Hedge Fund News: Bridgewater Associates, Elliott Management, The Children’s Investment Fund

Bridgewater, World’s Biggest Hedge Fund, Is Said to Be Slowing Hiring (The New York Times)
After years of rapid internal growth, the world’s biggest hedge fund appears to be slowing down. The $154 billion hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, run by the billionaire Ray Dalio, is known for hiring hundreds of people every year. Yet it is now telling recruitment firms to cancel interviews with prospective employees, according to three people briefed on the matter. In recent weeks, dozens of interviews were canceled and advanced negotiations with prospective employees were cut short by the firm, those people said.

Elliott Ramps Up Pressure on Bank of East Asia With Lawsuit (Bloomberg)
Billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management escalated its battle against Bank of East Asia Ltd., asking a Hong Kong court to declare that the bank acted improperly when issuing shares that diluted minority shareholders and allegedly entrenched management control. The petition alleges “unfairly prejudicial conduct” by directors and “serious corporate governance failings,” the activist hedge fund said in a statement Monday. The action, which names directors including Chairman David Li, is “self serving and calculated to distract the management team” and will be vigorously opposed, Li, 77, said in a statement.

Activist TCI Takes SABMiller Stake, Investors Scent Sweetened Offer (Reuters)
The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI) has taken a stake in SABMiller (SAB.L), the second activist to buy into the brewer in recent weeks, raising the prospect of a late push for improved takeover terms from AB InBev (ABI.BR). The move by TCI comes ahead of SABMiller’s annual meeting in London on Thursday when investors could question terms of a $100 billion-plus deal that now appear to favor its two largest shareholders after a steep drop in the value of sterling. British-based TCI, best known for its investments in troubled carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and French aerospace group Safran (SAF.PA), has acquired just under 1 percent of SABMiller’s stock, a source familiar with the matter said. TCI’s acquisition of a small stake follows news that fellow hedge fund Elliott Advisors had taken a 1.3 percent stake in the London-listed maker of beers like Peroni and Grolsch, which it later raised to about 1.5 percent, regulatory filings showed.