Hedge Fund Lansdowne to Shut $2.8 billion Main Long-short Strategy (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) – London-based Lansdowne Partners is closing its main hedge fund, a long-short strategy that manages $2.8 billion in assets under management, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The closure of the Lansdowne Developed Markets Fund follows losses of 23% in the January-June period. It earned returns of 1.3% in 2019 and losses of 7% in 2018, said the source.
Fallen Hedge Fund’s Head Among Investors Getting PPP Relie (Bloomberg)
Jacob Gottlieb, whose $8 billion hedge fund shut amid an insider trading scandal, is among Wall Street money managers who tapped the government’s $669 billion emergency program designed to help small businesses survive the coronavirus pandemic, according to federal data released Monday. Gottlieb, whose Visium Asset Management settled a regulatory probe two years ago, received a $150,000 to $350,000 loan for his new shop, Altium Capital Management, under the Paycheck Protection Program, according to the data posted online. He set up New York-based Altium two years ago, according to his LinkedIn profile. It’s unclear whether the firm has outside clients.
Multimillionaire and Highland Capital Founder James Dondero’s Investment Platform Managing Billions Got Approved for as Much as $8 million in Loans from the PPP (Business Insider)
Five companies linked to Texas multimillionaire James Dondero received approval for loans of as much as $8.4 million from a government program meant to help small businesses continue paying their employees during the economic slowdown. Dondero is the founder of Highland Capital Management, a Dallas-based investment firm overseeing billions of dollars in assets.
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Ray Dalio Needn’t Worry That Markets Aren’t Free (Bloomberg)
Ray Dalio is onto something — but his overall concerns are largely misplaced. Yes, the huge expansion of central banks’ balance sheets in response to the Covid-19 crisis means that central planning, rather than market forces, is largely driving financial markets. This doesn’t necessarily mean, as the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund worried aloud last week, that capital markets “are not free.” It’s beyond dispute that the government-coordinated shutdowns have (in most cases appropriately) put public-health concerns ahead of free enterprise. It’s also true that these shutdowns have caused huge strains in liquidity across the world economy.
Minority Owner Steve Cohen Moves Up As Top Bidder To Buy NY Mets (Forbes)
Even with a pandemic raging and a Basic Agreement expiring, the sale of the New York Mets remains on the front burner. With a Thursday deadline for bids, minority owner Steve Cohen wants to sink billions into the Queens-based franchise. Slugger-turned-broadcaster Alex Rodriguez, in concert with celebrity fiancee Jennifer Lopez, wants to convert his New York pedigree from the American League to the National.
Equity HFs Enter Positive Territory (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After two quarters of head-spinning market moves, Nordic equity hedge funds ended the first half of 2020 up 0.4 percent on average. Equity hedge funds gained 1.8 percent in June (90 percent reported), which brought the group’s average return for the second quarter to 9.5 percent. Global equity markets gained 1.9 percent in Euro terms in June, cutting the year-to-date losses to 6.3 percent. Markets started the month of June strongly, but the mood changed mid-month after a fairly downbeat economic assessment from the U.S. Federal Reserve and growing fears of a possible second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
