Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX), Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) urged shareholders to vote for a $24.4 billion buyout by founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management LLC at meeting set for July 18, continuing to dismiss a rival proposal by billionaire Carl Icahn as inferior. After contacting more than 70 potential strategic and financial buyers during a “go-shop” period, Michael Dell’s offer “is the best alternative available — in a challenging business environment,” Dell said in a filing (Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL)) today. The deal requires approval by a majority of shareholders (Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL)), excluding Chief Executive Officer Dell, who has a 15.6 percent stake.
Blackstone May Double SAC Redemption Request (Finalternatives)
The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX) is set to pull almost $400 million from SAC Capital Advisors at its next redemption date, more than twice the amount it originally expected to withdraw. If The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX) goes through with the redemption, it will leave it with little or any of its money left at the hedge fund. The alternative investments giant already redeemed about $100 million in the first quarter. SAC is facing a June 3 redemption deadline, and could see massive withdrawals despite its moves to ease redemption policies. In the first quarter, SAC suffered $1.7 billion in redemptions; since then, it has emerged that federal prosecutors are seriously considering criminal insider-trading charges against the firm.
NYC Pension Chief Seeks $500,000 Managers to Cut Out Wall (BusinessWeek)
New York City’s $140 billion retirement system pays Wall Street money managers about $360 million a year, the only one of the 11 biggest U.S. public-worker pensions that refuses to manage any assets internally. Larry Schloss, the city’s chief investment officer, says the practice must end. Schloss, 58, points to Ontario’s C$130 billion ($126 billion) teachers’ pension fund, which has returned an average 9.6 percent annually on its investments since 2003 — 1.6 percentage points better than New York’s funds. The Canadian system reaped those gains mostly without paying outside asset managers. Schloss says the same in-house approach could work in New York. “I’m not looking for John Paulson,” said Schloss, who earns $224,000 a year, referring to the billionaire hedge-fund manager. “I’m just looking for a VP at Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) who makes 500,000 bucks.”
CERN Pension Chief Pushes Global Macro Model (Finalternatives)
One pension fund manager has a message for his peers: Start acting like a global macro hedge fund, or pay someone to do it for you. Theodore Economou, who leads the European Center for Nuclear Research’s 4 billion Swiss franc pension fund, urged other pension to act as his does, employing sophisticated risk-management systems to cut volatility and improve returns, much as the best global macro hedge funds do. And if that’s not possible, Economou says, pension should hand their entire portfolio to a hedge fund manager.
Tense finish looms in cricket rights battle (TheAustralian)
While Nine chief executive David Gyngell and his team play out dual negotiations — not just for the cricket rights but also a potential deal with Bruce Gordon’s WIN Corporation over his Adelaide and Perth TV stations — the outcome of the negotiations is being watched closely by key Hollywood studios. NBC Universal studio is known to have postponed negotiations with Australian networks for its program line-up as it waits to see which of the Nine and Ten networks will have the most funds to spend on new programming. …On any deal Nine needs to win the backing of its major US-based hedge fund shareholders Oaktree Capital and Apollo Management.
How to Turn $10,000 Into $1,461,920? Find a Hedge Fund That Cheats (HuffingtonPost)
How would you like to invest $10,000 and watch it grow over twenty years into $1,461,920? Well that’s what happened at the giant hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, which made a 30 percent return for 20 years in a row. How is it possible to make such profitable investments again and again and again? The U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, believes he has the answer: SAC is cheating… again and again and again. …To date, nine current and former SAC employees face insider trading criminal charges stemming from their work at the firm. Four have pled guilty and two are still fighting their indictments.
Ex-SAC Hong Kong trader readies hedge fund to bet on price swings (Reuters)
Miaodan Wu, a former portfolio manager at billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, is preparing to launch his own hedge fund in Hong Kong to bet on price swings in financial securities, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Wu was among at least seven SAC Capital staff who left Hong Kong this year, at a time when Cohen and his firm are drawing increased scrutiny in the U.S. government’s long-running investigation into insider trading. Known in the industry as “Dr Wu,” his hedge fund, named Bach Option, will launch by the end of 2013, said three sources who could not confirm the start-up capital as the plan was at an early stage. The amount of money he plans to raise is not yet clear.
