Hedge Fund Highlights: Bill Ackman, Michael Hintze & Starboard Value

Ackman’s Pershing Square Said to Gain 25% in First Half (Bloomberg)
Pershing Square Capital Management LP, the hedge-fund firm run by Bill Ackman, posted a 25 percent gain in its main fund for the first six months of the year, according to a person with knowledge of the returns. The fund climbed 2.4 percent in June, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Pershing Square is based in New York and manages $14.7 billion. The returns were reported earlier today by the Wall Street Journal.

Ex-CQS veteran re-emerges at credit hedge fund (Financial News)
Paul Casey, the ex-chief investment officer for convertible bonds and fixed income at CQS, has returned to the finance sector four-and-a-half years after leaving the $12 billion-plus multi-strategy hedge fund manager, where he was part of Sir Michael Hintze’s senior team. Casey, who worked at CQS from 2000 to the end of 2009, has re-emerged as a partner at Palmerston Capital Management, a long/short credit hedge fund launched at the start of this year by Stuart Wain, former head of European credit trading at JP Morgan.

Hedge fund executive to join Wausau Paper board (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
In the latest shake-up at Wausau Paper Corp. (NYSE:WPP), the company announced that a partner at New York hedge fund, which already has forced a break-up of the once-massive Wisconsin paper company, will join the Wausau board of directors. The Mosinee-based papermaker has been under public pressure for over three years by Starboard Value LP, which has forced the company to close or sell all of its Wisconsin paper mills, and all its timberlands in the state.

HFR: Hedge Funds Add Just 1.77% In First Half (FINalternatives)
Hedge funds had a very uninspiring first half of the year, missing out on most of the gains enjoyed by stocks during 2014’s first six months, an industry index shows. The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index returned just 1.77% in the first half, Hedge Fund Research said. During the same period, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index returned better than 6%, as stocks continued to rally on the heels of last year’s impressive gains, taking many managers by surprise. And it could have been worse: Much of the index’s first-half return came just last month, when it rose 0.93%.

TPG takes stake in Asia hedge fund investor HS Group (Reuters)
Global private equity firm TPG Capital is buying a stake in Hong Kong-based hedge fund sponsor HS Group Ltd (HSG) and establishing a strategic relationship with the company, HSG said in a statement on Thursday. The deal is TPG’s first dedicated Asia hedge fund investment and signals a move to diversify its range of alternative assets in the region, pushing into a sector where rivals like Blackstone Group LP and Goldman Sachs already have a strong presence.

Private equity leverage ‘creeping up rapidly’: Pro (CNBC.com)