Buffett, Icahn Remember the Late T. Boone Pickens for ‘Great Wit’ and Inimitable Texas Personality (CNBC)
Magnates and friends of T. Boone Pickens remembered him fondly in comments to CNBC following his passing. Pickens died Wednesday of natural causes at age 91. “They grow big personalities in Texas, but none could top Boone,” billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick on Thursday. “I never was with him that it wasn’t fun.”
Paulson’s Gold Investor Group Urges Deals, Costs Purge (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Gold bull John Paulson’s investor coalition on Thursday urged the world’s largest gold miners to immediately cut what it called excessive governance and administrative (G&A) costs and said smaller rivals should pursue no-premium mergers to boost shareholder returns. Concerns over global growth and trade uncertainties have pushed gold prices to multi-year highs, stoking expectations of deals among miners and reviving anxieties over cost control. This month, gold climbed to its highest level since 2013 hitting $1,503.04 per ounce Thursday.
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A Fond Farewell to T. Boone Pickens (Bloomberg)
I used to tell people that I was in the room when the 1980s – the bull-market-greed-is-good ‘80s – began. It was June 1982, and the room was a luxe Waldorf Towers suite leased by Lazard Freres. An investment banker at the firm had loaned the suite to a Texas oilman named T. Boone Pickens Jr., the founder and chief executive of Mesa Petroleum, based in Amarillo, Texas. Boone, who had a big reputation in Texas, and virtually no reputation outside it, was making an audacious play: He was trying to take over Cities Service, a company ten times Mesa’s size. And I was sitting right next to him, watching him try.
High-tax New York Slaps NJ-based Hedge Fund Manager with Major Tax Bill in Dispute Over Vacation Home (Fox Business)
The New York State tax department scored a major legal victory in a case against hedge fund manager Nelson Obus – emphasizing how diligent individuals need to be in order to avoid getting hammered by auditors. A judge ruled Obus must pay taxes as a “statutory resident” of New York State because of his Northville, New York, home – even though he is domiciled in New Jersey.
Union Says AT&T Must Reject Elliott’s Restructuring Plan (Reuters)
(Reuters) – AT&T’s (T.N) main labor union on Thursday called on the company to reject hedge fund Elliott Management’s proposals for a major shakeup of the United States’ second-largest telecommunications carrier. The Communications Workers of America, which represents over 100,000 AT&T workers, said the hedge fund’s plan would eliminate jobs, send work to low-wage contractors and harm the interests of customers and long-term investors.
Ex-Atreaus Hedge Fund Manager Goes to Adrian Lee (FNLondon.com)
Michael Ridewood, co-founder of Atreaus Capital, a global macro hedge fund that shut its doors in January, has joined up with currency manager Adrian Lee & Partners. Ridewood will become a senior member of Adrian Lee’s portfolio management team, the company said in a September 12 statement. Ridewood said the job would be “a new challenge and a new chapter for me”. The former Barclays proprietary trader set up Atreaus in 2012 with seed capital from Goldman Sachs, and was managing partner. His colleague and co-founder Todd Edgar was chief investment officer.
Xavier Rolet on Hong Kong Exchange’s Bid for LSE, CQS’s Strategy (Blomberg)
Xavier Rolet, former chief executive officer of London Stock Exchange Group Plc and now CEO of CQS, a London-based hedge fund, talks about Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd.’s unexpected $36.6 billion bid for the U.K. bourse. Rolet also discusses CQS’s strategy. He speaks with Tracy Alloway on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Middle East.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Month in Review – August 2019 (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Nordic hedge funds were down 0.4 percent on average in August (84 percent reported), the second negative month the Nordic industry has seen thus far in 2019. In August, Nordic CTAs recorded their best monthly performance year-to-date, whereas the four remaining strategy categories in the Nordic Hedge Index posted losses.
Aberdeen Goes Passive in Hedge Fund Markets (Institutional Investor)
Aberdeen Standard Investments is pushing into the hedge fund market with a series of passive investment offerings. The firm said Thursday it has signed an agreement with Hedge Fund Research under which Aberdeen will soon offer an investment product tracking an index comprised of 500 hedge funds across strategies. The registered investment vehicle will later provide access to a wide group of HFR indexes so investors may choose from about 30 strategies and sub-strategies.
Rep. Chris Collins Pleads Not Guilty to Revised Insider-Trading Charges (The Wall Street Journal)
U.S. Rep. Chris Collins appeared in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, where he pleaded not guilty to a revised indictment outlining what prosecutors called an insider-trading scheme. Mr. Collins, a Republican from western New York, was arrested last year. Prosecutors accused him of passing a confidential tip to his son, Cameron Collins, so he could sell shares of an Australian biotechnology company before the public disclosure of a failed drug trial.
Insider-Trading Law Fix is within Reach (Zawya.com)
NEW YORK – Here’s a hot tip that the U.S. Congress may be ready to heed: Insider-trading law is ripe for reform. America’s frequently gridlocked lawmakers seem closer than ever to clarifying rules that have perplexed investors, Wall Street watchdogs and judges for decades. With prosecutors finding new ways to stretch existing legal limits and dodgy traders slipping through loopholes, a fix to the rules could not come at a better time. A case now working its way through U.S. District Court in Manhattan shows why. Six years ago Richard Lee, an ex-trader at Steven Cohen’s former SAC Capital Advisors hedge fund, pleaded guilty to insider trading – just days before the firm itself was indicted.
Ex-MMM Executive Deputy Chairman Jailed, Fined for Insider Trading (TheEdgeMarkets.com)
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian Merchant Marine Bhd (MMM) executive deputy chairman Datuk Ramesh Rajaratnam was found guilty of insider trading by the Sessions Court yesterday. Ramesh, 55, was sentenced to five years in jail and fined RM9 million, following a full trial with 24 witnesses testifying, said the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) in a statement. The SC said Judge Azman Ahmad convicted Ramesh on all charges, but allowed a stay of his jail sentence pending an appeal.
Thursday 9/12 Insider Buying Report: RBB, NLTX (Nasdaq.com)
At RBB Bancorp (RBB), a filing with the SEC revealed that on Wednesday, Director Peter M. Chang purchased 115,000 shares of RBB, at a cost of $20.00 each, for a total investment of $2.3M. RBB Bancorp is trading down about 0.3% on the day Thursday. This buy marks the first one filed by Chang in the past twelve months. And also on Wednesday, See Remarks Jonathan G. Drachman bought $781,747 worth of Neoleukin Therapeutics (NLTX), buying 250,000 shares at a cost of $3.13 a piece. Neoleukin Therapeutics is trading up about 4% on the day Thursday. So far Drachman is in the green, up about 11.3% on their purchase based on today’s trading high of $3.48.
Facebook Inc (FB) COB and CEO Mark Zuckerberg Sold $23.6 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
COB and CEO of Facebook Inc, Mark Zuckerberg, sold 125,600 shares of FB on 09/09/2019 at an average price of $187.58 a share. The total sale was $23.6 million. Facebook Inc is the world’s largest online social network. Its products are Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Oculus. Its products enable people to connect and share through mobile devices and personal computers. Facebook Inc has a market cap of $537.75 billion; its shares were traded at around $188.49 with a P/E ratio of 31.95 and P/S ratio of 8.69. Facebook Inc had annual average EBITDA growth of 48.30% over the past five years.
A Director at Wyndham Destinations Inc (NYSE: WYND) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Today, a Director at Wyndham Destinations Inc (WYND), George Herrera, sold shares of WYND for $92.72K. Following George Herrera’s last WYND Sell transaction on June 05, 2019, the stock climbed by 8.3%. In addition to George Herrera, 2 other WYND executives reported Sell trades in the last month.
