Starboard Value Seeks $300 million for Blank-Check Acquisition (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Starboard Value LP said on Tuesday it plans to raise $300 million through a blank-check acquisition vehicle, becoming the latest major hedge fund to jump on this year’s frenzy for such deals. Starboard, launched in 2011 by CEO Jeffrey Smith, joins the ranks of William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP and Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC that have also raised these pools of capital, known as special purpose acquisition vehicles (SPACs).
Stanley Druckenmiller Reveals Bets on Companies Hit Hard by the Pandemic — Here are the Highlights (CNBC)
Hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller loaded up on shares of some of the most punished names from the pandemic in the last quarter, while also staying true to his bets stay-at-home tech stocks.
Darsana Capital Loses Money for Year-to-Date (institutional Investor)
How the ex-Eton Park partner is trying to climb out of the red after three straight years of double-digit gains. Darsana Capital Partners shook up its portfolio in the second quarter.The hedge fund firm led by ex-Eton Park partner Anand Desai dumped two hot and widely held stocks and added several new major positions to its typically concentrated portfolio. Darsana lost money in the first seven months of the year, according…
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Norway’s Only Pure AT1 Fund (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – About a year ago, Borea Asset Management launched Borea Obligasjon, a special fund that solely invests in additional tier-1 (AT1) securities issued by Norwegian savings and commercial banks. “Borea Obligasjon is the only pure AT1 fund in Norway,” portfolio manager Magnus Vie Sundal (pictured) tells HedgeNordic. This pure AT1 fund has now joined the Nordic Hedge Index. AT1 securities are a relatively young asset class born out of the financial crisis of 2008, acting as a critical instrument in regulators’ post-crisis bail-in strategy. The goal of these securities is to improve banks’ ability to mitigate risks and limit the reliance on the public purse during a banking crisis.
Citibank Sent a Hedge Fund $175 million by Mistake. Now They Can’t Get it Back (CNN Business)
London (CNN Business) Citibank has a big problem: It mistakenly wired roughly $175 million to Brigade Capital Management, and the hedge fund hasn’t returned the money. The US banking giant filed a lawsuit Monday in the Southern District of New York, seeking the return of funds that it said were transferred in an “operational mistake.” Citibank (C) said in court documents that it meant to send Brigade Capital around $1.5 million in interest payments on a loan the hedge fund made to troubled cosmetics company Revlon (REV). Instead, it wired roughly 100 times that amount of its own funds to the hedge fund. Other Revlon creditors also received erroneous payments adding up to $900 million.
Saudi Arabia’s $300 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund Sold Off 50% of its Stake in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (Business Insider)
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is one of the largest in the world, sold off 50% of its stock in Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The kingdom’s Public Investment Fund posted an almost 50% drop in ownership of Berkshire’s shares, with a current hold of 218,778 shares, a 13F filing showed on Friday last week. PIF’s disclosure showed that the value of Berkshire shares held fell to about $39 million as of June 2020, down from a previous investment of $79 million in May.
Seth Klarman Dumped Energy and Bought Health Stocks Last Quarter. Here’s What He’s Betting on Now (CNBC)
Hedge fund manager Seth Klarman made new bets on health care stocks during the second quarter as he sold off shares in tech giants and closed positions in energy companies, according to a securities filing. Klarman’s Baupost Group was a “significant” seller during the second quarter, according to a letter to investors obtained by CNBC. The new filing shows that Klarman made major cuts to what had been his top holdings at the end of the first quarter.
Hedge Fund Indices: A Helpful Tool, but Can Cause Confusion (Hedge Week)
By Don A Steinbrugge, Agecroft Partners – Although hedge fund indices can be a very useful tool, indices can also create confusion if their construction and composition are not well understood. Take for example hedge fund industry performance: what does this number represent? The hedge fund industry is not an asset class, rather, it is a fund structure that may be used in a broad array of strategies. It is like calculating the performance of the mutual fund industry into a single number by combining the performance of money market funds, bond funds and equity funds. In addition, in any given month, one hedge fund index could report positive performance for the industry while another could be negative.
