Berkshire’s Combs, Weschler to Reap Gains With DirecTV (Bloomberg)
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) is one of the biggest beneficiaries of DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV)’s rally, thanks to a stake built by his deputy stock pickers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, at about half the current price. Berkshire had about 36.5 million shares in the satellite-TV provider as of Dec. 31, a filing shows. DirecTV has gained 25 percent this year to $86.08. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is in advanced talks to buy DirecTV for about $50 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Berkshire’s cumulative gain on the holding is more than $1 billion.
Bridgewater Largest Hedge Fund For Fourth Straight Year (FINalternatives)
Bridgewater Associates and JPMorgan Chase remain the world’s largest hedge fund managers, as investors continue to flock to such firms. Westport, Conn.-based Bridgewater earned the top spot on Alpha magazine’s annual Hedge Fund 100 ranking of the world’s top hedge funds, with $87.1 billion. JPMorgan Asset Management, which includes Highbridge Capital Management, remains a distant second at $59 billion. Brevan Howard Asset Management retained third place with $40 billion, unchanged from last year. Och-Ziff Capital Management and BlueCrest Capital Management swapped fourth and fifth place, the former with $36.1 billion and the latter $32.6 billion.
Billionaire Wilbur Ross joins the market move back to SPACs (Quartz)
Billionaire Wilbur Ross has launched a special investment vehicle, which had been popular just before the financial crisis gripped the markets, to make opportunistic acquisitions. The prominent investor, who carved out a reputation restructuring troubled companies in the ’80s and ’90s and then launched his own private equity firm 14 years ago, has submitted a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to form a so-called special purpose acquisition corporation (or SPAC). The deal marks Ross’s first SPAC, sources familiar with the matter say.
Highbridge Capital Continues Hiring Spree in London (New York Times)
The hedge fund Highbridge Capital Management, which sees big opportunities in Europe and is on a hiring spree to make inroads there, has just scooped up two portfolio managers. Juan Lamo de Espinosa left York Capital Management two weeks ago to join Highbridge’s London office, where he will head up the European equities division, according to a person briefed on the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly. He will begin in July and is expected to bring a team of three or four traders with him. Before heading up the European equities division at York Capital, Mr. Lamo de Espinosa worked for Citadel.
Lansdowne Managers To Succeed Co-Founder Heinz (FINalternatives)
Lansdowne Partners’ succession plan has taken another step, with its co-founder stepping back and its top money managers taking charge. Steven Heinz will relinquish day-to-day responsibilities at the US$13 billion firm. In his place will be Peter Davies and Stuart Roden, the managers of Lansdowne’s flagship Developed Markets Fund. With the new leadership will come a new limited liability partnership, with Davies and Roden at its head.
Big night for philanthropy at Robin Hood Gala (CNBC.com)
UPDATE 1-India hedge fund backed by Goldman exec hits $500 mln in assets (Reuters)
Steadview, an India-focused hedge fund seeded by Goldman Sachs (Asia) chairman Mark Schwartz, has made 12 times the returns of peers with bets on consumer and tech stocks, helping the fund grow its assets to $500 million in nearly five years. Founded and managed by Hong Kong-based Ravi Mehta, a former Morgan Stanley banker, Steadview’s success stands out among Indian hedge funds who have seen their collective assets plunge by more than 50 percent to $2.4 billion since the 2008 financial crisis, according to data from Eurekahedge.
Goldman Technology Banker Noto to Join Hedge Fund Coatue (Bloomberg)
Anthony Noto, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS)’s head banker on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s initial public offering last year, is leaving to join hedge-fund firm Coatue Management LLC. Dan Dees, who became co-head of technology, media and telecommunications banking with Noto earlier this year, will become sole leader of the group, according to an internal memo. David Wells, a spokesman for the New York-based firm, confirmed the contents of the memo.
Why you can beat most billionaire hedge fund managers (Marketwatch)
Are hedge funds too big to succeed? That’s the question still hovering over the industry even as some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful investors get set to hobnob with each other and an assortment of celebrities and power brokers at the SALT conference in Las Vegas this week. Around 1,800 are slated to attend the event, which was born in the aftermath of the financial crisis and is hosted by SkyBridge Capital, a global investment firm with around $10.5 billion in assets under management. Attendees include more than a thousand institutional investors, private-end investors and asset allocators from leading sovereign wealth funds, public and private pensions, foundations, endowments and family offices, according to organizers, along with more than 500 managers of established and emerging hedge funds from around the globe.
Wylys Liable For Fraud (FINalternatives)
A federal jury yesterday found that Maverick Capital and Ranger Capital founder Sam Wyly and his late brother ran an elaborate $550 million insider-trading scheme designed to hide their stock trading from regulators and from the public. The jury took two-and-a-half days to find the Wylys liable for fraud. The size of the scam amounts to more than half Sam Wyly’s $1 billion net worth; Charles Wyly died in a car accident three years ago.
Investors seek over $40 bln from Madoff victim fund (Reuters)
The overseer of a U.S. fund to compensate victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme on Tuesday said he has received roughly 51,700 claims seeking to recoup more than $40 billion, both totals far higher than expected. Richard Breeden, a special master appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice to oversee the $4.05 billion Madoff Victim Fund, said it appeared at least twice as many investors as previous thought lost money in Madoff’s fraud.
