Dan Loeb’s Third Point Builds Stake in Colgate, Sees Value in Pet Food Business in Potential Spinoff (CNBC)
Dan Loeb’s Third Point has built a sizeable stake in consumer giant Colgate-Palmolive, according to CNBC’s David Faber. Loeb sees hidden value in Colgate’s subsidiary, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a pet food company, if it were spun off. The investor believes as a stand-alone business, Hill’s could deliver even faster growth and better margins, and could achieve a valuation close to $20 billion on its 2023 numbers, Loeb will say in a forthcoming investor letter, according to sources.
Impactive Capital Backs WEX to Use M&A to Bolster Value (Reuters)
Impactive Capital continues to engage with WEX Inc (WEX.N) to bolster the payments company’s fortunes, including using depressed valuations across the financial technology space to make beneficial acquisitions, the activist’s managing partner said on Tuesday. The firm has been a shareholder since early 2021 of Portland, Maine-based WEX, which provides payments solutions and virtual cards to businesses including travel, fleet and healthcare. The company continues to recover from being significantly impacted by restrictions on travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but despite improvements still trades at a discount to how its individual business units would be valued, Lauren Taylor Wolfe told the annual 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York.
CQS and Napier Park Take On Elliott With Rival Bid for Matalan (Bloomberg)
CQS and Napier Park are among five funds preparing to take on Elliott Investment Management with a rival bid for struggling UK discount fashion retailer Matalan, according to people familiar with the matter. The funds hold a majority of the retailer’s £80 million ($91 million) junior debt and are fine-tuning a pitch that will include converting their debt into equity and fully repaying existing creditors, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the details of the transaction aren’t public.
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Salesforce, Splunk Shares Jump as Starboard Talks Stakes (The Wall Street Journal)
Shares in Salesforce and Splunk jumped Tuesday morning as Jeff Smith, the founder of activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP, discussed the firm’s stakes in the technology companies at a Tuesday conference. Salesforce shares rose more than 7% and Splunk was up nearly 4%. Mr. Smith outlined his thesis Tuesday morning at the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Starboard has a nearly 5% stake in Splunk and plans to push the software-maker to take action to boost its stock price. Smith said Tuesday the firm believes Splunk’s new CEO Gary Steele, the founding CEO of Proofpoint Inc., is poised to improve its operations. He also said Splunk, which attracted suitors including Cisco Systems Inc. in the past, could be a takeover target.
Billionaire Hedge Fund Titan Seth Klarman Reveals How He Finds Investments That Meet His Standards and His 2 Favorite Principles of Investing (Business Insider)
An informal survey of the world’s greatest investors about who they most admire is likely to include one person who is probably not — by design — a household name: Seth Klarman. For nearly four decades, and largely out of the public eye, Seth has led Baupost, a Boston-based value-oriented hedge fund. During that period, the fund has had a compound annual total return of more than 15 percent with only four down years — an almost unmatched record over such an extended period.
One Year On: Fresh Energy and Perspective Into Origo (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Christoffer Ahnemark joined small- and mid-cap-focused asset manager Origo Fonder in the summer of 2021, after years of researching and writing about Nordic small- and micro-cap stocks for the Aktiespararen magazine of the Swedish Shareholders’ Association. The experience and ability to peel down and strip away all unnecessary financial jargon and details to truly understand a business and create a succinct investment case are now helping Ahnemark run Origo Fonder’s recently-launched long-only fund Origo Seleqt.
Trend Following Hedge Funds Capitalise on Market Turmoil (Hedge Week)
Ongoing financial market disruption and geopolitical challenges are helping trend following hedge funds to register big returns, with Graham Capital Management, Aspect Capital, AlphaSimplex and AQR Capital Management all near or over 40% up so far in 2022, according to a report by Reuters. The report cites Yao Hua Ooi, principal and co-head of macro strategies at the $143 billion hedge fund AQR – which is up 70% YTD – as pointing out that trend strategies work best when volatility levels are high. And with stock market volatility, as measured by the CBOE Volatility Index, having risen sharply since August, and an ICE BofA index tracking US Treasury volatility at its highest since March 2020, conditions are optimal for trend following managers to thrive.
Billionaire Investor Bill Ackman is Floating a Peace Plan for Ukraine That, Like Elon Musk’s, Requires Giving Major Concessions to Russia (Business Insider)
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman has floated a peace plan for Ukraine that involves letting Russia keep Crimea. Ackman, the founder of hedge fund Pershing Square, wrote on Twitter on Sunday that an armistice to restore Ukraine’s borders as of February 23 — before the Russian invasion — could end the war. “Crimea was part of Russia until 1954 and is largely comprised of ethnic Russians, which was apparently why the world did little when Russia annexed it back in 2014,” Ackman tweeted. “If we return to the status quo ex ante 2/24, Russia is not rewarded for its aggression and Ukraine can immediately begin to rebuild with support from the West.”
Alan Howard-Backed Crypto VC Fund Names Valour’s Diana Biggs as Partner (Financial News)
Early-stage crypto fund 1kx, which is backed by hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard, has named Diana Biggs as a partner. Biggs joins 1kx from Valour, where she worked as CEO of the firm’s digital asset ETP business and also as the company’s chief strategy officer. Before that she was the global head of innovation and private banking at HSBC.
Tuesday 10/18 Insider Buying Report: AZZ, AXR (Nasdaq.com)
At AZZ, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Friday, COO – Precoat Metals Kurt L. Russell bought 3,000 shares of AZZ, at a cost of $34.89 each, for a total investment of $104,670. So far Russell is in the green, up about 6.4% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $37.11. AZZ is trading up about 5.3% on the day Tuesday. And on Thursday, Director Edward B. Cloues II purchased $10,600 worth of AMREP, purchasing 1,000 shares at a cost of $10.60 a piece. Before this latest buy, Cloues II purchased AXR on 4 other occasions during the past year, for a total cost of $103,169 at an average of $12.57 per share. AMREP is trading off about 0.5% on the day Tuesday. Cloues II was up about 5.0% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with AXR trading as high as $11.13 at last check today.
NVIDIA, Accenture And This Restaurant Stock Insiders Are Selling (Benzinga)
NVIDIA: The Trade: NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) Director Mark A Stevens sold a total of 87,500 shares at an average price of $119.65. The insider received around $10.47 million from selling those shares. Accenture: The Trade: Accenture PLC (ACN) Chief Executive – Europe Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold a total of 6,250 shares at an average price of $254.99. The insider received around $1.59 million as a result of the transaction.
