Weiss Asset Management Settles with SEC for $6.9 Million (Investment News)
Weiss Asset Management, a Boston-based hedge fund manager, has agreed to pay approximately $6.9 million to settle SEC charges that it violated the federal securities laws when it unlawfully purchased stock in seven public offerings after selling short those same stocks. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged that between December 2020 and February 2021, Weiss violated violated Rule 105, which prohibits short selling an equity security during a restricted period (generally five business days before a covered public offering) and then purchasing the same security through the offering, absent an exception.
Novogratz Says Crypto Going Through a ‘Long Term Capital Management Moment’ But Nearing a Bottom (CNBC)
Crypto investor Michael Novogratz is drawing parallels between crypto and Long Term Capital Management, a highly leveraged hedge fund that blew up in the late 1990s. “We are going through what feels to me a little bit like a Long Term Capital Management moment in crypto,” Novogratz said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “It was the big hedge fund with all the leverage, and when it started unwinding, there was repercussions everywhere. We are seeing that in the crypto space right now.”
Meet Bill Ackman, the Controversial Hedge-Fund Manager Who Made $2.6 Billion off the Coronavirus Market Crash in March (Business Insider)
While most of the world saw their nest eggs decimated as the stock market went into a free-fall over coronavirus fears last month, one hedge-fund manager was raking in billions. Bill Ackman, the chief executive of Pershing Square Capital, made $2.6 billion for the hedge fund off a $27 million bet after the pandemic tanked the stock market. Ackman has a history of controversial bets that earned him a $1.6 billion fortune and an investigation by the New York District Attorney’s Office, although no charges were ever filed.
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Hedge Fund BlueBay Is Shorting Japanese Bonds Until BOJ Breaks (Bloomberg)
BlueBay Asset Management is gearing up for battle with the Bank of Japan. As the BOJ escalates attempts to keep a lid on bond yields, BlueBay is betting the central bank will be forced to abandon a policy that’s increasingly out of sync with global peers. The BOJ’s so-called yield curve control is “untenable,” according to Mark Dowding, BlueBay’s London-based chief investment officer.
FedEx Adds Two Directors to Board in Agreement with D.E. Shaw (Reuters)
June 14 (Reuters) – U.S. parcel delivery firm FedEx Corp (FDX.N) on Tuesday added two directors to its board as part of an agreement with hedge fund D.E. Shaw and raised its quarterly dividend by more than 50%. The deal also gives the investment firm, which has a stake of less than 1% in FedEx, a say in the appointment of a third director at a later date.
This is Your Pay at a Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund in New York City (eFinancialCareers)
Hedge funds are giving New York City their seal of approval. Citadel is getting a new office at 425 Park Avenue and Steve Keller, Millennium‘s EMEA head of business development, has posted some very enthusiastic observations about the city on LinkedIn following a Millennium “on-site” for the fund’s “collective” global teams at its head office. It’s not clear whether either Millennium or Citadel are hiring more feverishly in New York City and elsewhere, but both are hiring in the city.
Hedge Funds Eager to Prove that Short-Selling is a Legitimate ESG Strategy (Opalesque)
A study published by the Managed Funds Association indicates that targeted short-selling campaigns could slash up to $140 billion in capital expenditure at the biggest carbon emitters in the S&P 500 Index by pressuring them to clean up their acts. Incorporating short selling as part of an ESG-focused investment strategy can help shift capital away from high-emissions companies all while limiting losses for investors, said the study. “ESG is an increasingly important focus for investors of all types. Short selling is an important tool by which investors can have a real-world impact and hedge their portfolios from climate and regulatory risks. Short selling can potentially reallocate $50-$140 billion of investments away from the most heavily polluting companies. But to fully realize this potential, ESG portfolio metrics cannot ignore short positions or incorrectly treat any exposure, be it long or short, the same,” the study claimed.
Hedge Funds Spawned by Hillhouse Burned in China Tech Crash (Bloomberg)
For years, it’s been one of the best calling cards that hedge fund startups in Asia could ask for: getting support from billionaire Zhang Lei or gaining experience at his Hillhouse Capital Group. After leveraging that Hillhouse pedigree to raise a combined $20 billion, the offshoot funds are losing some of their luster. Most have posted double-digit declines this year on the same Chinese tech, consumer and health-care sectors that Hillhouse itself backed to mint so many millionaires.
Preqin 2022: Alternatives in Asia-Pacific (Preqin)
As global investors seek investment opportunities outside North America and Europe, they are turning their attention to the APAC region, which has thus far avoided the worst of the inflationary impacts seen elsewhere. We forecast that private capital assets under management (AUM) in APAC, excluding RMB-denominated funds, will represent 12.7% of the global market at the end of 2022, reaching $2.25tn by 2026, at a CAGR of 15.0%. Private equity and venture capital accounted for 73.6% of the total APAC private capital market in 2021, and we expect it to reach 83.0% in 2026.
Billionaire Investor Leon Cooperman Predicts US Stocks will Plunge 40% in Total as the Economy Crashes into a Recession (Business Insider)
US stocks have a long way left to fall, according to hedge fund veteran Leon Cooperman, who has predicted the economy will tumble into a recession in 2023. Cooperman told CNBC Tuesday he thinks the S&P 500 will suffer a total drop of 40% as a recession batters corporate profits. He said equities are unlikely to head back into a bull market any time soon.
WPB Hedge Fund Manager Headed to Prison Over $6.8M Paycheck Protection Program Fraud (The Palm Beach Post)
A 35-year-old part-time West Palm Beach resident this week was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting he lied to get $6.8 million from a federal program designed to help businesses and their employees survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Gregory Blotnick, who launched a New York hedge fund in 2019 after he left Citadel Securities, submitted 21 phony applications for loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, federal prosecutors in New Jersey said.
Tuesday 6/14 Insider Buying Report: MGM, MTW (Nasdaq.com)
At MGM Resorts International, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Monday, Director Paul J. Salem bought 34,500 shares of MGM, for a cost of $28.92 each, for a total investment of $997,695. MGM Resorts International is trading up about 2.1% on the day Tuesday. Before this latest buy, Salem made one other purchase in the past twelve months, buying $109,370 shares for a cost of $31.25 each. And on Friday, Director Kenneth W. Krueger bought $431,036 worth of Manitowoc, buying 34,500 shares at a cost of $12.49 a piece. This purchase marks the first one filed by Krueger in the past year. Manitowoc is trading up about 4.5% on the day Tuesday. Bargain hunters can bag MTW even cheaper than Krueger did, with the stock changing hands as low as $11.91 at last check today — that’s 4.7% under Krueger’s purchase price.
