Billionaires: Warren Buffett’s Portrait Auction Fails to Match $19m Lunch Bid (The National News)
The auction of a high-tech portrait of Warren Buffett did not come close to matching the $19 million paid this year for a private lunch with the billionaire, but it raised $75,100 for one of his favourite charities. The eBay auction was held on August 30, Mr Buffett’s 92nd birthday. The portrait, created by Motiva Art, features a grid of letters over the picture that light up to spell out 11 of the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and chief executive’s best-known quotes, including: “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked.”
Activist Investor Elliott Raises Stake in Swedish Match to Above 5% (Reuters)
Sept 5 – Activist investor Elliott Investment Management’s stake in Swedish Match crossed 5% on Friday, making it the biggest shareholder in the tobacco and nicotine products maker that is currently subject to a takeover offer by Philip Morris. Bloomberg News reported in July, citing sources familiar with the matter, that Elliott was building a stake in the Stockholm-based firm in an attempt to oppose the nearly $16 billion buyout deal under its current terms.
Leading London Hedge Fund Takes €90m Short Bet Against Kerry Group (Business Post)
Marshall Wace, a multibillion-euro London hedge fund, has taken a short bet of almost €90 million against Kerry Group, one of Ireland’s largest and most successful companies. Stock exchange filings last week show that the hedge fund, which was founded by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace in 1997 and is one of the world’s largest hedge fund management firms, is betting against 0.5 per cent of the company’s shares.
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Hedge Funds Pile in on Berkshire Hathaway (Hedge Week)
Hedge funds including Renaissance Technologies, DE Shaw, and Bridgewater bought stock in Berkshire Hathaway worth more than $900 million in the second quarter of the year, according to a report by The Financial Times. The report cites securities filings as revealing that quant funds dominated the list of shareholders adding to their holdings in Warren Buffet’s conglomerate during Q2 with the computer-driven investment groups reportedly seeing Berkshire Hathaway’s shares as relatively inexpensive based on its earnings compared with many other companies.
Opalesque Roundup: Trend-Following Hedge Funds are Having a Moment: Hedge Fund News, Week 33 (Opalesque)
In the week ending September 2nd 2022, Eric Uhlfelder published his 19th annual report on the top 50 hedge funds. In his 2022 Survey of the Top 50 Hedge Funds, Uhlfelder said the top 50 funds have been generating about the same annualized net returns since inception as they have over the last five years, emphasizing their consistency. The Scotiabank Canadian Hedge Fund Index reported gains in July 2022 of 0.95% MOM on an asset-weighted basis and up 1.97% MOM on an equal-weighted basis. The comparable benchmark indices were both up for the month, with the S&P TSX 60 Total Return Index and S&P 500 Total Return Index posting increases of 3.91% and 9.22% respectively.
