Judge tosses racketeering accusations against Steven Cohen (New York Daily News)
Hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen caught a break Monday as a federal judge tossed out the most serious accusation in a $10 million lawsuit brought by his ex-wife. The rest of her claims will move forward. Patricia Cohen, who split with the Wall Street titan 25 years ago, said her former hubby made millions on insider trades and hid at least $5.5 million in assets during their divorce, slapping him with a racketeering claim that would have tripled her potential payout in the case. She initially sought $300 million in damages when she sued in 2009 but later reduced the sum.
Airbus Gains Jana Hedge-Fund Investor as A350 Jet Risk Declines (Bloomberg)
Airbus Group NV (AIR) gained Jana Partners LLC, the $7 billion hedge fund run by Barry Rosenstein, as an investor, which cited the manufacturer’s attractive prospects with products including the A350 wide-body aircraft. Airbus is “the superior opportunity within aerospace,” New York-based Jana said in a letter to investors. Progress on Airbus’s newest plane, the A350, as well as less government influence and a large cash pile make it a compelling opportunity, said the fund that generally invests in companies undergoing shifts. It didn’t disclose the size of its stake.
Soros Trims Exposure to Exar Corporation (EXAR) (Insider Monkey)
Soros Fund Management, led by George Soros, has recently disposed a significant chunk of its Exar Corporation (NYSE:EXAR) holding. The fund sold last week 985,708 shares of the company, at a price of $12.14 apiece. Following the deal, the amount of shares held by Soros was reduced to some 4.96 million shares. The position held currently by Soros amasses around 10.4% of the company’s common stock, taking into account the total amount of shares disclosed by the fund as outstanding in their latest 10-Q report. Exar Corporation is engaged in design and development of high-performance integrated circuits for Networking, Storage and Communication Infrastructure markets.
Hedge Fund Taking Stake in Brazil’s B2W (Wall Street Journal)
Technology-focused hedge fund Tiger Global Management LLC will invest as much as 1.2 billion Brazilian reais ($500 million) in B2W Companhia Digital SA, Brazil’s largest online retailer by revenue. The investment will be part of a capital increase of 2.38 billion reais, B2W said over the weekend, without saying how big a stake the U.S. fund will be buying. B2W is controlled by local retail group Lojas Americanas, which will contribute at least 1.02 billion reais to the capital increase.
Lotus Peak Plans Abenomics Fund of Hedge Funds to Capture Demand (Bloomberg)
Lotus Peak Capital Pte, a Singapore-based investment manager, will start a fund of hedge funds to benefit from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to stoke the world’s third-largest economy. The Abenomics Long Short Fund will start on Feb. 3 with about $15 million of initial capital from Swiss and Asian family offices, Managing Partner Stephane Pizzo said. It will invest in 10 Japan-focused managers across different strategies with a preference for equity markets, he said.
Hedge fund takes stake as UBM continues chief executive search (CITY A.M.)
Hengistbury Investment Partners, the hedge fund set up in 2011 by The Children’s Investment Fund former senior partner Stuart Powers, has reportedly taken a 5.2 per cent stake in UBM. The hedge fund is now the second largest investor in the events and publishing company, according to a report in The Sunday Times. UBM is currently searching for a new chief executive following the announcement earlier this month that David Levin would leave the company on 1 March, after seven years in the role, to take over as chief executive of McGraw-Hill Education in New York.
What P&G’s performance could mean for Bill Ackman (CNBC.com)
Hedge Fund Winton Capital Plans U.S. Office (Wall Street Journal)
Winton Capital Management, the fourth largest European hedge fund by assets under management, is planning to open a U.S. office in the summer, according to people familiar with the matter. The move is part of a broader global expansion that could lead to the U.K.-based firm, which has nearly $25 billion in assets under management, opening offices in Japan and Australia. Winton, in which Goldman Sach’s Petershill fund owns a 9.9% stake, is one of the pioneers of managed futures strategies, which employ complex computer models to spot trends in global markets.
Fund Focus: Fairholme Hedge Fund Builds On Berkowitz’ 25 Years Of Success (FINalternatives)
Bruce Berkowitz may have made his name with his $11 billion mutual fund, but it’s his partnership that’s making headlines these days. While the average hedge fund was mired in the single-digits in 2013—the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index stood at 6.72% for the year—Berkowitz’s $200+ million Fairholme Partnership Fund was up 33% net of fees. Berkowitz launched the long-only hedge fund (which has a Caymans-based counterpart, the Fairholme Offshore Partners Fund) with $23 million of internal capital in January 2013 and opened it to outside capital in October.
Former SFO director may be called as witness in hedge fund case (Financial Times)
The former director of the Serious Fraud Office may be called as a witness in a hearing next month that will consider whether there was an abuse of process by the agency in its decision to charge the founder of a collapsed $600m hedge fund. Richard Alderman, who stood down as SFO director in April 2012, has been told to be available for the hearing, which is scheduled for early February, a court was told on Friday during a pre-trial hearing regarding Magnus Peterson, the founder of Weavering Capital, which collapsed in 2009.
Sorrell hedge fund manager to close (Financial News)
Robert Sorrell, like his brothers Mark and Jonathan, worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), where he was a managing director and co-head of the private finance group for Emea. He left the bank after 14 years in late 2009 and struck out on his own with the launch of Sorrell Capital the following year. The firm was to manage a global opportunities fund with a long/short discretionary, global macro strategy, and Robert Sorrell said in late 2010 that the market at the time was “highly conducive” to that type of strategy.
Hedge funds burned by natural gas in 2013 (CNBC.com)
Natural gas was the biggest gainer among commodities last year, but the hedge fund that has historically led gains in the space had its first losing year, and many others were down double-digits after being on the wrong side of the market. U.S. gas prices gained more than 26 percent in 2013, the largest rally in eight years as brutally cold weather boosted gas demand. Prices rose, and toward the end of the year, the market saw wild swings in the spread between the March and April gas contracts. Prominent funds, from the $1 billion Velite Benchmark Capital in Houston to the smaller Sasco Energy Partners in Connecticut, finished the year down about 20 percent or more, according to industry sources and performance data obtained by Reuters.
