T. Boone Pickens, the ‘Oracle of Oil,’ Corporate Raider and Billionaire Philanthropist, Dies at 91 (CNBC)
T. Boone Pickens, the wildcatter “Oracle of Oil,” hedge fund founder and philanthropist who rewrote the playbook for corporate raiders, has died. He was 91. He died on Wednesday, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC. Pickens had been in declining health, suffering from a series of strokes and a serious fall in 2017. In late 2017, he put his sprawling 100-square-mile Mesa Vista Ranch in the Texas Panhandle on the market for $250 million, and a few months later, he closed his energy hedge fund, BP Capital, to outside investors.
Leon Cooperman Warns Private Equity Is a Risky Bet Fueled by Low Interest Rates (Bloomberg)
Legendary hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman took a shot at the private equity industry, saying low interest rates that have fueled its returns won’t last. “I think it’s a scam personally,” Cooperman said Wednesday at an event hosted by the New York Alternative Investment Roundtable. With interest rates likely to rise over the next few years, the “timing is wrong.”
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George Soros Says Nice Thing About The President, Causes Nasty Case Of Vertigo For Fox News (Deal Breaker)
The right-wing press is all agog, and if it’s being honest a bit dizzy and disoriented: A man it has been taught—and teaches—to fear and loathe, a man whose very existence is anathema to them, a man who is in more or less open warfare with its second-favorite (maybe third now that Boris Johnson’s in No. 10?) world leader, a man who has turned the seemingly admirable phrase “open society” into a code word for “secret world government” to it, a man who dares to be worth an order of magnitude more than the president, a man who embodies the International Jew it hates, has said something nice, however qualified, about Donald Trump.
‘Big Short’ Legend Michael Burry Recently Unveiled a Bullish Bet on GameStop — But the Retailer’s Shares are Plummeting After a Dismal Earnings Report (GME) (Business Insider)
GameStop tumbled as much as 18% on Wednesday after the video-game retailer announced slowing revenue, accelerated losses and lowered sales expectations for the year. The company saw year-over-year slowdown in hardware, software, accessory, and used-product sales through its second quarter. The flop in pre-owned sales hits GameStop the hardest, as it brings the company the highest profit-per-sale and continues a trend of such sales declining. The “Big Short” legend Michael Burry recently disclosed a 3% stake in GameStop through his hedge fund, Scion Asset Management.
Exclusive: Former Starboard Executive Pushes for Sale of Mobile Mini – Sources (Reuters)
(Reuters) – The Donerail Group, an investment firm led by former activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP executive William Wyatt, has built a stake in Mobile Mini Inc (MINI.O) and is pushing the world’s largest provider of portable storage solutions to explore a sale, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The position, Donerail’s first major investment, comes at a time of leadership changes at Phoenix, Arizona-based Mobile Mini, which announced in May that CEO Erik Olsson will become chairman in October. He will be succeeded at the helm by the President and Chief Operating Officer Kelly Williams.
AT&T Stock Investors Love the Elliott Management Plan. But Debt Analysts Have Some Concerns (Barron’s)
Elliott Management’s plan for AT&T has given a near-5% boost to the telecommunications giant’s stock. Debt analysts are less impressed. Credit analysts aired some concerns about some of the activist hedge fund’s ideas on Wednesday. Elliott’s plan puts too much emphasis on share buybacks, two analysts said, though other parts of the plan could help AT&T’s credit.
Hedge Fund Livermore Partners Adds to Its Advisory Board – Names David Gould (GlobeNewsWire.com)
CHICAGO, Sept. 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mr. David Gould is currently a member of the Board of Directors of LetterOne Holdings, a member of the LetterOne’s Treasury Board of Directors and is a member of its Investment and Risk Committee. David also serves in an executive capacity as COO of LetterOne Holdings since 2014. LetterOne is an international investment business with over $23 Billion of assets under management and is focused on investment in the Energy, Retail, Health and Technology sectors. David formerly held a number of positions at PwC from 1992 to 2000 and at Alfa Group Consortium from 2000 to 2014 where he served in an executive capacity and where he was as a board member at Alfa Banking Group (Russia’s largest private bank) and at LSE-listed X5 Retail Group (Russia’s largest food retailer).
Hedge Fund Performance Turns Red in August (Hedge Week)
Aggregate monthly performance for the hedge fund industry slipped into the red in August at -0.31 per cent, the second negative month the industry has seen this year (May was the first), according to the just-released eVestment August 2019 hedge fund performance data. Year to date (YTD) 2019 industry performance sits at +6.97 per cent. In spite of a mix of positive and negative monthly returns among hedge fund types in August, almost all segments of the industry are in the green for performance YTD, highlighting the continued comeback of the industry from 2018, when the industry and almost every segment ended the year in the red.
Performance Woes Prompt Sanoor to Close (HFAlert.com)
Add Sanoor Capital to the list of equity managers that have called it quits due to poor performance. The Greenwich, Conn., firm, led by former Discovery Capital analyst Jasjit Rekhi, recently finished winding down its Sanoor Capital Master Fund. It began trading in May 2016 with backing from hedge fund seeder HS Group. At its peak, the fund had about $350 million under management. Sanoor was in positive territory this year through June. But last year the global-equity vehicle lost 22%, compared to a 9.8% drop for the MSCI All Country World Index. Since inception, the fund was roughly flat. Rekhi previously spent about 10 years as an equity analyst at Discovery, a global-macro fund manager led by Rob Citrone.
Caxton Associates Gets a Boost From ESG (Institutional Investor)
The strategy is one reason why the macro firm headed by Andrew Law is one of this year’s top macro managers. Caxton Associates’ main macro funds are on pace to post their best results since Andrew Law took control of the firm from founder Bruce Kovner at the end of 2011.Its flagship Caxton Global Investment gained 3.48 percent in August, bring its gain for the year through September 4 to 16.36…
