Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Resource Capital Corp. (NYSE:RSO), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX)
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) -0.16%’s new hedge-fund expertise is paying off — perhaps to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. The company’s 35% stake in Yahoo Japan 4689.TO +0.11%, worth around $6.5 billion at year-end, had risen over 70% through Friday in local currency terms. Too bad the local currency has had a notably rougher go of it, falling 12% against the dollar thanks to the Bank of Japan’s plan to print yen to fight deflation. In dollar terms, then, Yahoo’s stake in Yahoo Japan is up closer to 50%. Lucky for Yahoo, board member Daniel Loeb saw it coming. Noting new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s zeal to devalue, Mr. Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point put on a short position against the yen last fall according to a recent investor letter.
Madoff trustee cannot block $410 million Merkin accord: judge (ChicagoTribune)
A federal judge blocked the trustee seeking money for Bernard Madoff’s victims from interfering with New York state’s $410 million settlement with Ezra Merkin, a Wall Street hedge fund manager accused of steering client money to the swindler. Irving Picard, the trustee, had said the settlement with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman interfered with his exclusive right to recover money for people who invested with Madoff, by reducing the sums available for him to pursue.
Caxton Associates Partner Aaron Rowe Departs (WSJ)
Caxton Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, has parted ways with partner and senior portfolio manager Aaron Rowe, two people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. Mr. Rowe relocated to Sydney from London in late 2010 to lead the group’s third trading hub after London and New York. Caxton remains fully committed to its Sydney office and the Asia-Pacific region, one of the people said. The hedge fund manager oversees around US$7.5 billion, which it invests across assets like currencies, bonds and rates. Around 75% of its funds is in Caxton Global, the firm’s flagship macro hedge fund, which has achieved returns of approximately 7.2% in the year to date, according to data provided to investors by Caxton.
Hedge Funds Are Dumping Resource Capital Corp. (RSO) (InsiderMonkey)
Is Resource Capital Corp. (NYSE:RSO) a buy right now? Investors who are in the know are reducing their bets on the stock. The number of long hedge fund positions dropped by 3 lately. According to most shareholders, hedge funds are assumed to be unimportant, old financial vehicles of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds with their doors open today, we at Insider Monkey hone in on the top tier of this group, around 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group controls most of the hedge fund industry’s total asset base, and by paying attention to their top picks, we have deciphered a few investment strategies that have historically beaten the market. …
More Asian hedge funds fell into less than $10m category in 2012, GFIA (Opalesque)
Singapore-based hedge fund consultant and manager GFIA noted a significant spike in the number of Asian hedge funds with less than $10m in assets under management (AuM) due to investor withdrawals and fund poor performance. In terms of performance, the Eurekahedge Asian Hedge Fund Index finished 2011 down almost 8% and 2012 up almost 10% (it is currently up 5.5% YTD to end-March). GFIA’s Asian Hedge Funds Note for April 2013 also reports that there were only six new hedge funds launched in 2012 with less than $10m in AuM. 29 funds were launched during the year.
Route One Fund Continues To Add Delta Corp Stake (DealCurry)
Route One Fund I LP has hiked its stake in Delta Corp Ltd. by buying almost 40 lac shares through the exchanges. The foreign hedge fund bought over 14.24 lac shares on the BSE and 25.72 lac shares on the NSE. Buy price was somewhere in the range of R71.71-71.90 per piece which aggregated to a total of around more than R28.68 Cr. Route One had bought 29.17 lac shares of the company last week at R57.94 per share. Delta Corp is into two business segments of gaming and hospitality.
Hedge fund titans’ pay stretches to 10 figures (GreenwichTime)
In recent years, the criticism about giant Wall Street hedge funds — those that command billions of investor dollars from pension funds, endowments and the wealthy — is that they’re simply too big to beat the market. …Certainly, plenty of hedge fund titans took home billion-dollar paydays last year despite the fact they lagged the big gains in stocks. For example, Steven A. Cohen, who controls $15 billion in assets at Stamford-based SAC Capital Advisors, which has been under intense scrutiny by government investigators, fell just short of the market’s returns for 2012. His take-home pay, however, was about $1.4 billion, earning him the No. 3 spot among the best-paid hedge fund managers.
Former GLG trader returns with new hedge fund (eFinancialNews)
Berger has set up B1 Capital – a Pfäffikon, Switzerland-based firm – and is preparing to launch a European fundamental long/short equity fund this summer, according to a person familiar with the situation. He has hired Megan Kenney, a former managing director and European head of capital services at Credit Suisse, to be the new firm’s chief executive. Kenney left the Swiss bank in October. There are four other people on the team. The launch will be with seed capital and money from a small number of anchor investors, the person said. Berger declined to comment.
So Is It 2008 All Over Again? (ETFDailyNews)
Marc Faber of the Gloom Boom Doom Report was interviewed by Bloomberg on Friday, and of course topic number one was the brutal takedown of gold. Not all that surprisingly, he likes the resulting buying opportunity and expects “a major low in gold within the next two weeks.” More interesting from a theoretical/historical point of view was his segue from gold to the state of the global economy: “Today we have commodities breaking down including gold and we have bonds rallying very strongly. If you just stand aside and just look at these two events they would suggest that there are strongly deflationary pressures in the system.”
Jim Rogers likes gold, correction provides entry points (ProactiveInvestors)
Gold has fallen further in Tuesday trading to $1338 an ounce, bouncing in a range from $1328 to $1348 an ounce. Despite all of the pessimistic views of bankers and brokers, renowned commodity trader Jim Rogers believes this gold correction will provide an excellent opportunity to buy – at some point. Rogers opined in 2012 that the gold price was due for a correction, yet still owns gold and is not selling any of it. Not discouraged by the fear on the street, he said he would get “extremely excited” if gold prices drop to $1,200 per ounce. “I own gold and I’m not selling my gold. “Somewhere down the line gold will have a correction he said earlier. Gold will continue to do what gold does best. Just give it a chance.”, said Rogers.
Dell, Icahn Agree to a Share Ownership Cap (ABCNews)
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) says a special committee of its board reached a deal with Carl Icahn to cap his share ownership while it considers takeover bids from the billionaire investor, a group led by CEO Michael Dell and buyout specialist The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX). The Round Rock, Texas, personal computer maker says its board has approved the agreement with Icahn under which he and entities tied to him pledge not to make purchases that cause them to own more than 10 percent of the company’s shares. The deal also covers other shareholders who, together with Icahn, would own more than 15 percent of Dell’s shares.
BlackRock Net Rises 10% as Demand for ETFs Boosts Assets (Bloomberg)
BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), the world’s biggest money manager, said first-quarter earnings rose 10 percent as its exchange-traded equities funds drew client cash and assets increased. Net income climbed to $632 million, or $3.62 a share, from $572 million, or $3.14, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. Excluding certain items, BlackRock’s adjusted earnings of $3.65 a share beat the $3.57 average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
SEC Charges Denver-Based Businessman with Insider Trading (SEC)
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a prominent Denver-based businessman with insider trading based on confidential information he obtained from the CEO of an oil and gas company that was about to secure a huge investment. An investigation by the SEC’s Enforcement Division found that Scott Reiman obtained inside information about Delta Petroleum ahead of the company’s announcement that it had secured a $684 million investment from private investment firm Tracinda.
