Cramer: I Spoke to David Tepper – He’s Concerned About Coronavirus and Says US Needs Fiscal Help (CNBC)
CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Monday that hedge fund legend David Tepper is worried about the economic fallout from the coronavirus. “I spoke to David this morning and yesterday, and it is the ‘game changer’ make no mistake about it,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.” “He’s very, very concerned.” Cramer’s reference to “game changer” is a call back to what the Appaloosa Management founder told him in an interview last month at the Super Bowl in Miami for TheStreet.
Activist Teleios Seeks Maisons du Monde Talks Over Board Moves – Letter (Reuters)
LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) – Activist hedge fund firm Teleios Capital Partners on Monday wrote to the board of French furniture and home decor company Maisons Du Monde urging it to seek support from major shareholders before any appointments to the board are announced. Teleios, MDM’s biggest shareholder with around 13.3% of its stock, said it had repeatedly raised concerns with the company regarding its operating performance, investor communication and corporate governance, it said in a letter here seen by Reuters.
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Twitter, Elliott Strike Truce That Leaves CEO Dorsey in Place (The Wall Street Journal)
Twitter Inc. and activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. have agreed to a truce that will shake up the social-media company’s board but leave Chief Executive Jack Dorsey in place. The deal halts what was shaping up as one of the highest profile clashes between an activist investor to oust a founder of a high-profile tech company.
H2O’s Star Funds Sink to Worst Among Peers in Just One Month (Bloomberg)
Natixis SA-backed H2O Asset Management has fallen prey to panicking global markets after three of its most profitable strategies in 2019 topped a ranking of the past month’s worst performers. The funds, which manage about 2 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) between them, are at the bottom of more than 500 tracked by Kepler Partners that use hedge fund-type tactics to make money. They were blindsided by the turmoil that’s rocking the world’s markets after bets on oil and volatility backfired.
Having a Digital Strategy will Help Fund Managers Embrace Transformational Change (Hedge Week)
Investment managers stand at a crossroads today. Faced with a rapidly changing digital world, they must determine which path to take to help them transform their business models and respond to the needs of a younger generation of investors. One key aspect to this transformation story is how investment managers successfully integrate people, processes and technology, as part of a sophisticated digital strategy, to adapt to the digital age. Data, and the way that is ingested, processed, stored and managed, is one of the main pressure points to overcome. As SEI points out in its recent white paper, Evolution in Asset Management, “virtually everyone is familiar with the potential value of data, but it is still not treated like a precious commodity by many firms. Through force of habit, data acquisition, integration, management, protection, analysis and disposal still often occur in an ad hoc way”.
Windham Capital launches ESG Risk Scaling Strategy (Opalesque.com)
Boston-based asset management firm Windham Capital Management has launched the Windham ESG Risk Scaling strategy. The asset management firm specializing in risk-based solutions said that its ESG strategy is designed to deliver meaningful protection to a diversified portfolio of ESG-qualified ETFs during significant market drawdowns while providing competitive returns in less adverse markets. “Increasingly, investors are shifting their focus toward sustainable investing,” said Mark Kritzman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Windham Capital Management. “Our goal is to offer a solution for sustainable investing which, at the same time, enables investors to grow and preserve their wealth.”
VC Daily: Steven Cohen Raising Venture Fund; Fintech Apps Raise Fresh Capital (The Wall Street Journal)
Happy Monday. Twice a year, Y Combinator holds one of the most popular Silicon Valley events for venture investors, its Demo Day in San Francisco for its startups to pitch to investors. However, due to the coronavirus outbreak, the firm announced Friday that it is moving the entire program, scheduled for later this month, online. Y Combinator will now upload pre-recorded video pitches from the startups simultaneously for all investors to view, along with online tools to connect with the startups.
