Elliott’s U.K. Fixer-Upper Gets Another Lift (Bloomberg)
For a company owner, a clean sale is usually preferable to the rigmarole of going public. But Elliott Management Corp.’s decision to sell shares in Charter Court Financial Services Group Plc in 2017, rather than find a buyer at any price, looks to have been vindicated: the U.K. specialist lender is close to pairing up with rival OneSavings Bank Plc at a much higher valuation.
Investor Paul Shiverick Is Selling His $21 Million Palm Beach Mansion (Bloomberg)
For years, Paul Shiverick, co-founder of the hedge fund management firm Seminole Management Co., vacationed in Palm Beach, Fla., with his wife Betsy, a former currency trader. By 2013, “Our kids were all out of the house, and so we started spending more time down here, then decided to make this our permanent home,” he says.
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GCP Applied Technologies Nears Board Deal with Starboard: Sources (Reuters)
(Reuters) – U.S. construction and building materials supplier GCP Applied Technologies Inc is nearing a deal over the composition of its board with activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. The agreement would come after Starboard amassed a 4.6 percent stake in GCP and put forward five nominees to stand for election to the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s nine-member board of directors. GCP has agreed to appoint at least two of Starboard’s nominees to its board, the sources said. If the negotiations are concluded successfully, the agreement could be announced this week, the sources added.
Hedge Funds Continue Comeback from 2018 (HedgeWeek)
Hedge funds returned an average of +1.27 per cent in February, according to the just-released eVestment February 2019 hedge fund return data, building on a strong January to bring year-to-date (YTD) performance to +4.55 per cent. The contrast to 2018’s average industry performance of -5.05 per cent is stark and demonstrates the industry’s effort to shake off last year’s challenges. The first two months of 2019 offered up the industry’s best returns to start a year since 2012, when average returns were at +5.78 per cent through February of that year. The big winners for the month were China-focused hedge funds, returning an average of +7.17 per cent in February, bringing YTD 2019 returns to +14.17 per cent, compared to -16.63 per cent returns for China-focussed funds in 2018.
Column: Sears Bankruptcy Reorganization Lets Eddie Lampert Save $2 billion on Taxes (ChicagoTribune)
Back when it was a retail powerhouse, Sears used to say it was “Where America Shops for Value.” Now, as a pathetic remnant of a once-great company prepares to emerge from bankruptcy, its new slogan should be “Where Eddie Lampert Shops for Tax Savings.” Why do I say this? Because according to an analysis by tax expert Bob Willens of Robert Willens LLC, Sears’ bankruptcy reorganization is set up in a way that will allow Lampert, a hedge-fund operator who is Sears’ principal creditor and its former controlling shareholder, to save about $2 billion of income taxes.
$18 Billion Hedge Fund CQS is Pushing Into the US as Its New CEO Looks to a New Strategy (Business Insider)
A multibillion-dollar London-based hedge fund wants to expand its presence in the United States, and it thinks customized strategies built for specific investors is the way to do it. CQS, an $18 billion hedge fund manager founded by a billionaire who was knighted by the Queen, named a new CEO, Xavier Rolet, at the end of last year. The firm had been run by Sir Michael Hintze for its first two decades of existence.
Interserve Attacks Hedge Fund Coltrane Over Rescue (Standard.co.uk)
Coltrane, the US hedge fund threatening to scupper a rescue of struggling outsourcer Interserve this week, has rebuffed board attempts to engage with it since December by refusing to sign confidentiality agreements, the Standard understands. Interserve, which employs 68,000 people and is led by chief executive Debbie White, saw its shares fall another 9%, or 1.3p, to 13.3p today as it races to avert a Carillion-style collapse.
