Kyle Bass Says He Foresees ‘Severe’ Hong Kong Economic Decline (Bloomberg)
Kyle Bass, founder of Hayman Capital Management, said Hong Kong faces a “severe” economic decline as anti-government protests escalate. The Dallas-based hedge fund manager, who is betting that Hong Kong’s currency peg will break, said the former British colony’s economy is being drained of liquidity. Hong Kong’s foreign exchange reserves will worsen for September and October and a significant amount of capital and investment will leave in next 12 months to 18 months, he told a conference in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
Fortress Extends Offer on Japan’s Unizo After Being Jilted as White Knight (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) – SoftBank-backed (3248.T) Fortress Investment Group said on Wednesday it had extended its tender offer for Unizo Holdings (3248.T) for a second time, after the Japanese hotel chain abruptly withdrew its support for a $1.3 billion buyout bid. Fortress’s bid, originally a “white knight” offer, was thrown into doubt last week with Unizo saying Fortress had not met its demands for a higher offer price or its concerns about employment of current staff. Unizo’s about-face has complicated Fortress’ bid and raised the possibility that the investment group could turn into a hostile bidder. It also marks the latest twist in a fractious deal that began with a separate hostile bid by H.I.S. Co (9603.T) and has drawn in U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management, which now owns around a 10% stake in Unizo.
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Ray Dalio Warns the White House’s Latest Plan to Clamp Down on Chinese Investment Could Soon Become a Reality. Here’s Why He Thinks ‘All Market Participants Need to Worry.’ (Business Insider)
Ray Dalio, the founder and cochief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates – the world’s largest hedge fund – expresses his worry over the Trump administration’s new plan to curb US investment in China. The hedge fund mogul likens this latest development to a period between 1935 and 1945 where a similar scenario resulted in the use of emergency powers and then, eventually, disaster. Dalio thinks that all market participants need to be concerned if today’s advancements follow a similar path.
Bill Ackman Has His Revenge On Montezuma’s Revenge (Deal Breaker)
The end of last week was a tough time for Bill Ackman. For the second time, a federal regulator said he was right about Herbalife, the diet-shake purveyor Ackman spent years calling the biggest pyramid-shaped fraud around. And for the second time, that regulator chose to issue a slap on the wrist rather than shut the place down, meaning its shares have gone down to $37.70, but not to zero, as Ackman promised. Of course, that’s all pretty meaningless to Ackman now, since he abandoned his quest a year-and-a-half ago at a loss of $1 billion, but it must have been pretty galling all the same. Luckily, this being the Ackmanaissance, he had consolations to turn to.
New Hedge Fund Solel Partners Starts Trading With $600 Million (Bloomberg)
Solel Partners, the hedge fund started by former Highfields Capital Management partners, began trading this week with $600 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. Money managers Craig Peskin and Peter Fleiss count Highfields founder Jon Jacobson among their investors, as well as foundations, endowments and other high-net-worth individuals, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The value-oriented credit and equity fund started trading Tuesday from Boston.
BMS: Divestiture, Addition, and Performance (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Brummer Multi-Strategy, a multi-strategy fund investing in single-strategy hedge funds within the Brummer & Partners family, gained 4.1 percent year-to-date through the end of September. The fund of funds had to give up some gains in September, as trend-following CTAs were hit by a rebound in bond yields and long/short equity strategies struggled due to massive sector rotations. In a recent interview, Mikael Spångberg, one of the portfolio managers responsible for Brummer Multi-Strategy, discussed the fund’s year-to-date and September performance, touched upon the decision to divest Nektar and briefly discussed a new addition to the fund.
Private Capital Performance Update: Q4 2018 (Preqin.com)
This report provides the latest private capital performance data from Preqin Pro to Q4 2018, including horizon IRRs, assets under management, median net IRRs and PME benchmarking. Plus, league tables for the most consistent top performing fund managers across strategies.
