Activist Investor Legion Partners Nominates 7 Directors to Genesco Board (Reuters)
BOSTON (Reuters) – Activist investor Legion Partners Asset Management LLC has nominated seven directors to sit on specialty retailer Genesco Inc’s eight-person board, according to a letter made public in a filing on Monday. Legion, run by Christopher Kiper, wants Genesco to consider selling non-core assets and buy back shares. It owns a 5.6% stake in the retailer, which has a market capitalization of $727.8 million. Genesco’s stock price inched up 1.3% to $49.29.
Steve Cohen’s Manhattan Penthouse Sells After a 74% Price Cut (Bloomberg)
Hedge fund manager Steve Cohen found a buyer for his midtown Manhattan penthouse. It took eight years and a 74% price cut. Cohen’s 9,000-square-foot (836-square-meter) duplex at 151 East 58th St. is under contract in Manhattan’s priciest deal last week, according to a report Monday by luxury brokerage Olshan Realty Inc. The sale marks the end of a journey that began in 2013 when Cohen, founder of Point72 Asset Management and owner of the New York Mets, listed the place for $115 million.
Investor Dan Loeb’s $17 billion hedge fund Third Point holds an undisclosed amount of cryptocurrencies with Coinbase (Business Insider)
Dan Loeb‘s New York-based hedge fund Third Point is yet another name in a line of Wall Street players to reveal cryptocurrency investments. Third Point, which manages about $17 billion, disclosed in a regulatory filing in late March that five of its funds hold crypto assets under custody with Coinbase. The amount and duration of investment is currently unclear. In a separate brochure, the firm said it could invest in crypto directly or indirectly through derivatives contracts.
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Hedge Fund Titan Bill Ackman Backs ESG Investing (Nasdaq.com)
Hedge fund titan and founder/CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management Bill Ackman was effusive in his praise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing in a recent Pershing Square Holdings 2020 report. “With the benefit of substantial philanthropic and investing experience, I have come to believe that capitalism is likely the most powerful potential force for good in addressing society’s long-term problems,” said Ackman, per a Yahoo! Finance article. “A successful business operating ethically and sustainably can create many thousands of high-paying jobs, deliver high long-term returns for pensioners, long-term savers and other investors, and provide goods and services that materially increase its customers’ quality of life, broadly defined. That said, capitalism is far from perfect,” he added.
Credit Suisse, After Archegos, Faces Tough Choices on Investment Bank (The Wall Street Journal)
When Credit Suisse Group AG announced a $4.7 billion hit from the Archegos Capital Management meltdown, there was a silver lining: The rest of its investment bank did so well in the quarter, the overall pretax loss would only be $1 billion. The situation exposes the bank’s dilemma. Its investment bank, which takes on more risk, has been its profit engine, making up for its larger, slower-growing wealth-management business. But now it is expected to be scaled back for safety, with Chief Executive Thomas Gottstein saying its structure and strategic relevance would be evaluated.
Strongest 12 Months on Record (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Nordic equity hedge funds advanced 1.2 percent in March (94 percent reported) to bring their first-quarter advance to 5.2 percent, capping the best one-year rolling performance on record. The NHX Equities, currently represented by 49 funds, enjoyed the best one-year rolling period after gaining 32.9 percent over the twelve months ending March. Global equity markets, as measured by the FTSE World, advanced 3.7 percent in local-currency terms last month, with the Euro-hedged advance reaching 6.8 percent as the U.S. dollar strengthened by nearly three percent against the Euro.
Tyr Capital to Launch Long-Only Fund (Institutional Asset Manager)
Tyr Capital Partners, the team behind crypto arbitrage hedge fund, Tyr Capital Arbitrage SP, is setting up an actively managed long-only fund to launch next year, following increasing demand from investors. The fund will offer investors exposure to the potential long-term rewards of a portfolio of cryptocurrencies. The structure and strategy will be tested this year with a small number of private investors, including the fund’s founders. Tyr Capital Partners predicts the fund will open for investment in 2022.
