BlueMountain’s Flagship Fund is Losing Money so Far this Year Even as the Rest of the Industry Surges, and it’s Just the Latest Blow for the Hedge Fund (Business Insider)
The turn of the calendar to 2019 has not been kind to Andrew Feldstein‘s BlueMountain Capital. BlueMountain’s flagship fund, Credit Alternatives Fund, lost nearly 4% in the first quarter before rebounding slightly in April, according to an investor letter obtained by Business Insider. As of the end of April, the fund was still losing money. The roughly $19 billion firm has also cut two of its three equity strategies this year, and a large investor in the firm’s business believes the manager’s growth prospects have ” declined significantly.” This streak of bad news is all happening while the hedge fund industry enjoys the best start to a year in a decade.
Hedge Funds Post Positive Returns in April, Highlighting the Strong Industry-wide Performance (Opalesque.com)
Hedge funds continued to make substantial gains in April, said a latest report from Preqin. Preqin’s All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark returned +1.67%, beating March’s +0.62% return. This pushes the YTD figure to +6.98% and the 12-month return to +2.82%. All fund structures had their fourth consecutive month of positive returns, highlighting strong industry-wide performance. Although equity strategies (+1.97%) came second to event driven strategies (+2.00%) among all top-level strategies tracked by Preqin, they are in the lead with the highest YTD figure (9.29%).
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Mariner Investment Group Appoints Co-CIO and Head of Liquid Market Strategies (Hedge Week)
Mariner Investment Group, a global alternative asset manager and subsidiary of ORIX Corporation USA (ORIX USA), has appointed Edward G (EG” Fisher III, as co-Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and head of liquid market strategies. Mariner founder Bill Michaelcheck will assume the role of co-Chief Investment Officer and continue with his responsibilities as lead portfolio manager for Mariner’s flagship multi-strategy hedge fund as will Matt Shulman in his role as deputy portfolio manager.
Hedge Funds Start to Figure Out Socially Responsible Investing (Bloomberg)
As almost $31 trillion has flowed into investment funds and strategies that emphasize good governance and socially responsible business practices, hedge funds have largely found themselves left out. They’re starting to find a way in. Nearly 30% of hedge funds say they’re using ESG considerations to inform investment decisions, according to Preqin research released this month — the first time the data provider put the question to hedge fund clients.
Hedge Funds Ramp Up Bets Against Jupiter Fund Management (CityAM.com)
Hedge funds have increased their bets against Jupiter Fund Management making it one of the most shorted UK companies. The asset manager’s shorted stock has increased to 10.55 per cent, more than that of struggling firms such as AA and Marks & Spencer, from 7.37 per cent at the beginning of April. At the beginning of this year Jupiter’s short position was 2.54 per cent, according to the latest data from Shorttracker. Marshall Wace, GLG Partners, Wellington Management Company, Point72 Asset Management and Melqart Asset Management have all increased their bets against the company in the last two months.
Additional Charges Filed In Insider Trading Scheme Involving NFL Player and Former Investment Banker (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Mark “Christian” Ramsey for participating in an insider trading scheme perpetrated by a professional football player and former investment banker previously charged by the SEC for insider trading. In August 2018, the SEC charged Mychal Kendricks, the football player, and Damilare Sonoiki, the former investment banker, with insider trading in advance of corporate acquisitions facilitated through coded text messages and FaceTime conversations. After meeting at a party, Sonoiki allegedly began tipping Kendricks about upcoming corporate mergers that Sonoiki’s investment bank was retained to advise.
Bunge Ltd (BG) CEO Gregory A Heckman Bought $2 million of Shares (GuruFocus)
CEO of Bunge Ltd (NYSE:BG) Gregory A Heckman bought 38,588 shares of BG on 05/21/2019 at an average price of $51.93 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $2 million. Bunge Ltd is an agribusiness and food company with integrated operations. It acts as an oilseed processor and seller of packaged vegetable oils. The company also grows and processes Brazilian sugarcane to produce sugar and ethanol. Bunge Ltd has a market cap of $7.17 billion; its shares were traded at around $50.68 with a P/E ratio of 24.98 and P/S ratio of 0.17. The dividend yield of Bunge Ltd stocks is 3.95%.
Wednesday 5/22 Insider Buying Report: SRT, WTRH (Nasdaq.com)
At StarTek (SRT), a filing with the SEC revealed that on Friday, Director Mukesh Sharda bought 274,064 shares of SRT, at a cost of $7.48 each, for a total investment of $2.05M. So far Sharda is in the green, up about 14.3% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $8.55. StarTek is trading up about 0.9% on the day Wednesday. And at Waitr Holdings (WTRH), there was insider buying on Tuesday, by CEO and Chairman Christopher Meaux who purchased 135,135 shares for a cost of $7.40 each, for a trade totaling $999,999. Waitr Holdings is trading up about 5.8% on the day Wednesday. Bargain hunters can snag WTRH even cheaper than Meaux did, with shares trading as low as $6.97 in trading on Wednesday which is 5.8% below Meaux’s purchase price.
Bond Trader David Maena Suspended for 10 Years Over Insider Trading (The Star)
The Investment and Financial analysts’ regulator has deregistered one of its members, David Tumaini Maena for a period of 10 years. This comes after the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) fined the former CBA bank’s Capital executive in February a total of Sh166.9 million for engaging in insider trading in Treasury bonds between January 2016 and June 2017. CMA had stated that the trader had received Sh83.4 million illegally in trading in fixed income securities.
Ex-PE Boss Owes Lattice $1.4M For Insider Trading Case (Law360.com)
Law360 (May 21, 2019, 7:22 PM EDT) — Former private equity partner Benjamin Chow must pay about $1.4 million to cover the legal fees Lattice Semiconductor Corp. incurred while cooperating with prosecutors in his criminal insider trading case.
Former Director Settles with OSC Over Trading Misconduct Allegations (Advisor.ca)
A corporate director has agreed to sanctions after admitting to violating securities rules by twice selling shares in the company where he served as a director ahead of a planned offering. The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) approved a settlement with Martin Bernholtz, a former director with Titan Medical Inc., which will see him make a $225,000 voluntary payment after he admitted to violating the public interest. Bernholtz will also pay $75,000 in costs, and accept a seven-year ban on serving as a director and a three-year trading ban.
The VP, Controller and PAO of Air Products and Chemicals (NYSE: APD) is Selling Shares (AnalystRatings)
Today, the VP, Controller and PAO of Air Products and Chemicals (APD), Russell Flugel, sold shares of APD for $614.8K. Following Russell Flugel’s last APD Sell transaction on August 16, 2016, the stock climbed by 75.5%. Based on Air Products and Chemicals’ latest earnings report for the quarter ending March 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $2.19 billion and quarterly net profit of $421 million. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $2.16 billion and had a net profit of $416 million. APD’s market cap is $45.56B and the company has a P/E ratio of 27.00. Currently, Air Products and Chemicals has an average volume of 16.61K.
