Hyundai Shareholders Inflict Big Defeat on U.S. Fund Elliott in Proxy Vote (Reuters)
SEOUL (Reuters) – Hyundai Motor Group companies’ shareholders rejected on Friday Elliott Management’s demands for a massive special dividend and board seats, dealing a blow to the U.S. hedge fund’s campaign to shake up South Korea’s second-biggest family-run conglomerate. Although Hyundai fended off the threat from Elliott at the closely watched vote, it still faces a daunting challenge of winning shareholder support for a planned restructuring that should aid the handover of the group’s reins to heir apparent Euisun Chung.
Paulson Opposes Newmont-Goldcorp Merger Unless Price Lowered (Bloomberg)
Paulson & Co. says it won’t support Newmont Mining Corp.’s proposed $10 billion merger with Goldcorp Inc. unless the terms are changed. One major concern is that Goldcorp shareholders are effectively receiving the benefits of the recently announced joint venture between Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont for free, the hedge fund said Thursday in a statement. As a result, Paulson would like to see the price lowered about 23 percent.
Luis Louro / shutterstock.com
Hedge Fund Flows Positive but Well Below Historic Levels (HedgeNordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – The month of February saw hedge funds receive $1.69 billion in capital from investors, ending a five-month streak of consecutive outflows. According to eVestment, capital flows for February represent a key industry bellwether of net flows for the hedge fund industry. Last February’s level of new investment, however, marked the industry’s worst February for net flows in a decade. Historically, February has been an important month for the hedge fund industry, as new allocations usually start flowing heavily into the industry during this period of the year. In the past ten years, the level of new investment in February amounted to $17 billion on average, significantly above the $1.69 billion in new capital received by the industry last month.
Pension-backed Morgan Creek Digital Makes Strategic Investment in Ikigai Asset Management (Hedgeco.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) Morgan Creek Digital announced today that it will be the lead anchor investor in Ikigai Asset Management’s flagship fund focused on executing systematic and fundamental liquid hedge fund strategies as well as opportunistic venture-stage crypto asset investments. Ikigai is a crypto asset management firm launched in December 2018 by former Point72 Portfolio Manager Travis Kling and partners Timothy Lewis, and Anthony Emtman.
Investors Added $1.69bn to Hedge Funds in February (Opalesque.com)
Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Investors may have added $1.69bn to hedge funds in February but face a rough road in 2019 with net inflows still in the negative YTD for 2019, said the eVestment February 2019 Hedge Fund Asset Flows Report. February is traditionally a bellwether month for hedge fund industry performance for the rest of the year, and February 2019 was the worst February for net flows in a decade. Following low performance in 2018, investors are fleeing from macro and managed futures strategies, with…
Insurers Team With Hedge Fund in PG&E Bankruptcy (The Wall Street Journal)
Insurers Team With Hedge Fund in PG&E Bankruptcy. A group of insurers have formed a creditor group with Baupost Group LLC in a bid to recoup billions of dollars in insurance payouts from PG&E Corp. stemming from damage caused by California wildfires.
A Star Investor in ‘The Big Short’ is Betting Against Canadian Banks (Business Insider)
Steve Eisman, the hedge-fund manager famous for betting against the US housing market ahead of the 2008 crash, is sounding the alarm on the Canadian market. “I’m calling for a simple normalization of credit that hasn’t happened in 20 years,” Eisman said in an interview with the Financial Times. He didn’t indicate the size of his positions or the names of the banks he was targeting.
Ex-Goldman Director Rajat Gupta Says He’s Innocent Seven Years After Insider Trading Conviction (CNBC)
Rajat Gupta, retired head of consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and a former Goldman Sachs board member, was convicted nearly seven years ago of insider trading, and spent 19 months behind bars. Now, in his first interview since his release from prison in 2016, Gupta maintained his innocence, and said he wants to rebuild his life. Gupta told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin that he is innocent, despite being found guilty by a jury of three counts of securities fraud and one conspiracy charge, and not guilty on two other charges. He said his biggest regrets are speaking too freely about Goldman’s corporate secrets, and not testifying at his trial.
Friday 3/22 Insider Buying Report: FIS, WSC (Nasdaq.com)
As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy – they expect to make money. So let’s look at two noteworthy recent insider buys. On Thursday, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS)’s Director, Alexandar Navab Jr., made a $544,142 purchase of FIS, buying 5,075 shares at a cost of $107.22 each. So far Navab Jr. is in the green, up about 3.8% on their buy based on today’s trading high of $111.33. Fidelity National Information Services is trading up about 0.7% on the day Friday.
Pastor convicted in Historic Hack-based Insider Trading Gets 5 Years in Prison, Ordered to Pay $14.4M (Christian Post)
Vitaly Korchevsky, a former hedge fund manager and pastor was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay more than $14 million in forfeiture for his role in what the FBI billed as the largest known computer hacking and securities fraud scheme. “Today’s sentence sends a powerful message that, no matter how sophisticated or novel the scheme, cybercriminals and traders who steal information from U.S. companies and undermine the integrity of our financial markets will be held accountable for their actions,” Richard P. Donoghue, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement Thursday.
The Chairman & CEO of NantKwest (NASDAQ: NK) is Buying Shares (AnalystRatings)
Yesterday, the Chairman & CEO of NantKwest (NK), Shiong Patrick Soon, bought shares of NK for $35M. Following this transaction Shiong Patrick Soon’s holding in the company was increased by 37.59% to a total of $88.75 million.Currently, NantKwest has an average volume of 342.2K.
Executives and Directors are Insider Trading on Advance Knowledge of Audit Issues, New Study Finds (MarketWatch)
Corporate executives and directors are trading on inside information about potential audit findings in the window between year-end earnings announcements and when companies file annual reports and audit opinions with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to new research. Companies didn’t use to announce fourth-quarter earnings until the auditors’ work was done and the annual report with its opinion was issued. Since 2004, however, after new audit requirements were mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as a result of the failure of Enron and the dissolution of its audit firm Arthur Andersen, audits are taking longer to finish.
MFA Counters Sri Lanka’s Accusation that Singapore is Sheltering Suspect Involved in $74 million Trading Scam (TheIndependent.sg)
Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has countered Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena’s recent accusation that Singapore is sheltering the nation’s ex-central bank chief who is wanted in connection with a US$74 million trading scam case. In a statement on Monday (18 Mar), Sirisena publicly accused Singapore of sheltering the suspect Arjuna Mahendran who is now a Singapore citizen. Revealing that he appealed to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for assistance in the case in Jan 2019, Sirisena lamented that PM Lee had promised that he would take action but so far, nothing had been done.
Information Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:III) Insider Trading Activity – CEO Bought 40,000 shares of Stock (MarketExclusive)
Insider Trading Activity For Information Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:III): Michael P Connors , CEO of Information Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:III) reportedly Bought 40,000 shares of the company’s stock at an average price of 3.72 for a total transaction amount of $148,800.00.
