BlueCrest’s Michael Platt named Richest Hedgie for Fifth Consecutive Year (AOL.co.uk)
Star fund manager Michael Platt has been named the City’s richest hedgie for the fifth year in a row, after his wealth surged by £700 million. Mr Platt, co-founder of BlueCrest Capital Management, bumped up his wealth by 23% to £3.7 billion in 2018, making him £1.5 billion richer than his nearest rival. Robert Miller and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece trail in second place on The Sunday Times’ list of the richest hedge fund managers. Mr Miller, who founded Search Investment Group and built his fortune through investments in duty free, increased his and his family’s wealth by £200 million to a total of £2.2 billion. CQS’ Sir Michael Hinze, a Conservative party donor and former captain in the Australian army, remained in third place after his fortune rose by £120 million to £1.5 billion.
Papa John’s Founder Is Bailing, Good News for Hedge Fund (AI-CIO.com)
Papa John’s founder John Schnatter, forced out as chairman due to his racist remarks, is selling his 31% stake in the pizza chain, completing severing ties with it. This is a big help to his successor, hedge fund honcho Jeff Smith. Smith’s Starboard Value fund, which now apparently is the largest shareholder in Papa John’s, with about 10% of the shares, has pumped $200 million into the company. And Smith, known for his turnaround chops as Starboard’s chief executive officer and chief investment officer, also is the restaurant company’s new chair.
Michael Platt of Bluecrest Capital Management
Hedge Funds Raid BNP’s Shuttered Prop Desk Amid Talent Race (Bloomberg)
BNP Paribas SA’s closure of its proprietary-trading desk has triggered a hiring frenzy for the world’s biggest hedge funds. Citadel has recruited Mathieu Gaveau, who was head of rates at BNP’s Opera Trading Capital division until it was shut down in January. Paolo Nicolosi, a senior foreign-exchange trader at the unit, has joined Brevan Howard Asset Management, while some of their colleagues have started roles at Capstone Investment Advisors, Capula Investment Management, Eisler Capital and H2O Asset Management.
Hedge Funds No Longer Stars of Their Flashiest Conference (The Wall Street Journal)
LAS VEGAS—Daniel Loeb was once a featured speaker at a Las Vegas event considered a staple of the hedge-fund circuit. This year the billionaire manager didn’t show. The SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, known as SALT, is famous for attracting heavyweight investors along with celebrities and politicians. But a number of hedge-fund stars such as Ken Griffin, Steve Cohen, David Tepper and Paul Singer were missing this year from the halls of the Bellagio after speaking or attending in the past, according to event organizers.
This $100 Million Hedge Fund Just Shorted China Stock Futures (Bloomberg)
A $100 million hedge fund is betting that the outcome of U.S.-China trade talks won’t be positive enough to lift stocks on Monday. “We shorted Chinese stock futures today,” said Jae Lee, chief executive officer at Timefolio Asset Management SG Pvt, a hedge fund with a China equity long-short strategy. “Honestly, I don’t think there will be any positive news at all” in the talks Friday during the U.S. day, he said in a telephone interview from Singapore. “If you want to see stocks rise on Monday, there needs to be news like cancellation of the tariffs.”
Bitcoin Price Predicted to Hit $400,000 by Hedge Fund Manager Mark Yusko. Here’s How and When It’s Possible (U.Today)
During a recent interview, Morgan Creek Capital Founder Mark Yusko explained when Bitcoin is going to reach $400,000. In the long-term, this figure doesn’t seem to be too crazy. Bitcoin is the new gold: Yusko claims that Bitcoin could become a viable replacement for gold. The top cryptocurrency is often called digital gold since it has a lot of similarities with one of the oldest assets. However, in the digital age, you will hardly see millennials pouring money into bulky gold bars, which explains why the $7.3 trn market cap is up for grabs.
What Warren Buffett’s Teacher Would Make of Today’s Market (The Wall Street Journal)
Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, would have been 125 years old this week. The idea he fostered-buy cheap stocks and hold them for superior long-term returns-is looking geriatric, too. Faster-growing, higher-priced stocks have outperformed by such huge margins recently that the long-run advantage of value stocks has withered away. Will that last? Probably not. Was Graham wrong? Almost certainly not. But value investors shouldn’t try to hide how dark the evidence looks-and they should ponder whether the world…
Scaramucci’s Vegas Show Returns With an Accent on Trump Insiders (Bloomberg)
The Mooch came back to Vegas this week, but it was a different kind of gig. After putting his SkyBridge Alternatives Conference on hold last year following a rough patch — a foul-mouthed interview led to his firing after 11 days at the White House, then came his investment firm’s scrapped deal with HNA Group Co. — Anthony Scaramucci struck a more restrained tone for the 10th anniversary of his swanky hedge fund show. As investors flocked to the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas for three days of panels and hobnobbing, gone were the celebrities and fund titans that presented in years past.
Hedge Fund’s Bosses Pledge US$100 million a Year to Save Planet (BusinessTimes.com)
[LONDON] The wealthy founders of quant hedge fund Quadrature Capital plan to commit as much as US$100 million a year to fight climate change, making it one of the most ambitious pledges in the industry. Quadrature recently set up a foundation that will deploy the money through 2030 to “solving this crisis” by shunning traditional solutions, the firm said on its website, without providing specific details. The hedge fund is seeking a strategist to run the foundation as well as other staff.
Hedge Funds Up +1.26% in April Extending Rebound – eVestment (Opalesque.com)
Hedge funds gained an average of +1.26% in April, the fourth consecutive month of positive returns according to the just-released eVestment April 2019 hedge fund performance data. Hedge funds are up +6.52% year to date through 2019, representing the industry’s best first four months since 2006. Event Driven and Activist strategies were big winners in April, returning an average of +2.79% last month and +9.94% so far this year. This is a noticeable turnaround from 2018, when Event Driven and Activist funds were deep in the red at -10.30%. Managed futures funds performed well in April, reversing long-term underperformance in …
Two Internal Auditors Charged with Repeated Insider Trading (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) insider trading charges were filed against two internal auditors who repeatedly traded and tipped on confidential information that they obtained through their respective employers. The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, alleges that Lloyd Schuman, of Cordova, Tennessee, learned that his employer, Verso Corporation, had confidential plans to acquire privately-held NewPage Holdings Inc. According to the SEC’s Complaint, Schuman purchased Verso shares before Verso publicly announced the acquisition. Schuman also allegedly tipped a relative, who also purchased Verso shares before the public announcement. Immediately after the announcement, Schuman sold all of his Verso shares realizing more than $107,000 in profits. Schuman’s relative also sold his Verso shares, realizing more than $2,500 in profits.
SEC Settles ‘Unfriendly’ Insider Trading Case: Enforcement (ThinkAdvisor.com)
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that insider trading charges were settled against a Nevada man who obtained confidential information about a pending corporate merger from a lifelong friend and used it to generate more than $250,000 in illicit trading profits. According to the SEC’s complaint, while Brian Fettner was a guest in the home of a longtime friend who was also the general counsel of Cintas Corp., Fettner surreptiously viewed documents contemplating an acquisition of G&K Services Inc. by Cintas.
Friday 5/10 Insider Buying Report: UCTT, GPC (Nasdaq.com)
At Ultra Clean Holdings (UCTT), a filing with the SEC revealed that on Wednesday, Director Clarence L. Granger bought 44,000 shares of UCTT, at a cost of $14.18 each, for a total investment of $623,905. Bargain hunters can pick up UCTT at a price even lower than Granger did, with shares changing hands as low as $13.53 at last check today which is 4.6% below Granger’s purchase price. Ultra Clean Holdings is trading up about 2.1% on the day Friday. This buy marks the first one filed by Granger in the past twelve months. And at Genuine Parts Co. (GPC), there was insider buying on Tuesday, by Group President Automotive Scott Sonnemaker who purchased 5,000 shares at a cost of $99.01 each, for a total investment of $495,050. Genuine Parts Co. is trading down about 0.7% on the day Friday. Investors have the opportunity to snag GPC at a price even lower than Sonnemaker did, with shares changing hands as low as $97.87 in trading on Friday which is 1.2% under Sonnemaker’s purchase price.
Market Regulation | The Insider Trading Rules Conundrum (MoneyControl.com)
A new stock exchange circular not only places promoters and employees of a listed company at a detrimental position but also poses challenges for the firm itself in terms of planning of corporate actions and raising funds. In recent years, corporate governance standards have been tightened all over the world. This is in response to a spate of corporate failures and a strong negative stock meltdown over governance issues, especially insider trading issues. In India, allegations under insider trading, whistleblower and auditor resignations have shaken the confidence of investors —both retail and institutional in recent years.
Internal Auditors Resolve SEC Insider Trading Suit (Law360.com)
Law360 (May 9, 2019, 8:49 PM EDT) — Two internal auditors agreed Thursday to pay a total of nearly $300,000 to resolve civil allegations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that they illicitly profited from insider information about…
MAS Bans Insurance Agent, Two Traders for Dishonesty (StraitsTimes.com)
Two traders and an insurance agent have been barred for several years from securities deal-making and giving financial advice after they were caught for dishonest dealings, including insider trading and forgery. The prohibition orders from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) took effect from Wednesday. Mr Jeremy Lee Seow Poh, who was the managing director at financial services company Jefferies Singapore (JSL), was barred for four years while his former colleague and JSL senior vice-president Ong Eng Keong was banned for two years.
The Executive VP-Administration of Opko Health (NASDAQ: OPK) is Buying Shares (AnalystRatings)
Today, the Executive VP-Administration of Opko Health (OPK), Steven D. Rubin, bought shares of OPK for $21.44K. In addition to Steven D. Rubin, 13 other OPK executives reported Buy trades in the last month. Currently, Opko Health has an average volume of 2,600. Starting in August 2018, OPK received 7 Buy ratings in a row. The insider sentiment on Opko Health has been positive according to 82 insider trades in the past three months. This sentiment is slightly higher than the average sentiment of company insiders in this sector.
