Mark Jagiela’s last TER Buy transaction on February 15, 2019, the stock climbed by 91.6%. Following this transaction Mark Jagiela’s holding in the company was increased by 16.54% to a total of $25.36 million.
Health Catalyst Inc (HCAT) CEO Daniel D. Burton Sold $9.1 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
CEO of Health Catalyst Inc, Daniel D. Burton, sold 171,372 shares of HCAT on 06/04/2021 at an average price of $52.92 a share. The total sale was $9.1 million.
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