October Shorts Undo Gains for Crispin Odey’s Hedge Fund (WSJ)
Crispin Odey, one of the best-known hedge fund managers in Europe, has seen returns at his flagship €1.8 billion ($2.3 billion) hedge fund fall by more than 10% this year, after fresh losses in October undid the gains of late summer. According to the U.K. hedge fund manager’s latest report to investors, seen by MoneyBeat, the Cayman-domiciled Odey European Fund registered a 5.6% loss over the month, leaving it down 10.3% for the year to Oct. 31. Odey Asset Management did not provide comment in time for publication.
Icahn expects major stocks correction in 3 to 5 years (JamesTownSun)
Carl Icahn isn’t forecasting a dramatic stock market drop quite yet, but the billionaire investor is still bracing for a market sell-off in the next three to five years, he told Reuters on Monday. “I am still concerned that one day you’ll see a break like you had a few weeks ago,” Icahn said at the Reuters Investment Outlook Summit in New York on Monday, “but it won’t come back.” With the Standard & Poor’s 500 index now up more than 10 percent for the year and trading at 2,041, many investors have put October’s short-lived slide behind them, saying low interest rates and a growing mergers and acquisitions boom will continue to fuel the bull market.
Saba Capital Down 2.8% In October (Finalternatives)
Boaz Weinstein’s Saba Capital Management LP posted a 2.8 percent October loss in its main hedge fund as it heads for its third yearly decline. The Saba Capital Master Fund slumped 6.8 percent this year through October, according to a performance update, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. The fund fell 6.8 percent last year and 3.9 percent in 2012 after climbing 9.3 percent in 2011 and 11 percent in 2010. Weinstein’s fund has struggled since July 2012 as central bank intervention damped volatility and bolstered credit markets…
Hedge Fund Qualms Stoke TransCanada Debt Concern (BusinessWeek)
An activist hedge fund’s proposal to break up TransCanada Corporation (NYSE:TRP), timed to collide with a vote on its Keystone XL pipeline, is triggering concern the company is seeking to placate shareholders at the expense of bondholders. The cost to protect TransCanada debt from default surged to 93 basis points, the highest level since June 2012, following a letter to TransCanada’s board this week from billionaire investor Thomas Sandell’s Sandell Asset Management Corp. calling on it to speed up the transfer of U.S. assets to a tax-advantaged partnership and spin out its power business.
Hedge fund Livermore calls for board change at Volt Information (Reuters)
Hedge fund Livermore Partners is pushing for change at U.S. staffing services provider Volt Information Sciences, Inc. (NYSEMKT:VISI), setting the stage for a potential proxy battle if the company does not act on its demands. The fund called on Wednesday for Volt to overhaul its board by adding independent directors. It also wants it to sell non-core assets and buy back stock, said David Neuhauser, Livermore’s managing director. “It is imperative that both management and the board fully grasp the need to directly attack the current issues that are impairing shareholder equity,” he said in a letter addressed to Volt Chief Executive Ronald Kochman and seen by Reuters.
