Nelson Peltz Says He’s Bullish on a Vaccine, Putting New Money to Work and Voting for Trump (CNBC)
Trian Partners Chief Executive and billionaire investor Nelson Peltz told CNBC on Thursday that he’s deployed the fund’s capital in new investments amid the broader market sell-off and is optimistic that a Covid-19 vaccine will be developed before long. “I’m positive. I think that vaccine is going to come sooner than later,” he said. “This thing is no going to last forever. There’s still loads of value in the market because the market is primarily a tech market.”
US Hedge Funds Ready UCITS Fund Launches (Investmentweek.co.uk)
US investment firms Ionic Capital Management and R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management will each launch a UCITS fund in June, in partnership with Kepler Liquid Strategies, Investment Week understands. The Ionic Relative Value Arbitrage strategy, which was launched in 2013, identifies and exploits relative value arbitrage opportunities across four main asset classes – convertible bonds, equities, credit/rates and volatility. The Ionic strategy is currently the largest position held in the JPMorgan Multi-Manager Alternatives fund.
A Hedge Fund Billionaire, Stamford Developers and a Chinese Bank Got Together. They Delivered Millions of Dollars Worth of PPE to Connecticut in the Middle of the Coronavirus Pandemic (Courant.com)
The path that led to nearly $15 million in personal protective equipment arriving at a New Britain warehouse this week started with Ray Dalio, the Connecticut billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, and led to the Chinese bank he works closely with, an ambassador and a couple of developers known as the “kings of the south end” in Stamford. “It was a little tricky,” Gov. Ned Lamont said as he stood in the state’s warehouse in New Britain earlier this week with boxes of masks and surgical gowns — the liquid gold of the PPE market right now — stacked behind him.
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Month in Review – April 2020 (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Nordic hedge funds rebounded from their worst month on record to notch their best month since the inception of the Nordic Hedge Index in 2005. Despite gaining 3.7 percent on average last month (91 percent reported), Nordic hedge funds are still in the red year-to-date, reflecting the market turmoil triggered by the coronavirus pandemic in the first quarter. Nordic hedge funds were down 3.6 percent in the first four months of 2020.
HC2 Holdings Reaches Settlement with Activist MG Capital for Board Seats (Reuters)
BOSTON (Reuters) – HC2 Holdings Inc (HCHC.N) said on Thursday that it reached a settlement with activist investor MG Capital to bring four newcomers onto the board of the company being run by former hedge fund manager Philip Falcone. The settlement brings to an end a proxy contest between a first-time activist Michael Gorzynski, who runs MG Capital, and Falcone, who cemented his fame with bets against the housing market during the last financial crisis.
Cheyne Capital Gains Traction with Credit Dislocation Focus, as Long/Short Hedge Fund Maintains Momentum (Hedge Week)
Cheyne Capital, the London-based credit and multi-strategy alternative investment manager, has continued to attract investor allocations during this year’s turbulence with its focus on market dislocations, as its thematic long/short equity hedge fund notched up successive gains in March and April. “We’re known for stepping early into dislocations, such as real estate debt in 2009, social property in 2014, and sub-investment grade credit ahead of IFRS 9 in 2018, so we took in approximately USD500 million of investor allocations across our strategies during March and April,” said Stuart Fiertz, co-founder and president of Cheyne. The firm’s Thematic Long/Short Equity Fund was a “notable outlier in March,” Fiertz said, advancing 5.3 per cent while other hedge fund strategies stumbled as growing Covid-19 fears hit markets globally.
CQS Spins Off Equity Hedge-Fund Arm as Hintze Goes Back to Roots (Bloomberg)
Billionaire Michael Hintze’s CQS is spinning off its nascent equities hedge-fund business into a stand-alone firm as it focuses on core credit strategies that have been hammered by the pandemic. Paul Graham, the firm’s head of equities, will leave CQS to lead the spinoff as chief executive officer, according to people with knowledge of the matter. CQS will take an equity stake in the business and allocate some capital to it, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
Hedge-Fund Manager Kyle Bass Says US Heading to Economic Depression, Even Worse for China (ForexLive.com)
Bass says that “For the year I think you’re going to see U.S. GDP down somewhere between 7% to 10% in real terms”. Citing of course the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s efforts to contain it. “10% is an economic depression” (Bass comparing the drop with the more than 10% drop in 1946 & the -12.9% in 1932 Great Depression). China could be even more severe. shortage of U.S. dollars in the Chinese economy. Chinese Communist Party political crisis in Hong Kong (HK is a key conduit of foreign capital).
Thursday 5/14 Insider Buying Report: PCB, LKFN (Nasdaq.com)
On Tuesday, PCB Bancorp’s , Daniel Cho, made a $484,229 buy of PCB, purchasing 53,364 shares at a cost of $9.07 each. Bargain hunters are able to pick up PCB even cheaper than Cho did, with shares changing hands as low as $8.40 at last check today which is 7.4% below Cho’s purchase price. PCB Bancorp is trading up about 1.3% on the day Thursday. Before this latest buy, Cho purchased PCB at 2 other times during the past year, for a total investment of $328,503 at an average of $8.97 per share. And on Wednesday, Director M. Scott Welch bought $359,211 worth of Lakeland Financial, buying 10,000 shares at a cost of $35.92 each. Before this latest buy, Welch purchased LKFN at 4 other times during the past twelve months, for a total investment of $1.27M at an average of $39.77 per share. Lakeland Financial is trading trading flat on the day Thursday.
A Director at Quidel (NASDAQ: QDEL) is Selling Shares (Analyst Ratings)
Yesterday, a Director at Quidel (QDEL), Kenneth Buechler, sold shares of QDEL for $1M. Following Kenneth Buechler’s last QDEL Sell transaction on May 07, 2020, the stock climbed by 25.1%. In addition to Kenneth Buechler, one other QDEL executive reported Sell trades in the last month.
Inphi Corp (IPHI) President & CEO Ford Tamer Sold $3.3 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
President & CEO of Inphi Corp., Ford Tamer, sold 30,000 shares of IPHI on 05/13/2020 at an average price of $109.97 a share. The total sale was $3.3 million. Inphi Corp is engaged in designing, development and sale of high-speed analog connectivity components that operate to maintain, amplify and improve signal integrity in a wide variety of applications. Inphi Corp has a market cap of $5.02 billion; its shares were traded at around $104.12 with and P/S ratio of 11.25.
Burr Stepping Down as Chair of Intelligence Panel Amid Probe (Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) — Republican Senator Richard Burr is temporarily stepping down as chairman of the Intelligence Committee amid a federal investigation into whether he sold stocks as a result of secret briefings on the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. “Senator Burr contacted me this morning to inform me of his decision to step aside as chairman of the Intelligence Committee during the pendency of the investigation,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement. “We agreed that this decision would be in the best interests of the committee and will be effective at the end of the day tomorrow.”
Aurobindo, Promoters Settle Insider Trading Case with Sebi (TheHansIndia.com)
New Delhi: Aurobindo Pharma, its promoter PV Ramprasad Reddy, his wife P Suneela Rani, and three other entities have settled an alleged insider trading case with markets regulator Sebi after paying over Rs 22 crore towards settlement charges. The three other entities that have settled the matter with the regulator are Kambam P Reddy, Trident Chemphar Ltd and Veritaz Health Care Ltd. “The pending enforcement proceedings for the alleged defaults are settled,” Sebi said in a settlement order dated May 6.
