Whitney Hedge Fund Cuts 2014 Losses to 4.7% on June Gain (Bloomberg)
Meredith Whitney, the former Wall Street analyst who started a hedge fund with backing from British billionaire Michael Platt, lost 4.7 percent this year in her fund, according to an investor letter. Whitney’s American Revival Fund LP, which started in November with about $50 million, posted a 1.7 percent gain in June, ending five months of losses, according to the letter sent today from her New York firm Kenbelle Capital LP. The fund is down 1 percent since inception. Whitney, who seeks to profit from what she predicts will be the next cycle of growth in “America’s Heartland,” said she repositioned her holdings in late May toward regional financial companies, according to the letter.
LightSquared Unveils Plan Led by Cerberus, Fortress, J.P. Morgan (Wall Street Journal)
Philip Falcone‘s LightSquared on Tuesday unveiled a $3.05 billion restructuring plan that would give 74% of the wireless venture to Cerberus Capital Management LP, Fortress Investment Group LLC and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), and leave Mr. Falcone with just 12.5% of the reorganized company’s equity. Investors would pump $1.75 billion of new money into LightSquared, with Cerberus, Fortress and J.P. Morgan contributing a bulk of that, lawyers told Judge Shelley C. Chapman of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. An additional $1.3 billion would be raised through the debt markets. The company wants its plan, which isn’t finalized and hasn’t been filed with the court, to be approved by the end of September.
Cyber Criminals Targeting Hedge Funds (FINalternatives)
Hedge funds are increasingly the targets of cyber attacks, according to the SEC. Assured SKCG, a risk management and insurance provider to the alternative asset industry, said managers are seriously considering cyber liability insurance as a response: “Just last week it was reported that a large hedge fund was targeted by cybercriminals who crippled the fund’s trading strategy and sent proprietary information to off-site computers. This is just one example of the cyber threats faced in the 21st century by all hedge funds,” said Wayne Siebner, SVP of Assured SKCG, in a statement.
Tory fundraising party: Bank official denies his attendance breached rules (The Guardian)
A multi-millionaire former Goldman Sachs banker who was appointed by George Osborne to sit on the Bank of England’s most senior regulatory committee was among those who attended the Tory fundraising party last summer, weeks after giving assurances to parliament that he would not let his past political connections compromise his independence. Richard Sharp, who was appointed to the Bank’s financial policy committee (FPC) last March, was one of 73 financial professionals – hedge fund bosses, private equity barons, bankers and wealth managers – present at the event in the City of London, according to documents seen by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Some of Mayfair and Belgravia’s most powerful hedge fund names turned out, led by prized party donors Sir Michael Hintze of CQS and Andrew Law of Caxton – both also ex-Goldman executives.
R.I. has stake in hedge fund angling for Massachusetts casino license (The Providence Journal)
The looming threat to Rhode Island’s finances from the advent of casino gambling in Massachusetts brings with it a potentially awkward twist for state officials — the pension funds they oversee may gain from the money and jobs to be lost at Twin River Casino and Newport Grand. Among the investments the state holds as part of its $7-billion pension fund is a $57.5-million stake in a hedge fund angling for a Massachusetts casino license. Recent disclosures made as part of the Massachusetts casino licensing process include the revelation that the controlling stake of one applicant for a Boston area casino license — seen as the most lucrative of the licenses — belongs to Brigade Leveraged Capital Structures Fund LP.
