JANA Partners, Barry Rosenstein‘s resurgent event driven firm, has a new head of marketing and investor relations. Former FrontPoint Partners marketing and IR head Jordan Gershuny was hired this month to lead JANA’s new client advisory group, which combines the New York City shop’s sales, marketing and IR functions. Michelle Russell Johnson, the director of marketing since May 2011, recently departed to…
Finance: The Great Greek Gamble (CNBC)
In Quentin Tarantino’s film Reservoir Dogs, Mr Pink gets away with the diamonds. His co-conspirators are left bloodied and dying. When he was starting out as a hedge fund manager in the 1990s, Daniel Seth Loeb used to stalk investing chatrooms and message boards with an online persona: Mr Pink. Mr Loeb has always evaded questions on the nom de plume, but it stuck as a nickname. And he appears to be living up to it. This week the 51-year-old, now one of Wall Street’s most successful investors, scooped up a $500 million windfall for his clients in a bond buyback deal with the Greek government.
Top UK equity trader to leave Soros (FT)
One of the UK’s top equity traders is leaving Soros Fund Management, the hedge fund founded by billionaire George Soros. Robert Donald, who headed up investments in European equities as a portfolio manager from SFM’s London office, is to leave at the end of the year. A spokesperson for Soros declined to comment on the move. Mr Donald, who specialises in trading industrial companies and basic materials, is widely regarded as one of the leading equity traders in the UK. He joined Soros in 2009, when his departure from GLG Partners prompted concerns that the firm might suffer outflows as it did when its head of emerging markets, Greg Coffey, left in a high-profile move to rival Moore Capital in 2008.
Brevan Howard Paid Partners 270 Million Pounds Last Year (SFGate)
Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP paid its partners as much as 269.8 million pounds ($436 million) in the 12 months ended in March, more than double the amount it paid them a year earlier, after the hedge fund’s investment performance beat rivals. The highest-paid partner, who wasn’t identified, got 78.9 million pounds, up from 64.8 million pounds in the year earlier, according to a filing by the London-based fund posted Dec. 22 on the U.K. Companies House website. Brevan Howard had 49 designated members during the period, meaning each partner received an average pay of as much as 5.5 million pounds, the filing showed.
A fascination of Wall Street, and investigators (Business-Standard)
You want the headquarters of Steven A Cohen, one of the most successful financial speculators of our time, to look like Dr Evil’s secret lair. But it is just another office-park building, a low-slung affair of tinted glass and red brick, on the southern fringes of Stamford, Conn. From the outside, there’s nothing particularly special about this address, 72 Cummings Point Road. But inside — well, everyone on Wall Street has heard the stories. Some of them are even true. We are, after all, talking about the man known on the Street as “Stevie” — hedge fund magnate, multibillionaire, prodigious art collector and, of late, person of intense interest to federal authorities. Inside his offices, vast fortunes are won and lost. Careers are made and unmade. Type-A egos are inflated and crushed, sometimes in the space of hours. And there, Cohen, a trader with an almost preternatural knack for reading fear and greed in the marketplace, prowls relentlessly for an edge over everyone else.
Titan withdraws funds from SAC Capital (OmanObserver)
Titan Advisors LLC has decided to withdraw all of its money from the hedge fund firm SAC Capital Advisors LP, the Wall Street Journal reported, as SAC faces scrutiny because of several employees linked to insider-trading charges. It’s unclear how much money Titan, an asset-management firm based in New York, had invested with SAC for its clients, although it has $3 billion invested in hedge funds overall, according to a March securities filing. In its article, the Journal cited clients who said they were told that Titan would withdraw investments in SAC.
Hedge Fund Investors Have Another Horrible Year — They’d Be Much Better Off In Index Funds (BusinessInsider)
WHEN it comes to brainboxes, the name “Nobel” has a certain ring. But news that the Nobel Foundation plans to increase its investment in hedge funds, because years of low returns forced it to cut cash prizes in 2012, is one to leave laureates scratching their eggheads. The past year has been another mediocre one for hedge funds. The HFRX, a widely used measure of industry returns, is up by just 3%, compared with an 18% rise in the S&P 500 share index. Although it might be possible to shrug off one year’s underperformance, the hedgies’ problems run much deeper. The S&P 500 has now outperformed its hedge-fund rival for ten straight years, with the exception of 2008 when both fell sharply. A simple-minded investment portfolio–60% of it in shares and the rest in sovereign bonds–has delivered returns of more than 90% over the past decade, compared with a meagre 17% after fees for hedge funds (see chart).
Ex-SAC Manager’s Indictment Boosts Pressure to Cooperate (HereIsTheCity)
The insider-trading indictment of ex-SAC Capital Advisors LP portfolio manager Mathew Martoma sets in motion a criminal trial process that puts new pressure on him to cooperate with the government’s investigation of the hedge- fund firm founded by billionaire Steven Cohen. ‘It’s another step on the government’s march into Cohen’s office’, Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School and Ross School of Business, said in an e-mail after the indictment. ‘Given the prosecutors’ success in getting convictions and serious jail sentences, it’s time for anyone at SAC who is connected with insider trading to start having nightmares’.
For Hedge Funds, It’s All in the Game (HuffingtonPost)
There are few greater examples of the irrationality of investors than the world of hedge funds. Hedge fund managers are paid enormous sums, usually 2 percent of the investment amount and 20 percent of profits above a fixed level. As money has poured into these funds over time, hedge fund managers and others working in the industry have become fabulously wealthy. But, now, here’s the rub, the investors haven’t benefited. In fact, hedge fund investments have consistently performed substantially worse than basic investments in low-fee equity index funds, exchange traded funds or a simple mix of equity and bond funds. I am an outsider to the world of hedge funds in that I neither work nor invest in hedge funds. Without an ounce of insincerity, I can state that I don’t understand how this industry survives, let alone has thrived for so long.
Herbalife calls analyst meeting (SMDailyJournal)
Herbalife Ltd. and hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management appear to be squaring off over claims that have pummeled the company’s stock this week. …Ackman said Wednesday that he has been shorting the company’s stock for several months. Short sellers earn money when a stock declines. Ackman detailed his allegations in a presentation Thursday at the Sohn Conference Foundation meeting in New York and confirmed that he has an “enormous” short position. On Friday, Pershing made the information used in its presentation public, launching the web site www.FactsAboutHerbalife.com. It includes the source data used to create its presentation that it titled “Who wants to be a Millionaire?”.
Elon Musk Goes From Renter to Owner in Bel Air (WSJ)
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) -1.25%founder Elon Musk has bought the Bel Air estate he’s been renting for the past three years for $17 million. The 20,248-square-foot home has six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, five fireplaces, a wine cellar that holds 1,000 bottles of wine and a two-story library. The property overlooks Bel Air Country Club and includes a lighted tennis court, five garages, a pool and spa, gym and guest quarters. The home, which is owned by Mitch Julis, co-founder of hedge fund Canyon Capital Advisors, was put on the market in 2008 for $27 million. Mr. Musk, who also co-founded PayPal and founded SpaceX, started renting the property in 2009. The home was built in 1990.
Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index up 0.64 per cent in November. (HedgeWeek)
Hedge funds, as measured by the Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index, finished November up 0.64 per cent, with nine out of 10 strategies in positive territory. In total, the industry saw estimated outflows of approximately USD1.3bn in November, bringing overall assets under management for the industry to approximately USD1.76trn.
What SEC chief needs to OK hedge fund ad rule (MarketWatch)
Observers say the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission can succeed at brokering a deal to relax decades-old rules that have kept hedge funds, buyout shops and small businesses from publicly advertising, even with a deadlocked agency. At issue is an SEC proposal introduced in August that, if approved, would let them solicit investors publicly through the Internet, cold-calls, mailings and other means. Elisse Walter, a Democrat who took over as the chief of the SEC last week, recently expressed concern about the proposal, saying the agency should worry about whether allowing public advertising could result in fraud or sales of securities to investors that aren’t sophisticated enough to understand the risks. She noted that it is the responsibility of regulators to obtain the benefit of the change while “safeguarding” against the risks to investors.
