MG Capital Seeks to Oust Philip Falcone From HC2’s Board (Bloomberg)
Philip Falcone is in the crosshairs of an activist investor who wants to remove him — along with the rest of the board — from HC2 Holdings Inc. MG Capital, run by former Third Point executive Michael Gorzynski, wrote in a letter to shareholders Tuesday that it thinks HC2 has traded at a discount of more than 80% to the value of its underlying assets because of a series of management missteps. Gorzynski pins the underperformance on Falcone, HC2’s chairman, chief executive officer and president.
Hedge Fund Founder Andrew Redleaf Talks Politics, Says He’ll Vote ‘Blue No Matter Who’ – Even Sanders (Forbes)
Andrew Redleaf, the founder of hedge fund Whitebox Advisors, has for some time expressed concerns over issues facing small businesses in the U.S. More recently, his efforts have led him to get involved in politics at the grassroots level. To this end he has funded the Lincoln Project, a conservative super PAC opposed to President Donald J. Trump. With the Democratic primary now in full swing, Redleaf was asked to assess the political landscape as an investor. He turned out to be very outspoken on a host of issues that should be of interest to market participants and political analysts alike. Below is an edited transcript of the conversation held Feb. 8.
Hedge Fund Mogul David Tepper Takes a Stake in Intelsat and Urges a New FCC Deal (CNBC)
David Tepper’s hedge fund, Appaloosa, took a minority stake in satellite company Intelsat on Tuesday and sent a letter to its board, urging the company to renegotiate terms of its 5G deal with the Federal Communications Commission. “We want a smart agreement for all parties and this isn’t smart for anybody,” Tepper told CNBC’s Scott Wapner. Shares of Intelsat rose as much as 27% after Appaloosa announced a 7.4% stake.
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Leon Cooperman Says the Market has Become Too Pessimistic on Energy Stocks, Too Euphoric on Tesla (CNBC)
Billionaire investor and founder of Omega Advisors Leon Cooperman said Tuesday that investors have become too pessimistic on the energy sector while too optimistic on individual companies like Tesla.
Building ‘Sales’ Muscle (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Two of the Nordic hedge fund industry’s asset managers are expanding their investor relations staff. Oslo-based hedge fund platform Sector Asset Management announced the hiring of Léopold Gasteen as Investor Relations Director, while alternative asset manager Resscapital announced that Cristina Lugaro is joining their Institutional Sales team. Sector Asset Management is a multi-boutique asset manager with three members of the Nordic Hedge Index under its umbrella. Léopold Gasteen has eight years of experience in the asset management industry. During his undergraduate studies, he founded a marketplace enabling start-ups to find university talent, worked at interdealer brokerage firm Mariana Capital in London and interned at boutique hedge fund RAM Capital in Geneva.
Hedge Funds Use DIY Strategies to Gauge Coronavirus Impact (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – As investors crunch numbers to determine how the coronavirus will hit China’s economy, hedge fund manager Nathaniel Polachek has tied much of his outlook to the fate of a ship anchored near Weihai, China. The vessel carries some 750 tons of lead concentrate that Polachek, head of New York-based Commodity Asset Management, purchased in Greece to sell on the Chinese mainland.
IQ-EQ Acquires USD1.3tn Hedge Fund Administrator (Hedge Week)
IQ-EQ has acquired Blue River Partners (Blue River), a US provider of outsourced solutions to alternative asset managers in a deal that IQ_EQ says makes it a major player in the US private equity and hedge fund services market. The newly combined IQ-EQ US operation will total 200 people in the US as a result of this transaction. Founded in 2009, Blue River pioneered back-office outsourcing for alternative asset managers, and has grown to become an industry leader, servicing more than 400 clients across the US and employing approximately 180 team members across its seven office locations – Dallas (HQ), Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
National Retail Properties Inc (NNN) EVP & Chief Acquisitions Offic Stephen A Jr Horn Sold $1 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
EVP & Chief Acquisitions Offic of National Retail Properties Inc., Stephen A Jr Horn, sold 18,000 shares of NNN on 02/14/2020 at an average price of $56.27 a share. The total sale was $1 million. National Retail Properties Inc is a real estate investment trust that invests in and develops properties throughout the United States. Most of the company’s properties are located in the Midwest, South, and Southeast of the United States.
Renaissance Technologies Rides Tesla Rally (Seeking Alpha)
Hedge fund Renaissance Technologies added ~3.3M shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in Q4 in a well-timed move. The firm founded by Jim Simons and known for its quantitative focus ended the quarter with almost 4M shares. Shares of Tesla are up 5.03% premarket to $840.82.
Tuesday 2/18 Insider Buying Report: SEE, WU (Nasdaq.com)
On Friday, Sealed Air’s Director, Patrick Duff, made a $525,000 buy of SEE, purchasing 15,000 shares at a cost of $35.00 a piece. Investors can pick up SEE at a price even lower than Duff did, with shares trading as low as $34.15 in trading on Tuesday which is 2.4% below Duff’s purchase price. Sealed Air is trading down about 1.2% on the day Tuesday. And at Western Union, there was insider buying on Friday, by Director Jan Siegmund who purchased 10,000 shares for a cost of $26.21 each, for a total investment of $262,100. This buy marks the first one filed by Siegmund in the past twelve months. Western Union Co is trading off about 0.7% on the day Tuesday.
National Retail Properties Inc (NNN) EVP & Chief Acquisitions Offic Stephen A Jr Horn Sold $1 million of Shares (Guru Focus)
EVP & Chief Acquisitions Offic of National Retail Properties Inc., Stephen A Jr Horn, sold 18,000 shares of NNN on 02/14/2020 at an average price of $56.27 a share. The total sale was $1 million. National Retail Properties Inc is a real estate investment trust that invests in and develops properties throughout the United States. Most of the company’s properties are located in the Midwest, South, and Southeast of the United States.
