Two activist hedge fund firms join efforts and plan new strategy (Opalesque)
Two activist hedge fund firms, a new one based in California and another head-quartered in London, announced today they had formed a new partnership. They will join marketing efforts and together launch a global constructive activist strategy. They are Engaged Capital (EC) and Governance for Owners (GO). The two firms’ investment philosophies are aligned: their funds want to generate superior returns by investing in under-valued, small and mid-cap ($500m–$8bn), publicly listed companies and work to catalyse change in those companies to create shareholder value. Like most activist funds, they take concentrated, strategic ownership positions and then engage the management and board of directors in an attempt to influence decisions that are meant to raise the companies’ value for shareholders.
Hedge Funds Care becomes Help For Children (HedgeWeek)
The organisation was started as a dinner in New York City with one mission and two goals. The one mission was preventing and treating child abuse and the two goals were raising as much money as possible for the mission and to showcase the philanthropy of the hedge fund and finance industry. Between 1998 and 2013 Hedge Funds Care grew to branches and affiliates in 12 cities in five countries and distributed over USD33m in 900 grants to organisations that do the actual work of preventing and treating child abuse. Under the new name, hedge funds, their service providers, and the finance industry will continue to constitute the board of directors and will remain the primary base of our support, which the organisation will continue to herald.
Ship of knaves (Economist)
ANITA RAGHAVAN’S new book, “The Billionaire’s Apprentice”, purports to chronicle “the rise of the Indian-American elite”. It does not. Rather, it describes the rise and fall of two members of that elite: Raj Rajaratnam, a hedge-fund boss, and Rajat Gupta, a former head of McKinsey, the world’s most prestigious consultancy. Mr Rajaratnam (pictured) is the money man; Mr Gupta, his apprentice. Mr Rajaratnam is a straightforward scoundrel. A brilliant mathematician, he could have grown wealthy honestly. Instead, he amassed a $5 billion fortune by trading on inside information.
Obama to nominate Republican former Bush official and hedge fund counsel for FBI head (AllVoices)
President Obama will nominate James Comey to serve as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The date when Obama will make the nomination is not known. Obama apparently is anxious to please Republicans, Wall Street, and the military-industrial complex. Comey was a former counsel for Bridgewater Associates, a huge hedge fund , and also a senior official in the Bush administration:”As Deputy Attorney General, Comey was the second-highest ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ran the day-to-day operations of the Department, serving in that office from December 2003 through August 2005.”
First Person: I’m Investing Like a Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager (Yahoo)
There was an interesting article at CoinWeek.com entitled, “The Nickel-Hoarding Billionaire” about wealthy hedge fund manager Kyle Bass. Bass — apparently a man after my own heart, but a tad richer — making an interesting financial move and one that I’ve made myself, although to a much lesser degree. According to the article, “Bass could easily afford coins in the six-figure and up range, but (for now) he is targeting much more mundane pieces. The contrarian investor sunk exactly $1 million into U.S. coins, but his purchase didn’t require numismatic expertise or third-party grading. That’s because Bass purchased 20 million common-date Jeffersons at face value.”
Hedge Funds Are Piling Into This Well-Known Blue-Chip Stock (Nasdaq)
There aren’t any players with a bigger impact on the market than hedge funds. Not only are hedge funds thought leaders, employing thousands of forensic analysts to sniff out the best investment opportunities, they are also huge, frequently carrying multibillion-dollar positions that can single-handedly move a market. That’s why hedge funds have gained a cult following, watched closely by investors trying to gain insight into what the biggest players on the Street are up to. A signal that a hedge fund or the entire industry is hot for a new stock can send shares soaring. And that’s exactly what is happening to the most popular stock among hedge funds during the first quarter. This market leader has been on a tear, up 36% on the year after hedge funds poured $1.6 billion into its shares in the first quarter.
