New Blackpool Owner Simon Sadler: ‘I’m Doing it for the Greater Good’ (The Guardian)
If Blackpool supporters who fought the arduous campaign against Owen Oyston’s toxic ownership ever fantasised about the ideal alternative, they may have imagined a figure not very different to Simon Sadler, a local lad made good and the club’s new owner. The 49-year-old grew up in Blackpool, was taken to his first match by his father as a boy in 1977, and spent his formative years on Bloomfield Road’s west paddock with Brett Gerrity, whom he met as a teenager when they had summer jobs renting out deckchairs. Through a financial career first in the City then for 20 years in Hong Kong where he runs a hedge fund, Segantii, with $3.5bn under management, Sadler has not lost a note of his accent, and the Tangerines remained an anchor of home.
How ‘Mantra’ Meditation Helped Billionaire Ray Dalio Come Back from Financial Ruin (CNBC)
At the age of 12, billionaire Ray Dalio bought his first stock for less than $5 a share with money he made while caddying in Queens, New York. “I got lucky, because the company was about to go broke, but some other company acquired it and it tripled, and I thought the game was easy, and so that’s what I got hooked on,” Dalio says during an episode of the Business Insider podcast, “This is Success” Friday.
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Hedge Fund Sues Pritzker to Void $14 Billion of State Debt (Bloomberg)
A hedge fund run by a protege of Appaloosa Management’s David Tepper and the chief executive officer of a conservative think tank sued Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, saying $14.3 billion of bonds should be invalidated because their issuance violated the state constitution. Warlander Asset Management, a New York-based hedge fund formed by Eric Cole, and John Tillman, the CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, said the state’s record pension bond sale in 2003 and debt issued in 2017 to pay a backlog of unpaid bills were deficit financings prohibited by the constitution. The lawsuit was filed Monday in Sangamon County circuit court.
What George Soros’ Life is Really Like: How the Former Hedge-fund Manager Built his R166 Billion Fortune (Business Insider)
Conspiracy theorists accuse former hedge-fund manager George Soros of aiding Nazis, conspiring to fill Budapest with refugees, and trying to start a Civil War in the United States. While these theories lack support, little is actually known about how the 88-year-old billionaire passes his days. Soros built his fortune running what was once the world’s largest hedge fund – Quantum Fund. After he passed his hedge fund to his sons in 2011, Soros has largely focused his personal goal of creating a more open society through giving to both his personal foundation and a variety of progressive politicians, according to his personal website.
Neil Woodford Politely Informs Investors That They Can Get Their Money Out Of His Hedge Fund When He Damn Well Feels Like It (Deal Breaker)
It’s been about a month since Neil Woodford froze up his troubled flagship fund and told investors that he was going to need his time and their money to figure some shit out. And since they’re still asking when they might be able to get their assets out from under his management, The Oracle of Oxford would like to respond “Not NOW, thank you!” Link’s decision to continue with the suspension of investor dealing in the Equity Income fund is to ensure investors’ interests are protected. It affords Neil and the team the required time to execute the changes to the portfolio that we have outlined previously, in order to deliver the best possible outcomes for you, our investors.
Hedge Funds Step up Bets Against Retail Landlord New River (City A.M.)
Hedge funds are betting against New River as concerns rise that it could be the latest retail landlord hurt by the industry’s struggles. The short position in the company has increased to 7.35 per cent compared to 5.41 per cent on 1 July last year, according to disclosed positions published by Shorttracker. GLG Partners, Merian Global Investors and Odey Asset Management are among those betting that New River’s share price will drop.
Opalesque Roundup: Hedge Fund Performance Dispersion Narrows Significantly in 1Q19: Hedge Fund News, Week 24 (Opalesque)
In the week ending June 28th 2019, Hedge Fund Research showed that hedge fund performance dispersion narrows significantly in 1Q19 with the top decile posting an average gain of +21.12%, up from +8.5% in 4Q18, while the bottom decile decline fell to -5.8%, down from an average of -23.3%. This top/bottom dispersion 26.9% represents a dispersion decline of nearly 500 basis points over the 4Q dispersion of 31.8%. Global hedge fund liquidations outpaced launches for the third consecutive quarter: about 213 funds closed in the first three months of this year, compared with 136 that opened. According to the report, the 136 new launches brings the rolling 12-month launch total to 544, falling below the 561 launches from calendar year 2018 and representing the lowest total for a 12-month period since 2000.
Oil Prices Get a Lift from Short-covering: Kemp (Reuters)
LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) – Hedge fund managers have started to cover some of the bearish short positions in oil they established since late April, amid hopes for interest rate cuts and a trade truce between China and the United States. Hedge funds and other money managers increased their net long position in the six major petroleum futures and options contracts by 19 million barrels in the week to June 25.
Southern District of New York Vacates Insider Trading Guilty Plea Based on Insufficient Personal Benefit Evidence Under United States v. Newman (Lexology)
On June 21, 2019, in United States v. Lee,1 Judge Paul G. Gardephe of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an order vacating the guilty plea of a former investment portfolio analyst, Richard Lee, to charges of insider trading based on confidential information obtained from an investment research firm that, in turn, received the information from company insiders. Judge Gardephe explained that, after Lee’s guilty plea in 2013, the Second Circuit clarified in United States v. Newman that a remote tippee such as Lee (that is, someone multiple steps removed for the source, or tipper, of the confidential information) only could be held liable for insider trading if (a) the tipper received a “personal benefit” for disclosing the confidential information and (b) the defendant knew that the information was confidential and the tipper received a personal benefit. Because no evidence that Lee knew of any personal benefit received by the tipper was before the court at the time of his plea, Judge Gardephe held that his guilty plea was insufficient under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Monday 7/1 Insider Buying Report: ARQL, MAC (Nasdaq.com)
On Thursday, ArQule’s Director, Ran Nussbaum, made a $3M buy of ARQL, purchasing 307,692 shares at a cost of $9.75 a piece. So far Nussbaum is in the green, up about 16.4% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $11.35. ArQule is trading off about 0.4% on the day Monday. Before this latest buy, Nussbaum made one other purchase in the past year, buying $999,999 shares for a cost of $5.50 a piece. And on Wednesday, Director Andrea M. Stephen bought $649,882 worth of Macerich, buying 20,000 shares at a cost of $32.49 each. Before this latest buy, Stephen made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $700,300 shares for a cost of $35.02 a piece. Macerich is trading off about 3.9% on the day Monday.
What Did This CEO Just Do with Personal Shares of Century Communities (NYSE: CCS)? (Analyst Ratings)
Today, the Co-CEO, President of Century Communities (CCS), Robert Francescon, sold shares of CCS for $2.61M. Following Robert Francescon’s last CCS Sell transaction on September 09, 2016, the stock climbed by 6.8%. Based on Century Communities’ latest earnings report for the quarter ending March 31, the company posted quarterly revenue of $533 million and quarterly net profit of $17.12 million. In comparison, last year the company earned revenue of $398 million and had a net profit of $19.97 million. CCS’s market cap is $795.5M and the company has a P/E ratio of 8.67. Currently, Century Communities has an average volume of 631.6K.
Notable Insider Buys This Past Week: AbbVie, MGM and More (Benzinga)
MGM Resorts International: MGM 0.82% had a director continue to make indirect share purchases this past week. At $27.31 to $28.00 apiece, the more than 488,600 shares acquired most recently totaled almost $13.62 million. Note that these purchases were pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan and continued a buying streak that began in early June.
Ex-Equifax Executive Sent to Jail for Insider Trading After Breach (WeLiveSecurity.com)
The Equifax debacle is in the news again, as a former executive of one of the firm’s business units was sentenced to four months in prison last week for capitalizing on early knowledge of the massive security incident two years ago, according to a press release by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Jun Ying, the former Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Equifax’s US Information Solutions division, pled guilty back in March to selling his shares in the credit bureau. He admitted to dumping his stock after becoming aware of the breach but before it was disclosed a week and a half later.
Insider Trading: Sebi Slaps Rs 1.25 Crore Fine on Former MCX Director Hariharan Vaidyalingam (Outlook India)
New Delhi, Jul 1 Markets regulator Sebi has imposed a fine of Rs 1.25 crore on former MCX director Hariharan Vaidyalingam for insider trading. “…it has been established in the present case that the Noticee (Hariharan) being an insider sold the shares of MCX when in possession of the UPSI and violated the provisions of the Sebi PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations,” the regulator said while imposing the penalty on Hariharan. As per the Sebi order, Hariharan was a non-executive non-independent director on the board of MCX (Multi Commodity Exchange) during April 2002 to June 2012 and worked as an employee of FTIL (Financial Technologies India Limited) from January 2001 to June 2011.
