Hedge Fund Och-Ziff Said to Lose Four London-Based Employees (Bloomberg)
Four employees of Daniel Och’s Och-Ziff Capital Management Group (OZM) have left the hedge fund’s London office over the past week, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Antonio Batista, Jason Marino, Marco Minoli and Filipe Bergana have departed the firm, one person said, asking not to be named as the details aren’t public. Batista was a managing director, while the other three were analysts, one person said.
Hedge Fund Founder Chanos Says Shorting Intel Shares (Reuters)
Jim Chanos, founder of hedge fund firm Kynikos Associates, said on Friday he is betting against the shares of chipmaker Intel Corp. “We’re short Intel,” Chanos told cable television network CNBC. Chanos said he has been shorting, or betting against the company’s shares, for the past six months. Chanos, who has been critical of the personal computer sector and has bet against companies such as International Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., said Intel has “the same challenges.
Volatility No Help to Boaz Weinstein’s Struggles (WSJ)
The beleaguered hedge-fund manager Boaz Weinstein has repeatedly defended his unsuccessful trading of recent years by promising his positions will pay off when volatility returns to the market. Yet as The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, Mr. Weinstein’s losses at Saba Capital Management LP only accelerated amid the equity and oil market gyrations of the fourth quarter, according to investor documents and people familiar with the firm. In fact, most of the -11% annual loss occurred in the fourth quarter. What’s to blame? Even some of Mr. Weinstein’s own investors appear confused at the firm’s yearlong drought, with one telling MoneyBeat “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Comac Capital’s Macro Fund Said to Drop 8 Percent on Swiss Franc (Bloomberg)
Comac Capital lost about 8 percent after the Swiss National Bank (SNBN)’s surprise decision to abandon the franc’s cap against the euro roiled markets worldwide, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Comac, a $1.2 billion London-based macro hedge fund run by Colm O’Shea, lost money on foreign-exchange trades as the franc surged as much as 41 percent versus the euro on Thursday, according to two people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
Loeb King Says It’s Closing as Hedge Fund Rules ‘Cumbersome’ (Bloomberg)
Loeb King Capital Management, an investment firm with about $1 billion, is closing after principal Gideon King decided to manage his own money. “You will just be more profitable if you run your own capital,” King, 45, said in a telephone interview. “That’s 99.9 percent of the decision.” King informed clients in a Jan. 13 letter that the funds will begin an orderly liquidation. The decision isn’t related to the business prospects, he wrote, but because the industry has changed and there are better ways to deploy capital.
