Texas is a ‘Very Friendly Place’ for Business, Canyon Partners Co-Founder Says (Yahoo Finance)
Texas continues to be a hotbed for corporate relocations — last year, 62 corporations moved their headquarters to the Lone Star State. According to Canyon Partners co-CEO and co-founder Josh Friedman, the healthy business environment is what is spurring companies to make the move. “Texas is a very friendly place for businesses,” Friedman said in an interview with Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer as part of Influencers with Andy Serwer. “If you look at firms like Goldman Sachs (GS) and others, Goldman is moving literally thousands of employees there. I think sometimes a change of venue or an additional venue injects an element of excitement and growth into a firm.”
Melvin Investors Fume After Plotkin Decides to Close His Fund (Bloomberg)
Melvin Capital Management’s traders pocketed hefty performance fees over a half-decade while achieving roughly 30% in annualized gains. Now, after a streak of steep losses, they’re abruptly returning client cash and moving on. Some of Melvin’s investors caught flat-footed this week by Gabe Plotkin’s decision to shut his hedge fund are grousing privately about fair-weather money management. They were hopeful his team could recoup at least some of the money it started losing in a short-squeeze more than a year ago and try to make them whole.
Shell Told to Drop Fight Against Emissions Ruling by Crispin Odey’s Hedge Fund (The Times)
Shell should drop its appeal against a Dutch court ruling ordering it to make steeper emissions cuts, and instead lobby for Europe to impose the same requirements on its rivals, according to Crispin Odey’s hedge fund. Odey Asset Management, which has an “economic interest” of 0.03 per cent in Shell, published a letter to the oil giant yesterday urging it to take “a stronger, championing position towards climate change and the energy transition”.
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Preston-Born Hedge Fund Manager Tops Rich List with £10 Billion Fortune (Blog Preston)
A Preston-born hedge fund manager is the richest person in the North West of England, according to the new edition of The Sunday Times Rich List. Michael Platt, 53, who lives in Switzerland, has seen his fortune rise by £2 billion in the past year. The co-founder and chief executive of BlueCrest Capital Management is now worth £10 billion, ranking him equal 11th in the wealthiest people in the UK.
Millennium EMEA Execution Services Head Ungi to Retire (The Trade)
Millennium’s head of execution services Tom Ungi is set to retire later this year after 16 years with the hedge fund, according to sources familiar with the matter. Originally joining the hedge fund in 2006 as head of trading, he took on his most recent role in 2013. Millennium declined to comment on his departure. Ungi has had an extensive career in the financial services industry, previously serving as an international sales trader at ITG and as a stockbroker with EBI. He also spent some time as an analyst at Reuters as well as working with the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) in an equity capital market role.
EJF Capital and Chartwell Residential Close on $67 Million Construction Loan for Multifamily Development in Nashville, TN (BusinessWire)
ARLINGTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– EJF Capital LLC (“EJF”) and Chartwell Residential (“CR”) today announced the close of an approximately $67.35 million construction loan from Synovus Bank to develop the first phase of a multifamily development in Nashville’s Metrocenter neighborhood. The project is in an area certified as a “Qualified Opportunity Zone” under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“TCJA”), which offers investors potential tax benefits to invest into Qualified Opportunity Zones with the aim of spurring economic growth in lower income areas.
Chinese Hedge Funds At Risk For Forced Selling (Barchart)
As losses mount this year in global equity markets, China’s hedge fund industry could cause worsening market turmoil due to the possibility that additional losses could trigger forced selling by some of China’s fund managers. China’s Shanghai Composite Index ($CHSC) is down -17% this year, its worst Jan-Apr period since 2008, as a strict Covid Zero policy and crackdowns on private enterprise weigh on the market. In April, industry data showed about 2,350 stock-related hedge funds fell below a threshold that typically activates clauses requiring them to reduce exposure, with many falling toward a level that mandates liquidation. China Merchants Securities said in a report that signs of stress in Chinese funds were “close to the historical high.”
Plotkin ‘Chose a Decision That Worked for Him’: Griffin (Bloomberg)
Citadel founder Ken Griffin comments on Gabe Plotkin‘s decision to close his hedge fund Melvin Capital Management. “Gabe was certainly an iconic investor over his career,” Griffin said Thursday during an interview with Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua. “He went through a really tough run. He chose a decision that worked for him.” (Source: Bloomberg).
Allianz Reserves Another $2 Billion Due to Hedge Fund Implosion (Bolly Inside)
Allianz SE is setting aside an additional 1.9 billion euros ($2 billion) to resolve lawsuits and also regulatory probes tied to the collapse of its Florida-based Structured Alpha hedge funds two years back. The charges come on top of the 3.7 billion-euro hit Allianz announced earlier this year in a first round of settlements with investors in the funds.
Thursday 5/19 Insider Buying Report: HMST, BTTR (Nasdaq.com)
On Monday, HomeStreet’s Director, Mark Robert Patterson, made a $1.06M buy of HMST, purchasing 27,000 shares at a cost of $39.23 a piece. HomeStreet is trading up about 0.3% on the day Thursday. Before this latest buy, Patterson made one other purchase in the past twelve months, buying $75,000 shares for a cost of $37.50 each. And also on Monday, EVP, Sales Donald Young bought $1M worth of Better Choice, buying 500,000 shares at a cost of $2.00 a piece. Before this latest buy, Young made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $49,700 shares for a cost of $3.55 each. Better Choice is trading up about 7.6% on the day Thursday. Young was up about 15.0% on the buy at the high point of today’s trading session, with BTTR trading as high as $2.30 in trading on Thursday.
Executives Buy Around $17M Of 5 Penny Stocks (Benzinga)
Purple Innovation: The Trade: Purple Innovation, Inc. (PRPL) 10% owner Coliseum Capital Co-Invest III, L.P. acquired a total of 3,372,731 shares at an average price of $4.66. To acquire these shares, it cost $15.63 million. DURECT: The Trade: DURECT Corporation (DRRX) Director Gail M Farfel acquired a total of 55,211 shares at an average price of $0.40. The insider spent around $22.01 thousand to buy those shares.
