Battle of the Billionaires as Hedge Fund Tycoon Targets Boohoo (The Telegraph)
Kamani dynasty’s fast-fashion fortune under pressure from Sir Paul Marshall. Boohoo welcomed a brief reprieve from its slumping share price earlier this week on rumours that suitors might come knocking on the door. But within 24 hours of jumping almost 9pc, the fast fashion firm’s stock was back in the doldrums. It transpired City chitter-chatter was just that. Boohoo insiders have rebuffed the speculation. “It may be a US fund manager who may have taken a long position in the company wanting to talk it up,” says one City source. “Or it may be another portfolio manager who has taken a short position and wants to paint a picture that the business is distressed, so they have to sell it.”
Energy-Focused Hedge Fund Powhatan Files for Bankruptcy After Years of Litigation (Opalesque)
Powhatan Energy Fund LLC has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, with more than $26m in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) market manipulation sanction liabilities but less than $53,000 in cash. The filing effectively ends years of litigation. Powhatan Energy Fund LLC is a private investment partnership founded in 2010. The FERC’s Office of Enforcement alleged that Powhatan and trader Houlian Chen had manipulated the electricity market. Powhatan disagreed.
Carl Icahn Pushes McDonald’s to Change Way It Sources Its Pork (The New York Times)
The billionaire investor Carl Icahn began his battle with McDonald’s in his usual fashion — buying a small stake in the company and then pushing his own candidates for its board. But what’s different this time is the issue — better treatment for the pigs whose meat goes into McDonald’s sausage patties and other pork products.
Tidan Team Expands (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Capital structure arbitrage hedge fund Tidan has strengthened its team with the hiring of Gustav Gistvik as a quantitative analyst. Having spent his entire career in various parts of the Brummer & Partners group, Gistvik joins Tidan’s ex-Brummer founding team that launched Tidan in October of last year. Gustav Gistvik worked as a quantitative analyst at the now-closed Frost Asset Management and was part of the founding team launching Frost, a fixed-income relative-value fund operating in the Nordic markets.
Hedge Funds Up Short Bets on Australian Dollar (Hedge Week)
Short bets on the Australian dollar by leveraged hedge funds have hit their highest level since November according to a report by Bloomberg. Bloomberg says the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which covers up to 8 February, shows that futures and options investors have significantly upped their positions aimed at benefitting from a weakening of the currency. The move came after Royal Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe pledged to remain patient in assessing inflation despite US and European central banks moving to tackle recent price growth.
