Sears Canada Loss Narrows As Same-Store Sales Decline Slows (Reuters)
Struggling department store chain Sears Canada Inc reported a smaller first-quarter loss as decline in its same-store sales was the slowest in five quarters. Sears Canada, whose largest shareholder is Sears Holdings Corp Chief Executive Eddie Lampert and his hedge fund ESL Investments Inc, said on Wednesday that its same-store sales fell 4.3 percent in the first quarter. Comparable sales had fallen 6.8-9.1 percent in the past four quarters.
Icahn Nets $3.4 Billion on Apple (CNBC)
Carl Icahn‘s big bet on Apple is now one of the greatest trades of all time. Icahn has made about $3.4 billion on the technology company since he first tweeted about the position on Aug. 13, 2013, according to a CNBC analysis of public ownership disclosures and stock prices.
Marc Lasry Says Jeb Bush Would Be ‘Reasonable’ President (Bloomberg)
Marc Lasry, the investor who’s raising money for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, said potential Republican candidate Jeb Bush would be a “reasonable” president. “He would be reasonable, he’d be a good president,” Lasry said in an interview Tuesday with Mark Halperin and John Heilemann on Bloomberg Television’s “With All Due Respect.” “I think I would look at it very differently with some of the other candidates.”
Gotham City Says Plus500 Will Fall as Short Sellers Place Bets (Bloomberg)
Gotham City Research LLC, run by New York short seller Daniel Yu, said it’s “wary” of British trading platform Plus500 Ltd., predicting the shares will decline further after they dropped 46 percent this week. Investors Valiant Capital Management and Ennismore Fund Management, which have bet against other firms Gotham has questioned before, have taken short positions in Plus500, according to company filings.
The Stocks Top Hedge Funds Love (CNBC)
Stock-picking hedge funds are finally beating low-cost equity index funds this year thanks to bets like Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Microsoft and Yum Brands. A small group of hedge funds has done even better. Symmetric, which analyzes the quarterly public disclosures of hedge fund stock ownership, ranked the top 20 firms of 1,000 total based on their three-year performance above sector benchmarks. Broadfin Capital is first, followed by Brave Warrior Advisors and Hound Partners.
Blackstone Said To Sell 25% of Eircom To Hedge Fund Anchorage (Bloomberg)
Anchorage Capital Group LLC, a New York-based hedge fund, bought most of Blackstone Group LP’s stake in Eircom Group amid the Irish phone company’s rejection of a multibillion-dollar buyout offer. Blackstone sold a stake of about 25 percent in Dublin-based Eircom to Anchorage while retaining about 5 percent, said a person familiar with the situation, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
Clinton takes another swipe at hedge fund managers for earnings (Reuters)
In the spotlight for her own high income, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took a swipe at hedge fund managers again on Monday for earning much more than ordinary Americans and paying lower tax rates. Speaking to about 60 supporters at a house party in Iowa, Clinton said “the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top” like chief executives and hedge fund managers. “In fact, I heard a statistic the other day that really made a big impact on me. The top 25 hedge fund managers together make more money than all the kindergarten teachers in America,” she said.
Money Flows Again to Gene-Therapy Drugs Investors Once Shunned (Bloomberg)
Gene-therapy company Regenxbio Inc. has just 18 employees and doesn’t plan its first human trial on a treatment for a rare metabolic disease until early next year. Yet the company has just raised $70.5 million in financing from investors including venture-capital firm Venrock, the hedge fund Brookside Capital and a mutual fund run by Janus Capital Group Inc. That’s on top of $30 million it raised in a previous round in January. Regenxbio could make an initial public offering of stock later this year, said Chief Executive Officer Ken Mills.
