U.S. Hedge Fund Farallon Accuses Toshiba of ‘Backpedaling’ on Strategy (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) – Farallon Capital Management on Tuesday accused Toshiba Corp on Tuesday of “backpedaling” over its investment strategy, a charge the Japanese firm has dismissed. Farallon, Toshiba’s second largest shareholder, has called for an extraordinary meeting to seek shareholders’ approval over what the fund had said is the Japanese firm’s shift towards large-scale mergers and acquisitions.
Philip Falcone’s Second Act in Long-Term-Care Insurance Turns Ugly (The Wall Street Journal)
Long-term care has been a troubled insurance product for well over a decade, causing financial pain to many insurers and their customers. Now, one executive’s plan to make money where others have failed has backfired. Serious pricing mistakes loomed from the start. For policyholders, this has meant double- and even triple-digit premium-rate increases over the years. Insurers have collectively taken tens of billions of dollars of charges against earnings as they bolstered their reserves.
Picton Hedge Fund Shorts Junk Debt as Yields Pinch Safety Margin (Bloomberg)
Hedge fund manager Picton Mahoney Asset Management is shorting U.S. junk bonds as part of a defensive fixed-income strategy after historically low yields have left investors with few safeguards. U.S. junk-rated bond sales have swelled to record levels so far this year as companies lock in lower borrowing costs amid falling yields, which last month dipped below 4% for the first time ever. Despite the recent increase in government bond yields, financing costs for firms rated high yield remain at historically low levels.
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Odey’s Hedge Fund Hits Three-Decade High as Sexual Assault Trial Rumbles on in the Background (City A.M.)
Crispin Odey’s hedge fund enjoyed record gains last month, as his highly-leveraged bets against government bonds paid off. The Odey European Inc. fund surged 38.4 per cent in February – the best monthly return in almost three decades of trading, according to an investor update seen by Bloomberg. The performance lifted this year’s gains to 51 per cent – a rare bright spot for a fund that’s suffered losses in five of the past six years. The news comes as Odey faces sexual assault allegations that date back more than 20 years.
Based on Bill Ackman’s Tweets, Pershing Square Tontine Could Be Ready to Move (InvestorPlace.com)
Everybody loves special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC’s) nowadays, right? Okay, not everybody does, but they’ve made a lot of money for some investors. One particularly buzz-worthy one is Pershing Square Tontine Holdings (NYSE:PSTH), and the holders of PSTH stock are undoubtedly hoping for some big news. Perhaps they’re anticipating the sizable price moves that they witnessed in other SPAC stocks. One example would be Landcandia Holdings II, which formerly traded under the symbol LCA and morphed into Golden Nugget Online Gaming (NASDAQ:GNOG) stock.
Dan Loeb Is the Latest Billionaire to Dive Into the World of Crypto (Bloomberg)
Another week, another billionaire weighing in on cryptocurrency. On Monday it was hedge-fund billionaire Dan Loeb, who took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the subject. “I’ve been doing a deep dive into crypto lately,” he said. “It is a real test of being intellectually open to new and controversial ideas.” Cryptocurrencies aren’t exactly new, but digital coins such as Bitcoin have been the subject of great controversy alright.
