George Soros and Citadel Among the Winners as Trainline Shares Plunge (Market Watch)
Shares of ticket seller Trainline fell as much as 33% on Thursday, after the U.K. outlined a railroad infrastructure plan that would include operating a rival ticketing app. Trainline TRN, -23.22% was shorted by a number of high-profile investors, including billionaire investor George Soros’ SFM UK Management, Citadel Europe and Connecticut hedge fund Paloma Partners, according to the Financial Conduct Authority’s register of short positions.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Got 211 Billionaires to Pledge Half their Wealth to Charity. Now Some are Falling Short — and Still Getting Massive Tax Breaks. (Business Insider)
It was the winter of 2010 and Mark Zuckerberg was in a hurry. A few months earlier, 40 of America’s richest families had signed the Giving Pledge, a public promise initiated by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to give at least half of their wealth to charitable causes. Death was the Giving Pledge deadline. You could give half your money away beforehand, or you could leave it to charity in your will. Zuckerberg, who at age 26 was among the second group of Giving Pledge signers, made clear that he did not intend to wait nearly that long.
Griffin, Loeb Donations Blasted by NYC Mayor Candidate Stringer (Bloomberg)
Scott Stringer, the New York City Comptroller who is running for mayor, criticized hedge fund managers Ken Griffin and Dan Loeb for contributing to political committees that support his opponents in the race, accusing the billionaire money managers of trying to privatize public education. Griffin, the founder of Citadel, and Loeb, founder of Third Point LLC, each gave $500,000 to independent political action committees known as super PACs that support Eric Adams and Andrew Yang, two of Stringer’s opponents in the upcoming June 22 Democratic primary for mayor.
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Tribune Publishing Shareholders to Vote Friday on Hedge Fund Alden’s $633 Million Offer for Chicago-Based Newspaper Chain (Chicago Tribune)
Friday is a pivotal day for the 174-year-old Chicago Tribune, Tribune Publishing and the struggling newspaper industry. Barring an eleventh hour, fully financed rival bid, Tribune Publishing shareholders are set to vote on a $633 million proposal by hedge fund Alden Global Capital to buy the Chicago-based newspaper chain and take it private.
Schroders Joins Investor Rebellion Over FirstGroup Deal (Reuters)
(Reuters) – FirstGroup’s second-biggest investor Schroders said on Thursday it plans to vote against the British company’s $4.6 billion sale of the North American bus businesses to private equity firm EQT, joining top investor Coast Capital in opposing the deal. “After careful consideration of the merits of the proposed sale of First Student and First Transit, we have the intention of voting against the deal as it stands, as we believe it undervalues these businesses,” a Schroders spokesperson said.
Timing It Right (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – In the February-March period of 2020, market participants went from thinking everything was flawless to hopeless amid heightened concerns about the spread of coronavirus outside of China and its ramifications for the global economy. Malmö-based money manager Mikael Petersson followed Warren Buffett’s advice of betting big “when there’s blood in the streets” to launch a second fund, a concentrated long-only equity fund, Coeli European Opportunities.
How “Omnipresent” Client Conferencing is a Game-Changer for Hedge Fund Manager-Investor Relationships (Hedge Week)
The increased frequency of client communications during the pandemic has been a “game-changer” for the hedge fund manager-allocator dynamic, according to speakers on the fundraising and investor relations panel at this year’s hedgeweekLIVE Technology Summit. The discussion explored how investor relations and fundraising has been reshaped by the Covid-19 pandemic, and weighed up how the past 15 months of virtual networking may have permanently altered client communications, capital introduction, investor appetite and more. Greg Zaffiro, partner and head of IR and marketing at Electron Capital, a global long/short equity manager which manages more than USD2 billion and focuses on mainly on public utilities, said the frequency of investor updates has been a seismic shift.
