Hedge fund mogul at risk of a short squeeze on Herbalife (TheGlobeAndMail)
Hedge fund titan Bill Ackman had an easy time vanquishing the sclerotic board of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (NYSE:CP) last year. He’s now in an even more fascinating bare-knuckles fight, this time with Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), the big U.S. direct marketer of weight loss products. Mr. Ackman claims the company is a pyramid scheme, and is shorting $1-billion (U.S.) worth of its stock. We’re used to seeing larger-than-life market players like Mr. Ackman win against adversaries. It isn’t often that one of them steps on a banana peel, but at Herbalife, we might see a case of a famed hedge fund manager in a rare slip.
IPO cloud as Nine debt clears (HeraldSun)
NINE Entertainment faces some of the fiercest headwinds buffeting any sector as its owners prepare to float the media group, industry experts say. Nine will battle for widespread support among investors despite a sweeping restructure that primes the group for an initial public offering, they say. The warning came as Nine’s hedge fund masters yesterday formally inked a deal with other lenders that frees the group of $3.3 billion debt – a pivotal step towards a float. Under the deal, Nine’s “senior” lenders – Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital – have taken control of Nine.
Bankers, Fund Managers Strip for Sub-Zero Swims in London (BusinessWeek)
It’s a snowy Saturday morning. A group of seven men sporting woolly caps and backpacks gather at the top of Parliament Hill on London’s Hampstead Heath. They’ve been meeting every weekend morning like this for the past two years — never less than two, sometimes as many as 15, and their numbers are growing. Ranging in age from 44 to 57, they head off shortly after 9 a.m., jogging down the southern side of the hill.
ERNST & YOUNG LLP WINS TWO AWARDS FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO THE HEDGE FUND INDUSTRY (Melodika)
Ernst & Young LLP, a leading service provider for start-up and established hedge funds, has received the award for Best Audit Services in the 2012 HFMWeek U.S. Hedge Fund Services Awards and was ranked as the top audit and accounting firm in Hedge Funds Review’s 2012 Service Provider Rankings. This is the fourth consecutive year that the firm has been recognized by HFMWeek as the best in the audit/accounting services category and the second time it has been placed at the top of the Hedge Funds Review rankings.
FBR founder’s fund profits from big government (CourierPress)
For many hedge funds, financial rules and state intervention in markets are anathema. Emanuel J. Friedman, former co-chairman of investment bank Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc., sees them as an opportunity. Friedman’s $2.6 billion EJF Debt Opportunities Fund surged 29 percent last year by making bets on how lenders would alter their capital structure after the Dodd-Frank Act, according to investors in the pool. Run from suburban Virginia, five miles west of the U.S. Capitol, it has averaged gains of 21 percent a year since inception in June 2008, compared with the 4.4 percent annual increase posted by other debt-focused hedge funds. His approach comes at a time when some hedge-fund managers, including Third Point’s Daniel Loeb and Moore Capital Management’s Louis Bacon, bemoan political intrusion and complain that Washington is anti-business. Friedman, 66, was on the receiving end of government pressure himself eight years ago, when he left the bank he co-founded amid a probe and subsequent settlement with U.S. regulators over improper trades.
Hedge Fund Manager And CNBC Contributor Releases Novel—We’ve Got A Sneak Peek (BusinessInsider)
“The trading room fell quiet as Vernon Albright stormed across the ?oor, the thick carpet doing little to mute the anger evident in each step. The traders had seen him this way before and feared the worst…” So begins UNHEDGED, the newest book by renowned hedge fund manager Stephen Weiss. Weiss has a storied career on Wall Street, and has been an executive at Salomon Brothers, SAC Capital, and Lehman Brothers while also contributing to CNBC’s Fast Money. He’s written two books before – The Billion Dollar Mistake and The Big Win – but while those were investment books, his latest work is a financial thriller.
