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.
Is 120 likely for dollar-yen? (CNBC)
Cliffs may close Bloom Lake iron ore mine (Reuters)
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc (NYSE:CLF) said it may have to close its Bloom Lake iron ore mine in Quebec, weeks after it revealed that three “big steelmakers” were in talks to invest in the project. Cliffs’ announcement that it was looking to exit its Eastern Canadian iron ore operations sent its shares down about 12.7 percent to $8.91 in premarket trading. “Despite the continued interest of the prospective equity partners in Bloom Lake … the potential investment is not achievable within a time frame acceptable to Cliffs,” Chief Executive Lourenco Goncalves said in a statement on Wednesday.
Hedge fund Makuria sees Intralot shares tripling in 18 months (Reuters)
Mans Larsson, founder of hedge fund Makuria Investment Management, said shares in Intralot Integrated Lottery Systems and Services may triple in value over the next 12 to 18 months. Larsson, the former head of the London office at Canyon Capital Advisors who launched his own fund last year, said Intralot is a good business with predictable cash generation and is available at attractive valuation. The “company is now at an inflection point” where it is entering “a harvesting phase”, Larsson told the Sohn Investment Conference in London on Wednesday.
Singer Blasts CalPERS’ Hedge-Fund Exit (Finalternatives)
Some hedge fund managers, like AQR’s Clifford Asness, have offered mild criticisms of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s decision to redeem its entire hedge-fund portfolio. Elliott Management founder Paul Singer, as is his nature, isn’t tempering his displeasure. In a letter to clients, Singer called CalPERS’ September decision “off-base.” The pension, the largest in the U.S., was critical of the complexity and cost of hedge funds, and said they did not make sense for a system managing $300 billion. Singer couldn’t disagree more.
Hedge fund star Hintze tips long U.S. high yield credit, short Europe (Reuters)
Hedge fund CQS is betting on U.S. high-yield corporate bonds following the return of widening credit spreads and volatility in the second half of the year, the firm’s founder Michael Hintze, one of Europe’s most influential investors, said on Monday. Hintze, 61, whose firm manages about $14 billion, said he was also shorting European credits and flagged Russia as a “black hole” as it fights an economic crisis, sinking oil prices and a sanctions war with the West over Ukraine. “What’s happened more recently is that there is a significant differentiation,” Hintze told the Reuters Global Investment Outlook Summit in London, pointing to a widening in spreads between lower quality corporate issues and higher grade credit.
Hedge fund manager Chanos says art market frothy, shorting Sotheby’s (GlobalPost)
Hedge fund Kynikos Associates founder James Chanos said the art market is frothy and he is currently shorting Sotheby’s , a global auctioneer of art and jewelery. “I am not here to bury the art market, I am an art collector myself,” the short-seller, who is better known for his bearish bets on China, said at the Sohn Investment Conference in London on Wednesday. “But I do think that there are inherent risks in this sort of cyclical business,” he added. Chanos, the founder of Kynikos, managed about $4 billion at the end of Feb. 2014, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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