Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (ADR) (NYSE:RBS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), UBS AG (ADR) (NYSE:UBS), Burger King Worldwide Inc (NYSE:BKW), Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU), Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG)
Hedge-fund mogul Bill Ackman is once again teaming up with British investor Martin Franklin. The two previously had a successful Burger King Worldwide Inc (NYSE:BKW) investment. Ackman told his European investors last week that his $12.3 billion Pershing Square hedge fund had taken a $246 million stake in Franklin’s new $885 million Platform Acquisition Holdings. The SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company, went public on the London Stock Exchange May 17 at $10 a share, and Pershing Square took its stake on May 22. The stock closed yesterday at $10.84. Franklin’s other partner is European financier Nicolas Berggruen. A little more than two years ago, Franklin and Berggruen teamed up with Ackman to create a SPAC called Justice Holdings that ended up buying Burger King Worldwide Inc (NYSE:BKW) and taking it public last year.
RBS ‘should be more like a Canadian bank’ proposes hedge fund chief (InvestmentWeek)
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (ADR) (NYSE:RBS) should be converted so that it resembles a Canadian bank, a document created by a hedge fund boss and unwittingly shown to the press has proposed. Yesterday afternoon, Davide Serra, founder and chief executive of Algebris Investments, was pictured entering Downing Street with a presentation on Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (ADR) (NYSE:RBS), entitled “the case for improving viability”, which appeared to recommend that the bank become more like a Canadian bank. The front page of Serra’s presentation, entitled “the case for improving viability”, was partly visible and suggested Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (ADR) (NYSE:RBS), which is 81pc owned by the taxpayer, was “very similar to the large Canadian banks”.
Lone Pine’s Three Strikes: Lululemon, TripAdvisor and Dollar General (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
When shares of Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU) plunged nearly 18 percent on Tuesday after the company’s CEO, Christine Day, unexpectedly resigned, one hedge fund manager who had to be shaking his head — or simply laughing with disbelief — was Lone Pine Capital’s Stephen Mandel Jr. That’s because Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU), a retailer of yoga wear and other athletic clothes, was the third stock in Mandel’s portfolio of just 57 long positions to suffer a big one-day drop in June alone. On June 4 shares of Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG) sank more than 9 percent after the company lowered its guidance for gross profits for the year. At the end of the first quarter, Greenwich, Connecticut–based Lone Pine was the third-largest shareholder, with more than 14 million shares.
AIMA Says Andrew Baker to Step Down as CEO by End of the Year (Bloomberg)
The Alternative Investment Management Association, a lobbying organization that represents more than 1,300 hedge-fund firms, said Andrew Baker plans to step down as chief executive officer by the end of the year. AIMA is in the process of identifying a successor, the London-based group said in a statement today. Baker, 56, has been CEO since 2009. Baker plans to leave as European regulators implement the Alternative Investment Fund Management Directive, which lays out disclosure and fundraising requirements for hedge funds across the region. The industry successfully watered down earlier proposals that would have restricted hedge-fund leverage and implemented higher hurdles to raising money in Europe.
Charting Hedge Funds’ Long Term Gains (WSJ)
A popular refrain in recent years has been how hedge fund performance continues to trail equity indices: the average hedge fund has underperformed the S&P500 index for the past four years and is lagging it by two thirds in the first five months of this year. Over a longer period, however, a different picture emerges, according to a chart compiled by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) -1.63% prime brokerage division. …JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)’s report uses Hedge Fund Research’s HFRI Composite index, which tracks hedge fund returns net of fees. Over the 16-year period, hedge funds posted annualized returns of 8.24%, compared with 6.24% for bonds and 6.08% for the S&P500 Index.
National Express moves higher despite £101m stake sale (Guardian)
National Express has accelerated more than 4% despite one of its biggest investors selling its remaining stake in the transport group for around £101m. UBS AG (ADR) (NYSE:UBS) is placing 50.6m shares at 200.5p on behalf of US hedge fund Elliott Advisors, its last remaining shareholding after it sold a 9.9% stake in March. At the time Elliott said the sale was part of a desire to diversify its portfolio and invest in new opportunities, and agreed not to sell any further shares for at least 90 days from the placing. It said National Express remained one of its most important investments.
Ex-Citadel Credit Chief Boas Cancels Hedge Fund Plans (Bloomberg)
Chris Boas, a former global head of credit at Citadel LLC’s securities unit, canceled plans to start his own hedge fund after failing to raise money from investors. Boas’s Longwood Credit Partners LLP “has decided not to pursue investor funds due to fundraising market conditions,” Andrew Honnor, a spokesman for the London-based firm, said in an interview today. Boas didn’t return an e-mail seeking comment. Longwood was scheduled to start in the first quarter and follow a strategy that seeks to profit from price differences between debt securities, two people with knowledge of the matter said in August.
Hedge Fund Hot Shot Anthony Scaramucci Is Opening The Wall Street Bar To End All Wall Street Bars (BusinessInsider)
Play close attention everyone because you’re only going to read this for the first time, once. And there’s never anything like your first time. Anthony Scaramucci, co-founder of SkyBridge Capital, Romney bundler, and Master of Ceremonies at the oh-so-epic SALT Conference is opening a bar for hedge funders and private equity guys in Midtown Manhattan. At last, Paradise. It will be called the Hunt and Fish Club, Bloomberg reports (of course, that’s no reference to the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club, John Gotti’s infamous Queens hangout). The partners seek to raise $4 million for the project, which is slated to open in December.
