For any hedge fund manager bold enough to try, taking activist positions in Japanese companies in the hope of coaxing value from underperforming businesses has long been a minefield. Japan’s corporate culture is famous for its adherence to protocol and respect for senior executives, who don’t like it when foreign investors tell them what to do. Daniel Loeb, founder and CIO of $13 billion, New York-based hedge fund firm Third Point, made a name for himself in the early 2000s as a brash activist whose provocative 13D filings told the leaders of lackluster companies just what he thought of them. So when news broke last month that Third Point, which rarely engages in activism these days, had taken a position in Tokyo-based Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) – and that Loeb was personally delivering a letter to CEO Kazuo (Kaz) Hirai – some expected fireworks.
‘Dr. Boom’? Roubini sees two years of stock gains (MoneyControl)
Stock market prices will continue to rise for the next two years until the wealth gap between Wall Street and Main Street gets too high and reality sets in, economist Nouriel Roubini told CNBC. Worry about the Federal Reserve backing off its historically unprecedented monetary easing is premature, Roubini said, as economic growth is too tenuous and the market too dependent on the USD 85 billion in monthly asset purchases from the central bank. “Growth is not going to pick up and inflation actually is falling,” the head of Roubini Global Economics and noted “Dr. Doom” told ” Closing Bell .” “So the markets are worried about tapering off sooner, but I think tapering off is going to occur later and therefore the market is going to rally.”
Should Doctors Be Paid Like Hedge Fund Managers? (Forbes)
I seldom disagree with Uwe Reinhardt [much as I seldom agree with Robert Raich], however Reinhardt’s post linked above on physician compensation prompts a rebuttal. Reinhardt argues that the best standard for judging the level of doctors’s pay is the pay available in other U.S. occupations that compete for the same talent pool, and he suggests a comparison to financial market professionals: “The relevant comparison should not be doctors in other countries, but the incomes earned in the United States by members of the talent pool from which American physicians are recruited, a group that includes many who end up in the superbly well-remunerated financial markets, where they are well paid almost independently of their actual net contribution to society.”
One Of Billionaire Hedge Funder Marc Lasry’s Daughters Got Married (BusinessInsider)
One of the daughters of billionaire Marc Lasry, who runs distressed debt hedge fund Avenue Capital, was married this weekend. Samantha Lasry was married to John Fleisher on Saturday at the Beach Club in Sea Island, Georgia during a black tie ceremony. The weekend kicked off with a “southern casual” BBQ dinner and drinks and then an afternoon of leisure and lunch before the ceremony on Saturday. The wedding gift registry included silver from Tiffany’s and various household items from Bloomingdales, Barney’s and Michael C. Fina.
Gibraltar Campaigns To Attract Hedge Funds (HedgeCo)
Gibraltar has launched a campaign to bring London hedge funds to “the Rock,” the Guardian reports. Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has made attracting hedge funds one of the main goals of his administration, last week he invited a group of UK hedge fund managers to Gibraltar for a look at his sunny peninsula. In Gibraltar the income tax is limited to 30,000 pounds ($48,000) per year. The number of funds in the peninsula of 6 square kilometers has risen from 20 in 2006 to 150 today. The hedge funds manage around 3,000 million pounds ($4.5 million) in assets.
