Ackman’s Pershing Sells Rest of General Growth Properties Shares (BusinessWeek)
Bill Ackman, the activist hedge-fund manager, sold all of his shares in General Growth Properties Inc (NYSE:GGP), one of his most profitable investments. General Growth, the second-largest U.S. shopping mall owner, bought back about 28 million shares from Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP for $556 million, the company said today in a statement. The hedge-fund firm had sold another 25 million shares for $500 million in September. Ackman helped rescue General Growth from near-collapse by pushing it to file for bankruptcy in 2009, and was part of an investor group in its subsequent restructuring…
Icahn gives up Apple buyback plan after ISS urges ‘no’ vote (Reuters)
Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has backed off from his campaign urging Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to increase its stock buybacks, citing the company’s recent repurchases as well as an influential proxy adviser’s call against his proposal. In a letter to Apple shareholders on Monday, Icahn wrote he was ditching his non-binding proposal to force Apple to add another $50 billion to its stock buyback plan, “especially when the company is already so close to fulfilling our requested repurchase target.” Apple shares closed up 1.8 percent higher at $528.99 on Monday.
Poor Banks Can’t Compete With Hedge Funds in Hiring (BusinessWeek)
Another day, another handful of traders fleeing large investment banks for hedge funds. This time, Bloomberg News reports, it is two Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) managing directors joining Citadel, Kenneth Griffin’s giant hedge fund, which is based in Chicago. Uberto Palomba, co-head of Goldman’s emerging markets trading, and Jonathan Tipermans, Goldman’s head of dollar-swaps trading, will be working for Citadel’s Global Fixed Income Fund, a unit that was started in 2008 and has been picking off seasoned bank veterans ever since.
Acquisition International Magazine’s International Hedge Fund Awards Selects Caissa as “Most Trusted Financial Risk Management Software” (SacBee)
Caissa, LLC has been named the Most Trusted Financial Risk Management Software in the annual International Hedge Fund Awards announced this week. Winners were selected by Acquisition International Magazine. Their readership includes institutional investors as well as managers and other industry professionals. Caissa, LLC works with institutions now representing in excess of $50B in assets. These allocators leverage Portfolio Navigator’s unparalleled data aggregation capability across all asset classes, investment structures, and transparency granularities, to assess their portfolio’s total strategic positioning in a user-friendly software.
Scout Weighs Dropping Final Fees After Clients Complain (BusinessWeek)
Scout Capital Management LLC, the $6.7 billion hedge-fund firm that is shutting on April 1, said it’s weighing whether to charge clients its management fee for the final quarter after investors complained. The firm, run by James Crichton and Adam Weiss, told clients Jan. 29 that it was closing because Weiss wanted to step back from managing outside capital. Scout said more than 80 percent of the portfolio was in cash, and the rest in easy to trade securities. Some clients have since objected to paying a management fee for the current quarter, given the high cash level in January and the fact that some investment staff had already left.
Icahn: No reason to persist with share buyback (CNBC)
Joe Torre to Present manager of Marathon Asset Management with “Award for Caring” (Hedgeco)
Former New York Yankees Manager, Chairman of The Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation, and prior recipient of the Hedge Funds Care/Help For Children (HFC) award, Joe Torre, will present Marathon Asset Management’s Bruce Richards with the Award for Caring during the 16th Annual New York Open Your Heart to the Children Benefit. Mr. Torre was recognized in 2012 by HFC for his dedication to ending the cycle of domestic violence, and its effects on children, after experiencing abuse as a child in his own home in Brooklyn. Mr. Torre is looking forward to presenting the award to Bruce Richards of Marathon. He said, “I was grateful to receive the HFC award two years ago. It is my honor to present the award on behalf of HFC to Bruce Richards.”
Canada Pension Plan starts ‘in-house hedge fund’ (FT)
Alain Carrier, head of Europe for CPPIB, said the fund wanted to hire a team of “four to five professionals” that would build a long/short portfolio targeted at Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Although a separate person familiar with the matter said the new team would, in effect, act as an “in-house hedge fund”, Carrier played down the use of such terminology, instead stressing that it was part of the firm’s wider strategy to invest in public markets. Although various pension funds have built direct capability to do deals for private equity and real estate investments in London in recent years, it remains unusual for funds to adopt a strategy of investing in long/short equities…
Hedge fund threatens ouster of Darden Restaurants’ directors (OrlandoSentinel)
Hedge fund Starboard Value said Monday it could try to oust Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) board members if the company doesn’t slow down plans to spin off or sell Red Lobster. Starboard said in a letter written to Clarence Otis, chairman and chief executive officer, that the Darden board of directors has done a poor job in general. “It is our belief that, given the dismal historical performance of Darden under the guidance of the existing Board … immediate changes in Board composition are absolutely required,” Starboard said in its letter.
Jim Rogers Says “Worry,” Laszlo Birinyi Sees SP 1900 (WallStreetSectorSelector)
Jim Rogers, famous billionaire and hedge fund manager takes a cautious approach to current markets while money manager and founder of Birinyi Associates Inc. sees the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) reaching 1900 by July. In an interview with RT.com Jim Rogers suggests that the Federal Reserve has created big problems in emerging markets that are not fixed. He targets leading emerging economies like Turkey, Indonesia, India and Brazil and says, “This is not over yet-you should be worried, be careful and be prepared.”
EBay Also a Big Hurdle for Icahn (WSJ)
Carl Icahn has dropped his bid to boost buybacks at AppleAAPL +1.79%. That should leave him more time for his campaign to remake eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) -1.47% board and get the company to spin off its PayPal division… Icahn is pressing to spin off eBay’s PayPal payments business and says he met the company’s Jan. 18 deadline to nominate two of his employees to run for seats on its board. Ebay continues to reject the idea, saying the unit is more valuable as part of the company than separate. An eBay spokeswoman declined to comment on the analysis.
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