George Soros, a Facebook Co-founder, and a Disney Heiress are Among Billionaires Asking US Politicians to Tax Them More (Business Insider)
George Soros, Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes, and heiress Abigail Disney are among more than a dozen billionaires who want to pay higher taxes. The ultra-rich Americans signed a letter addressed to all 2020 presidential candidates that was published on Monday. The letter proposes a tax on the wealthiest 0.1% of Americans that could help to combat climate change, boost the US economy, improve people’s health, promote fairness, and reduce inequality.
Jana Partners Amasses Stake in Axalta Coating Systems – Report (The Street)
Activist investor Jana Partners has built up a position in paint-coating maker and supplier Axalta Coating Systems (AXTA) amid the company’s recent announcement that it is undergoing a strategic review. Citing sources, Bloomberg reported on Monday that the New York-based hedge fund run by Barry Rosenstein has invested in Axalta recent months, and has been pushing the company to explore alternatives.
Copyright: rawpixel / 123RF Stock Photo
Two Viking Portfolio Companies to Go Public This Week (Institutional Investor)
Three biopharmaceutical companies with hedge fund investors are poised for their public market debuts over the next few days. Biopharma IPO mania continues. At least three biopharmaceutical companies with hedge fund investors are planning to go public this week, two of which count Viking Global Investors as a significant investor. Many investors – and the financial media – are fixated on the initial public offerings (IPOs) of the so-called unicorn technology.
Billionaire Tom Steyer Pours Another $1 million into Helping the Democrats win Virginia (The Washington Post)
Billionaire Tom Steyer is pouring $1 million into efforts to register at least 12,000 millennial voters in Virginia, part of a broader push to deliver the General Assembly to Democrats in fall elections. NextGen America, the liberal advocacy group Steyer founded in 2013, will target 11 mostly Republican-held districts with digital ads and other forms of outreach to voters between the ages of 18 and 35, with messages centered on gun safety, reproductive rights and climate change, the group announced Monday.
Hedge Fund with Thai Billionaire Links Takes Donaco Stake at Big Price (AFR.com)
There’s another twist in the battle for control of ASX-listed Cambodian casino operator Donaco International. It appears a hedge fund involving Thai billionaire Chanin Donavanik, Argyle Street Management Ltd, has taken a strategic stake and paid a big premium to where Donaco shares have been trading. The stake was picked up off OCP Asia, which was a lender to Donaco’s former CEO Joey Lim and had taken control of the shares as part of a lending agreement with Lim.
New Danish Hedge Fund in Hunt for Relative Gains (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – SRV – Fixed Income, a new Danish relative value fund that focuses on Scandinavian and European fixed income markets, has now joined the Nordic Hedge Index. The fund was launched in February of this year by Erik Bo Hansen and Torben Pedersen, both of whom spent most of their professional careers at Nordea. SRV – Fixed Income employs a systematic approach to harvest risk premia in fixed income markets, aiming to exploit price dislocations predominantly in Nordic bond markets. The duo managing the fund anticipates to deliver an average annual return between 6-10 percent over a rolling three-year period.
Hedge Funds End Positive Performance Streak (Preqin)
The Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark generated its first negative monthly return for 2019 in May, posting a loss of 0.10%. This ended a four-month stretch of positive monthly returns for the industry benchmark. Consequently, the YTD figure fell to +6.40%. Relative value strategies hedge funds took the crown as the top performing strategy benchmark with a return of +0.64% for May. Credit strategies hedge funds were the only others to join them in positive territory with a return of +0.12%. Hedge funds denominated in BRL managed to avoid a loss in May, the only main currency benchmark to do so, with the BRL hedge fund benchmark returning +1.00%. This improved its 12-month return to +13.20%, far outstripping other currencies in this timeframe.
