The Wealth Tax that Democrats and Republican Billionaires Both Support (CNBC)
Hedge fund manager and longtime Republican supporter Leon Cooperman published an op-ed in Wednesday’s Financial Times that said while he opposed a wealth tax, he supports eliminating a feature of the tax code known as the “step-up in basis” for capital gains. The step-up basically allows billionaires to pass billions of dollars to their heirs or to charity without ever paying taxes on it. Former Vice President Joe Biden and other Democratic presidential candidates agree the step-up should be eliminated as do other billionaires including Stan Druckenmiller.
CQS Makes the Case for Credit (Institutional Investor)
The hedge fund firm headed by Michael Hintze sees opportunities in a wide variety of markets in the second half of the year. CQS is mostly bullish on credit.The London hedge fund firm headed by Sir Michael Hintze told clients it has a “constructive” thesis on the asset class for the second half of 2019. “Dispersion continues to provide substantial opportunity to make returns in credit,” Hintze said in his mid-year review for clients.
Phongphan/Shutterstock.com
Italy’s Intesa Clinches 10 billion Euro Soured Loan Deal with U.S. Hedge Fund (Reuters)
MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s biggest retail bank Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) has clinched a deal with U.S. hedge fund Davidson Kempner over 10 billion euros ($11 billion) in problem loans, moving closer to a 2021 target of cutting soured debts to 6% of total lending. In reporting a higher-than-expected net profit for the second quarter, Intesa on Wednesday said it would sell 3 billion euros in so-called ‘unlikely-to-pay’ (UTP) loans to Prelios, a loan recovery specialist owned by the New York-based fund.
Credit Manager Phase3 Preps Volatility Fund (HFAlert.com)
Phase3 Capital, founded last year by a former Citadel portfolio manager, is launching a second strategy. The Glenview, Ill., firm, led by Ethan Youderian, plans to begin trading a credit-volatility vehicle later in the third quarter. Phase3’s flagship fund pursues a mix of credit-focused strategies including relative value and volatility. The new fund will target investments that are too complex for many traders and too small for big alternative-investment managers. While details about the strategy are sketchy, it appears the fund will seek to profit primarily from low credit-market volatility.
Silver Point’s Kaftan joins Heard Capital (Opalesque.com)
Priya Kaftan has joined Heard Capital as head of investor relations and product strategy. Kaftan joins the firm from Silver Point Capital where she was previously a senior associate. Heard Capital is a Chicago-based fund that invests in six sectors – technology, media, telecommunications, financial, industrial, and energy. William Heard, founder, CEO, and CIO of the firm says that Kaftan’s hire is the latest step in an effort to create a foundation that will allow Heard Capital to scale. “[Kaftan] brings valuable guidance to our team on meeting investors evolving needs,” Heard said.
Steven Cohen Charges Into Chiasma (Guru Focus)
Further expanding his holdings in the health care space, billionaire investor Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio), who leads Point72 Asset Management, disclosed a 5.24% stake in biotech company Chiasma Inc. (NASDAQ:CHMA) on Tuesday. The guru’s Stamford, Connecticut-based hedge fund uses long, short, macro and systematic strategies to generate risk-adjusted returns. According to GuruFocus Real-Time Picks, a Premium feature, Cohen invested in 1.6 million shares of the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company on July 29, dedicating 0.04% of the equity portfolio to the position. The stock traded for an average price of $5.56.
Hedge Funds Continue To Enjoy The Brexit World They Helped Create (Deal Breaker)
Who could have guessed that the elevation of a pathologically lying buffoon to Number 10 Downing Street in advance of the most consequential and probably catastrophic moment for the United Kingdom since Dunkirk could have a negative effect on one of the things that Brexiters most prize, the pound Sterling? Well, uh, pretty much anyone, of course. But who among them is best-positioned to engineer such an outcome, and then profit from it, much like they helped engineer Brexit (and profit from it) in the first place? Why, hedge fund managers and other traders, of course.
