Brevan Howard Crypto Fund Dodges Worst of Rout With Only 5% Loss (Bloomberg)
Brevan Howard Asset Management’s new digital currency fund escaped with a single-digit loss after it held cash during some of this year’s crypto meltdown. The BH Digital Multi-Strategy Fund is down about 5% this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The fund is yet to deploy all $1 billion it raised earlier this year, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private. It’s not clear if the cash holding was a call on the market or the money simply hadn’t been deployed before the crypto markets plummeted.
Odey’s Special Situations Fund Has Slimmed Down: Here’s What’s Left (Forbes)
Odey’s Special Situations Fund was roughly flat for November, down 0.3% to bring its year-to-date return to -12.4%. The MSCI World USD Index gained 6.4% for November, although the Odey fund remains 2.16% ahead of the benchmark’s year-to-date return. In his November letter to investors, portfolio manager Adrian Courtenay said they had moderated the fund’s risk tolerance, targeting more consistent returns with greater weighting to yield-based activities. The result is expected to be reduced monthly volatility as the Odey Special Situations team aims to gradually increase the fund’s risk stance as they rebuild its performance.
Muddy Waters Says It is Shorting Bonds of Real Estate Firm Vivion (Reuters)
Hedge fund Muddy Waters is shorting the bonds of Luxembourg-based real estate investment company Vivion Investments, it said in a report published on its website on Wednesday. Vivion Investments raises money from outside creditors to fund property transactions. Muddy Waters said in the report that it suspected these real estate portfolios were over-valued and not based on actual occupancy rates.
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GoStudent, a $3 Billion Education Startup Backed by Coatue and SoftBank, has Started a Fresh Wave of Layoffs that could Hit Over 100 Jobs, Sources Say (Business Insider)
GoStudent, a $3 billion edtech startup backed by some of the world’s biggest tech investors, has started laying off staff for the second time in three months, Insider understands. The Vienna-based company, which counts Japan’s SoftBank and US hedge fund Coatue among its backers, has already cut roles in Italy, Germany, and Austria with further reductions expected elsewhere, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Hedge Fund Seeks to Replace Pitney Bowes’ CEO and Chairman (CTInsider.com)
STAMFORD – A hedge fund manager that is one of the largest stockholders of shipping-and-mailing firm Pitney Bowes said this week that it would seek to shake up the Stamford-based company’s board of directors and replace its chief executive officer and chairman because it was dissatisfied with its management and performance. Adams Township, Pa.-based Hestia Capital Management plans to nominate at Pitney’s 2023 annual meeting of shareholders a “majority slate” of candidates for the company’s nine-person board that would include a “highly qualified proposed interim chief executive officer supported by a talented group of operators and strategists,” according to a letter sent Monday by Hestia founder and Chief Investment Officer Kurt Wolf to shareholders.
Citadel’s Ken Griffin Taps Musk, Pro Golfer Law Firm in IRS Tilt (Bloomberg Law)
Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin is taking on the Internal Revenue Service with the help of Quinn Emanuel, the same law firm aiding some pro golfers’ fight against the PGA Tour and that assisted Elon Musk in a battle with Twitter. Firm co-managing partner William Burck signed a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Florida federal court seeking to hold the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department liable for the disclosure of Griffin’s confidential financial information.
Hedge Funds Returning to form as Year-End Approaches (Hedge Week)
Hedge funds extended gains in November with the investable HFRI 500 Fund Weighted Composite Index advancing 0.8% for the month, as directional equity hedge and interest rate sensitive relative value arbitrage strategies led the way. The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index advanced 0.95% in November, cutting its YTD decline to 4.1%. Dispersion in hedge fund performance meanwhile, widened slightly in November, as the top decile of the HFRI constituents advanced by an average of 12.8%, while the bottom decile fell by an average of 8.7%, representing a top/bottom dispersion of 21.5%. By comparison, the top/bottom dispersion was 18.6% in October.
Wednesday 12/14 Insider Buying Report: SOFI, WWW (Nasdaq.com)
At SoFi Technologies, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer Anthony Noto bought 1,134,065 shares of SOFI, for a cost of $4.42 each, for a total investment of $5.01M. Noto was up about 9.3% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with SOFI trading as high as $4.83 at last check today. SoFi Technologies is trading up about 8% on the day Wednesday. Before this latest buy, Noto purchased SOFI on 18 other occasions during the past year, for a total cost of $3.47M at an average of $7.06 per share. And at Wolverine World Wide, there was insider buying on Friday, by Director Jeffrey M. Boromisa who purchased 100,000 shares for a cost of $10.49 each, for a trade totaling $1.05M.
Over $16 Million Bet On AMERCO? Check Out These 3 Stocks Insiders Are Buying (Benzinga)
AMERCO: The Trade: AMERCO (UHAL) 10% owner Clarendon Strategies LLC acquired a total of 248,300 shares an average price of $64.97. To acquire these shares, it cost around $16.13 million. Lazydays Holdings: The Trade: Lazydays Holdings, Inc. (LAZY) Director Christopher Shackelton acquired a total of 542,626 shares at an average price of $11.61. To acquire these shares, it cost around $6.3 million.
Hedge Funds Drawn to Crypto’s Next Big Short After FTX Reveals Cracks (Bloomberg)
Before Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and charged with fraud this week, and before the demise of a $60 billion crypto ecosystem decimated digital asset lenders in May, there was the industry’s original bogeyman: Tether. A handful of hedge funds are now turning their focus back to the $66 billion stablecoin, which they warn could be the next crypto catastrophe — one that would make the implosion of Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange look small in comparison.
