Berkshire Hathaway is Not Buying Utility PG&E, Warren Buffett Says, Knocking Down Earlier Report (CNBC)
Berkshire Hathaway is not buying PG&E, Warren Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick. This knocks down a report earlier Wednesday that had caused shares of the troubled utility to surge. PG&E shares jumped more than 25% after Bloomberg News circulated a report from publication SparkSpread, which apparently said the Buffett-led conglomerate was in talks to buy the utility. They were still up 3.5% shortly before Wednesday’s opening bell.
SAP Welcomes Elliott’s $1.3 billion Investment; Shares Hit High (Reuters)
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – U.S. activist investor Elliott revealed a 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) stake in SAP on Wednesday and said it supported a new management efficiency drive, sending shares in the German business software company to a record high. SAP has until now escaped the attention of activist investors, steered by co-founder and Chairman Hasso Plattner who has withstood tough competition from U.S. rivals and is still the biggest shareholder in the German company with 6.5 percent.
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With Alden Global, When It Rains It Pours (Bloomberg)
I bumped into a couple from Denver the other day who were spending a long weekend in New York City. We got to talking, and I asked them whether they read the Denver Post. “No,” the man replied. “A hedge fund bought it and destroyed it.”
Soros Fund’s New Leader Upends Firm in Strategic Overhaul (The Wall Street Journal)
George Soros’s new investment chief made hedge-fund manager Adam Fisher an offer to join the firm two years ago. He’d get a multimillion-dollar annual bonus or an up-to $1.5 billion investment for a new fund if the job didn’t work out, said people familiar with the matter. By February, Mr. Fisher was gone.
Hedge Fund Titan Crispin Odey had a Huge Short Bet on Wirecard — and May Have been Hammered by the Stock’s Surge After SoftBank’s Investment (Business Insider)
Short-sellers in the German tech company Wirecard were surely cursing their luck Wednesday after the company’s share price bounced following new investment from the Japanese giant SoftBank. Odey Asset Management, led by the Brexit-supporting hedge fund titan Crispin Odey, may be one of them. As of February 19, Odey Asset Management held a short position of 0.56% in Wirecard, which amounted to approximately 83.2 million euros based on the German payment processor’s 120.25-euro share price at the time.
Two Capitalists Worry About Capitalism’s Future (The Wall Street Journal)
James Dimon and Ray Dalio are among the most successful capitalists in the U.S. today. So when they worry aloud about the future of capitalism, it’s worth listening. “I believe that all good things taken to an extreme become self-destructive and that everything must evolve or die. This is now true for capitalism,” Mr. Dalio, founder of hedge-fund manager Bridgewater Associates, writes on LinkedIn.
Nordic Footprints on Global Hedge Fund Awards (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Several Nordic hedge funds have been shortlisted for the Global Hedge Fund Awards, a recently-announced initiative by Eurekahedge to recognize and award the top performing hedge fund managers across the globe. Three hedge fund debuts in the Nordics, including the 2018 Nordic Rookie of the Year award winner – SEB Eureka Fixed Income Relative Value, will compete for the “Best New European Hedge Fund” award. Adrigo Small & Midcap L/S and Nordic Cross Small Cap Edge have also been shortlisted in this award category, which includes five other non-Nordic hedge funds.
SEC Halts Misappropriation and Fraudulent Securities Offering (HedgeCo.net)
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained an emergency asset freeze and temporary restraining order to halt an ongoing fraudulent securities offering by Eric D. Lyons, a Massachusetts resident, in an attempt to conceal his misappropriation from certain hedge funds Lyons advised through his Massachusetts-based investment advisory businesses. According to the SEC’s complaint, from mid-2017 to the present, Lyons and various investment adviser entities with the name Synchrony that Lyons controlled engaged in a scheme to misappropriate assets from hedge funds Lyons and these Synchrony adviser entities managed.
