This Year $2.16 Million Wins You Lunch With Buffett (Wall Street Journal)
The annual tradition of an online auction to have lunch with Warren Buffett ended Friday night with a winning bid of $2.16 million. The winning bid came from Andy Chua of Singapore, according to a Glide spokeswoman. In its 15th year, proceeds from the online auction — Mr. Chua bid $2,166,766 to be exact — will go to Glide, a San Francisco-based charity that also organized the event. Glide works with San Francisco’s poor and homeless.
Bridgewater Gains in May With Hedge Funds Climbing 1.2% (Bloomberg)
Hedge funds run by firms including Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates LP posted gains last month as Paul Tudor Jones’s main strategy at Tudor Investment Corp. fell. Hedge funds on average rose 1.2 percent in May, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc., underperforming the 2.1 percent gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which rallied to a record from an April 11 low amid optimism for economic growth. Equity, event-driven and macro hedge funds posted advances, according to HFR. The May gains bring hedge-fund returns on average to 2 percent for the year’s first five months, compared with 4.1 percent for the S&P 500.
Icahn becomes largest shareholder in Family Dollar Stores (Reuters)
Hedge fund billionaire Carl Icahn became the largest shareholder in Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO) after reporting a 9.39 percent stake in the company on Friday, and said he may seek representation on its board. Shares of Family Dollar, struggling under declining sales, rose as much as 12 percent in extended trade on Friday. At 10.69 million shares, Icahn becomes the largest shareholder in Family Dollar. Chief Executive Officer Howard Levine disclosed a 8.18 percent stake with 9.31 million shares last November, according to Thomson Reuters data. Activist investor Nelson Peltz-led Trian Partners is the third-largest shareholder with a 7.35 percent stake and 8.37 million shares in Family Dollar, according to a March 31 filing.
Citadel Builds Swaps Unit to Repeat Market-Making Triumph (Businessweek)
Ken Griffin, the billionaire hedge-fund manager who’s captured almost 20 percent of trading in equity options through his market-making business, is taking aim at the global swaps industry. Citadel LLC, the parent of Griffin’s money-management and brokerage firms, is setting up a dealer to make markets in contracts used to hedge or speculate on everything from currencies to corporate creditworthiness, according to a regulatory filing and a person briefed on the matter, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.
Britain’s biggest philanthropist cuts donations to children’s charity run by former wife and boosts bonuses to his staff instead (Daily Mail)
Britain’s biggest philanthropist has cut donations to a children’s charity run by his ex-wife following their divorce, it emerged today. Chris Hohn used to give a large chunk of the profits of his successful hedge fund to the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), which is run by his former wife, Jamie Cooper. It was reported today that the £16million windfall the charity received from the fund in 2012 dropped to zero last year after the couple agreed to end the donation following their divorce. The money instead went towards a £26million bonus deal for him and his top staff, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Faber Report: Mess at Hertz (CNBC.com)
Most Paulson Funds Rise In May (FINalternatives)
May proved a highly mixed bag for Paulson & Co. Most of the $21 billion New York-based firm’s funds posted gains last month, with its merger-arbitrage Partners Enhanced Fund returning 1.9% and its Credit Opportunities Fund 1%. The latter is now up 7.4% on the year and the former 4.8%. But Paulson’s Advantage Plus Fund fell 3.7% to wipe out its year-to-date gains; it is now down 2% in 2013.
Ex-Goldman, Noble execs target July launch for Asia hedge fund (Reuters)
Guard Capital Management, a hedge fund start-up by two top traders formerly with Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) and Noble Group, is aiming to launch next month and has hired at least four executives, one person with knowledge of the matter said. The hedge fund is being led by Leland Lim, who was the co-head of macro trading for Asia Pacific ex-Japan at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, and Allan Bedwick, the former head of macro trading in Asia for Noble Group.
Britain’s Man Group to Acquire Pine Grove Asset Management (New York Times)
The British hedge fund manager Man Group said on Monday that it has agreed to acquire Pine Grove Asset Management, a hedge fund manager based in the United States. The deal is expected to increase Man Group’s presence in the United States and to boost its fund of funds business, FRM, through new product offerings. Pine Grove, an employee-owned fund with offices in New York and Summit, N.J., has about $1 billion in assets under management. About two-thirds of its assets under management are from institutional investors, primarily based in America.
TPG-Axon Partner Wesley Wong Retires After Nine Years With Firm (Bloomberg)
Wesley Wong, a Hong Kong-based partner of TPG-Axon Capital Management LP, left his employer of almost nine years as the more than $3 billion New York-based hedge-fund manager consolidates its Asia business. Keita Arisawa, formerly the company’s “point person” for Japan investments, is moving to Hong Kong from Tokyo to lead the entire Asia business, according to an excerpt from a June 3 newsletter to investors seen by Bloomberg News. Dan Gagnier, a spokesman for the hedge fund at Sard Verbinnen & Co. in New York, declined to comment on the departure.
Billionaire seeks to help climate-change victims (CNBC.com)
An environmentalist billionaire who has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars targeting Republicans who reject climate change announced Friday that he is now creating a fund to help victims of extreme weather disasters, starting with wildfires in the American West. Tom Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, launched the Climate Disaster Relief Fund that will draw on the couple’s personal profits from investments in Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy companies in North America.
