Hedge fund equity titans come unstuck in Europe (eFinancialNews)
Long/short European equities funds run by Odey Asset Management, Pelham Capital and GLG Partners – part of Man Group – all found themselves in negative territory this summer, while others are struggling to repeat the successes of last year. Odey Asset Management’s $1.65 billion European fund – run by founder Crispin Odey – was down 12.9% by mid-August, having returned 25.8% in 2013 and 30.7% in 2012, according to figures seen by Financial News. Pelham Capital, set up by former Lansdowne Capital partner Ross Turner, saw its $2.49 billion long/short fund down nearly 3% at the end of July…
The Unfiltered Peter Thiel Talks Startups, The CIA And Female Founders (ReadWrite)
Peter Thiel, at turns smug, acerbic and brilliant, has opinions on most everything. I first met him a few weeks before I graduated from law school and after he had pulled off the sale of PayPal to eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) for $1.5 billion. Why did he bother to accept a random lunch invitation from a nobody? …Now a successful hedge fund operator and angel investor, Thiel regularly gets asked his opinion on most everything. And he doesn’t hold back. Most recently, he took to Reddit to answer questions on everything from the CIA’s role in Palantir to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)‘s effect on the global advertising market. Here are some of the best moments.
How to make money from hedge funds like George Soros (TheNational)
Hedge fund managers retain an almost mythic status in the investment world. They can move markets, break central banks and make billions of dollars in the process. Who wouldn’t want to invest like a hedge fund manager? Like every myth, however, this is only partly based in reality. Even stars such as George Soros and John Paulson do not always get it right. We tend to remember their successes and ignore their failures. And for every stellar success, there are plenty of failures. In 2008, during the global crisis, many funds banned withdrawals as panicky investors headed for the exits.
Greywolf Keeps Gains Going, Stays Net Short (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
Greywolf Capital Management, a Purchase, New York-based firm founded by former Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) executives Jonathan Savitz and James Gillespie, continues to outperform most hedge funds despite maintaining its net short position. Through August, its Greywolf Capital Overseas Fund had gained 12.6 percent, while its Greywolf Capital Partners II had returned 14.45 percent. This is better than most hedge funds have fared so far this year. Even more remarkable, the two funds are among a very small group of hedge funds that have been net short.
SEC Tightens Regulatory Oversight For Hedge Funds (HedgeCo)
The Securities and Exchange Commission is creating a new office within the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) that will coordinate efforts to provide data-driven risk assessment tools and models to support a wide range of SEC activities. Since its creation in 2009, DERA has collaborated with market experts throughout the SEC to develop risk assessment tools. One example, the Aberrational Performance Inquiry, launched in 2009 to proactively identify atypical hedge fund performance, led to eight enforcement actions and is one of the tools used by the Division of Enforcement to assess private funds.
Enjoy rally while it lasts: Cramer (CNBC)
Obama to meet, raise money with connected advocate for Israel (BaltimoreSun)
President Barack Obama, who is attempting to help Democrats maintain their grip on the Senate, will attend a fundraiser Friday at the home of a wealthy Baltimore hedge fund manager who has become one of the nation’s foremost advocates for Israel. Howard E. Friedman, a former president of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and a leading patron of Jewish political causes, will host Obama for a dinner that will cost guests up to $32,400 — the maximum an individual may give to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the calendar year.
Investors boost hedge fund holdings in August (Reuters)
Hedge fund investors added more cash than they redeemed from the asset class in September, following performance gains during August, new data showed on Thursday. The SS&C GlobeOp Capital Movement Index, which calculates monthly hedge fund subscriptions minus redemptions, rose 0.6 percent in September to 149.62 points. “Subscriptions were nearly double that of redemptions for September, although capital activity was generally lower overall,” said Bill Stone, chairman and CEO of SS&C Technologies.
Most Hedge-Fund Managers Are Overpaid, Big Investor Says (Bloomberg)
Nine out of 10 hedge-fund managers are overpaid as management fees don’t reflect declining interest rates and fund returns, according to Unigestion Holding SA, which invests $2 billion in hedge funds. The fees, which still make up as much as 2 percent of a fund’s assets, represent a disproportionately high share of the total remuneration unrelated to performance, said Nicolas Rousselet, head of hedge funds at Unigestion. To align managers’ pay more with performance, the fund industry should either abandon the management fee or combine it with a hurdle rate that one must achieve before collecting incentive fees, he said.
Upcoming P&I special report: Hedge fund assets rise 15.4% (PIOnline)
Hedge fund assets increased 15.4% to $1.5 trillion in the 12 months ended June 30, the results of Pensions & Investments’ annual survey showed. That compares with a 15.2% rate of growth in the aggregate assets in the 2013 survey. Assets of the 25 largest hedge fund managers totaled $715 billion as of June 30, up 8.6% from a year earlier. The 2014 growth rate was lower than the 9.9% for the year ended June 30, 2013, but well above the 3.6% pace for the same date in 2012, P&I archival data showed.
A Hedge Fund Manager Delivered An Epic Takedown Of Olive Garden’s Endless Breadsticks Strategy (BusinessInsider)
Activist hedge fund Starboard Value wants Olive Garden to axe its unlimited salad and breadsticks. On Friday morning, Starboard published a 294-slide presentation outlining its transformation plan for Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI), the parent company that owns Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse, among other restaurant brands. Starboard currently owns about 8.8% of Darden. As you’d expect from a presentation this long, Starboard outlines more than a few ways for Darden to maximize profit and turn around its business, and Olive Garden’s unlimited salad and breadsticks is just one of the firm’s targets.
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