Activist ValueAct Played a Key Role in Speeding Up Citigroup CEO’s Retirement, Sources Say (CNBC)
The activist hedge fund ValueAct was “very disappointed” in Citigroup’s performance under Corbat and his deputies since it built up a stake in 2018, and that was a key factor in Corbat’s retirement announcement last week, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Specifically, ValueAct was unhappy that the bank missed key performance targets for returns and expenses that it had set for itself in 2017, and that eroded the lender’s credibility, the people said.
Why Warren Buffett’s Japan Bet May Lure Foreigners as US Markets ‘Divorced from Reality’ (FNLondon.com)
Japan – long an investment managers’ graveyard – has become one of the most fertile markets for hedge fund managers in 2020 – and it is no surprise to see Warren Buffett placing a big bet on the country. That’s the view of Patrick Ghali, co-founder of hedge fund consultancy Sussex Partners – a London based firm that advises large investors on allocating to hedge funds. And he says he is not telling them to pull in their Japan bets any time soon. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway declared in late August that it took stakes of slightly more than 5% in five of Japan’s most venerable corporate names, with big investments in energy – Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, Itochu and Marubeni.
Former Baseball Owner Says Steve Cohen’s Purchase Of New York Mets Is A ‘Big Win For The Industry’ (Forbes)
Chuck Greenberg’s ownership stake in the Texas Rangers was a brief one, but the Pittsburgh-raised attorney said he still remembers the adrenaline rush he felt in a courtroom in 2010, when he and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan emerged victorious in their pursuit to buy the franchise, beating out the rival bidding group of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and businessman Jim Crane. The Rangers franchise had been in financial straits under previous owner Tom Hicks and ultimately an auction for the team was held in bankruptcy court. Greenberg said he had an ace up his sleeve on the eve of the auction, having negotiated a lucrative TV/media deal with Fox.
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Global Hedge Funds Miss Out to China Rivals as Stocks Boom (Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) — Global hedge funds seeking to tap China’s $9 trillion wealthy investor market are getting left behind as their local rivals attract the lion’s share of new money amid the biggest stock rally since 2015. The 28 foreign private fund managers including Bridgewater Associates LP registered 18 new funds this year, fewer than half of last year’s tally, according to data compiled by Shenzhen PaiPaiWang Investment & Management Co. Their combined assets under management grew by about half the 7 billion yuan ($1 billion) increase posted by one of China’s largest quantitative hedge funds alone.
The Co-investing Chief of SkyBridge Explains How He Finds Opportunities in Places Where No One is Looking – and Shares the 3 Hedge Fund Titans He’s Plowing Money Into Ahead of Market-Wide ‘Muted Returns’ (Business Insider)
Troy Gayeski believes that 99% of life is luck. “People don’t like to admit that but where you’re born, which century you’re born in, or whether you grow up in places where you have very little economic opportunity,” he told Business Insider. “It’s all just luck.” But hard work, mastery, and skill are things one can control, said Gayeski, co-chief investment officer of SkyBridge Capital, the $7.5 billion hedge fund that Anthony Scaramucci launched in 2005.
Hedge Funds Weighed Down by “clunky” Trading Processes Risk Further Hit from Volatility Spike (Hedge Week)
Outdated trading systems and clunky manual processes are hampering hedge funds’ efforts to swiftly execute trade orders to the market, resulting in an annual hit of some USD8 million – which could worsen in the event of renewed volatility later in the year. New analysis by TradingScreen, a New York-based software-as-a-service trading technology provider, found that hedge funds face hold-ups when processing execution orders as a result of poor system integration and slow manual inputs needed to create, validate, execute and book trades.
Hedge Funds Sidestepped Tech Rout With Tilt to Value Stocks (Bloomberg)
In one of their few prescient moves of 2020, hedge funds backed off from the summer’s hottest trade and went bargain hunting, just in time for a revival in value stocks. Over the last two months when a relentless rally in tech shares sparked fears over bubble valuations, professional managers who make both bullish and bearish equity bets retreated from the group while snapping up stocks trading cheap relative to earnings or book value, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s prime-brokerage unit.
