Struggling Hedge Fund Folger Hill is Merging with Another Fund (Business Insider)
Hedge fund Folger Hill Asset Management is merging with Schonfeld Strategic Advisors and returning capital to certain investors in May, according to an investor letter sent Tuesday night that was seen by Business Insider. Most of the jobs held by Folger Hill’s roughly 90-person staff will be moved over to Schonfeld, an investor in Folger’s Asia business, according to a person familiar with the matter. All of the people in the firm’s Asia unit, which has about 45 people, will keep their jobs, but some of the firm’s Boston and New York-based staffers will lose their roles, the person said.
Starboard Seeks Four Board Seats at Newell: Filing (Reuters)
BOSTON (Reuters) – Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP said on Tuesday it plans to seek four board seats at consumer products group Newell Brands (NWL.N), arguing more work is needed to repair the company even after rival activist Carl Icahn was handed board seats. “We are seeking your support for the election of our four (4) nominees at the Company’s annual meeting of stockholders scheduled to be held on Tuesday, May 15, 2018,” Starboard’s chief executive officer Jeffrey Smith wrote in a filing. The New York-based hedge fund, which owns 3.8 percent of the Rubbermaid container maker, earlier this year planned to oust the entire board. It scaled back its ambitions and now seeks to replace four incumbent directors with its own people, including two women.
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Is This Hedge-Fund Titan Greasing the Levers for Privatizing the Veterans Health Administration? (TheNation.com)
On March 28, via Twitter, President Donald Trump publicly dismissed David Shulkin, the embattled veterans-affairs secretary. Almost immediately, Shulkin fired back with an op-ed in The New York Times, charging that conservatives had pushed him out because of his resistance to outsourcing health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs. “They saw me as an obstacle to privatization who had to be removed,” Shulkin wrote. “That is because I am convinced that privatization is a political issue aimed at rewarding select people and companies with profits, even if it undermines care for veterans.” Though Shulkin did not mention specific names, the group of privatization advocates he alluded to includes hospital CEOs, business leaders, and the Koch brothers. Among the most significant of these players is a hedge-fund titan named Steven A. Cohen. Cohen rose to prominence as the founder of SAC Capital Advisors, amassing a personal fortune estimated at roughly $14 billion.
Hedge Fund With ‘Fantastic Opportunities’ Targets 200% Return (Bloomberg)
A hedge fund in Oslo focusing on energy stocks says it can hardly get any better than right now. The fund has loaded up on both long and short bets in a market with “very big mispricings,” Harald James-Otterhaug, chief executive officer at Oslo Asset Management, said in an interview last week. “It’s one of the most opportunity rich markets we’ve ever seen,” he said. “What’s unique now is that there are fantastic opportunities both on the long and short side at the same time. That’s unusual for such a cyclical industry.”
