Column: With a $300-Million Donation to Harvard, a Hedge Fund Billionaire Shows Why We Need a Wealth Tax (The Los Angeles Times)
Harvard University wants us to bow down to the exceptional generosity of Kenneth C. Griffin, a hedge fund billionaire who just made a $300-million gift to the school’s graduate program. Griffin’s donation to his alma mater “underscores the power of education to transform lives and to expand the reach of our research in every field imaginable,” Harvard President Larry Bacow said in the announcement press release. “It has been a great pleasure to get to know Ken throughout my presidency.”
King Street’s Brian Higgins and O. Francis Biondi Jr. to Receive Lifetime Achievement Awards (Institutional Investor)
The King Street Capital Management co-founders will be honored at Institutional Investor’s Hedge Fund Industry Awards in May. Institutional Investor will honor Brian Higgins and O. Francis Biondi Jr., co-founders of hedge fund firm King Street Capital Management, with Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 20th annual Hedge Fund Industry Awards on May 11. Since Higgins and Biondi launched New York-based King Street Capital in 1995, the hedge fund has become one of the top in the world, best known for its ability to spy credit opportunities across asset classes.
Hedge Fund 101: You Always Buy Liquidation Events (Forbes)
Overnight the Hang Seng Index and the Hang Seng Tech closed at +0.17% and -0.17% after US-listed China ADRs fell more than -4% yesterday! Let’s compare how Hong Kong’s most heavily traded closed in Hong Kong today versus their US-listed ADRs yesterday: Tencent gained +1.68% versus a -5.42% drop, Alibaba HK fell -1.98% versus a -5.93% drop, and Meituan closed flat at -0.08% versus a -5.61% drop. Other Hong Kong internet stocks versus their US ADRs were JD.com HK -2.03% versus -7.65%, Baidu HK +0.07% versus -0.21%, NetEase HK +0.71% versus -1.08%, and Trip.com HK -1.53% versus -4.91%. Asian investors agreed that removing Softbank as an Alibaba shareholder is a positive as it eliminates the specter of further selling.
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Bank Turmoil Hits Most Nordic CTAs (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After a successful 2022, the first quarter of 2023 and the month of March, in particular, offered a challenging market environment for both Nordic and global trend-following CTAs. Nordic CTAs were down an estimated 4.7 percent on average in March, with many trend-followers wrong-footed during the week of wild gyrations in the bond market caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Some funds, however, managed to avoid the turmoil.
Light Street Scores Double-Digit Q1 Returns Following ’22 Tumble (Hedge Week)
Light Street Capital Management has generated double-digit gains in the first quarter of 2023, having earlier suffered a 54% annual loss in 2022, according to a report by Bloomberg. Glen Kacher’s Menlo Park, California-headquartered firm has seen its Mercury hedge fund advance 19.2% in the first three months of this year. Meanwhile, its Tungsten strategy, which takes a long-only investment approach, also added 28.7% in the first quarter, according to a person familiar with the matter.
