Sears to sell down Canada stake, turns to CEO again for cash (Reuters)
Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD) is turning to its chief executive for cash for the second time in three weeks in a sign that its efforts to sell off assets are coming up short. The retailer announced Thursday that it would raise up to $380 million by lowering its stake in Sears Canada (SCC.TO) to 12 percent from 51 percent through a rights offering. It said Chief Executive Eddie Lampert and his hedge fund, which together own 48.5 percent of Sears Holdings, would buy about half of the offering.
Brevan’s $700 Million Commodity Hedge Fund Slumped in September (SwissInfo)
Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP lost 10.3 percent last month through Sept. 26 in a commodity hedge fund run by Stephane Nicolas, according to an investor. The $700 million fund fell 7.1 percent this year, said the investor, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. A official for Brevan Howard declined to comment. The Bloomberg Commodity Index, made up of 22 raw materials, slumped 6.2 percent last month, its biggest monthly decline since May 2012.
Goldman Sachs Funds Buy Stake in Caxton Hedge Fund (WSJ)
Caxton Associates L.P., a nearly $8 billion hedge-fund firm, has sold a minority stake to a group of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) +1.28% private-equity funds, according to a letter to investors viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Goldman’s Petershill II funds will initially purchase a 9.99% stake, and may increase their ownership to 19.99% over the next 9 months, the letter said. The price of the deal wasn’t disclosed. The letter, signed by Caxton CEO Andrew Law, described the Goldman stake as a “passive minority interest that does not carry with it any investment management or board representation rights.”
Billionaire Peter Thiel Explains Why He Would Tell His Younger Self To Be Less Competitive (BusinessInsider)
Peter Thiel – the billionaire cofounder of PayPal and Palantir, as well as a powerful venture capitalist and hedge fund manager – is well known for his contrarian, often academic bits of wisdom. It may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that, despite his focused approach to business, he sees the intense competitiveness often associated with entrepreneurialism to be more of a burden than an asset. In an episode of author and investor Tim Ferriss’ podcast, Thiel explains some of the basic principles in his new book “Zero to One.”
Candlewood Hedge Fund Plans Fund to Buy Puerto Rico Debt (Bloomberg)
Candlewood Investment Group LP, the $3 billion hedge-fund firm run by Michael Lau, plans to start a fund to profit from Puerto Rico’s debt market, as the commonwealth and its agencies struggle with $73 billion of obligations. The Candlewood Puerto Rico SP fund will target securities including general-obligation bonds, debt of public corporations and the monoline-wrapped space, the New York-based firm said in a presentation obtained by Bloomberg News. Market prices are offering unadjusted yields of 8 percent to 10 percent and U.S. tax-equivalent yields of 16 percent to 20 percent, it said.
Buffett’s million dollar hedge fund bet (CNBC)
Hedge Fund Tipster Found Guilty Of Conspiracy, Securities Fraud (Finalternatives)
Former Foundry Networks executive David Riley was found guilty today of giving a hedge fund analyst insider information. A jury in New York found Riley guilty of conspiracy and securities fraud. The jury was deadlocked on a third count of securities fraud. Prosecutors say that Riley—then chief information officer at Foundry Networks—told hedge fund Artis Capital Management’s Matthew Teeple about Brocade Communications Systems’ planned deal for Foundry in 2008. Teeple, who pled guilty and testified against Riley, then told 15 others.
Nouriel Roubini: ‘Financial contagion cannot be ruled out’ (EconomicCollapseNews)
Despite the chaos that is transpiring all over the world – the Hong Kong protests, the U.S. war against ISIS, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Ebola outbreak – financial markets are still roaring ahead and seem ignorant of what’s going on in every region of the globe. Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University, explained in an article published on Project Syndicate that this is a perfectly normal reaction in the markets, but the good times could eventually come to an abrupt end. Roubini wrote that international markets are pushing ahead and are “rationally complacent,” but “financial contagion cannot be ruled out.”
Analysis: New York State Common equity hedge fund managers exhibit above average stock selection skill (Pionline)
An analysis of public holdings shows that equity hedge fund managers in the New York State Common Retirement Fund’s absolute-return strategy exhibit “above average” skill as stock pickers, but are outside the top 25th percentile of the fund universe as a whole. Symmetric Information Technologies analyzes 13F filings of hedge funds and calculates security selection skill based on funds’ long positions, and their relative performance to overall sector returns. The most recent analysis notes the “accomplishment is still impressive given the restrictions pension funds operate under and shows they are able to pick managers that produced for them better than average skill compared to what is available in the HF universe. This is no easy task.”
Vegas man indicted in hedge fund looting scheme (MyNews3)
Two men have been charged with conspiracy and fraud for engaging in a scheme to misappropriate $34 million from two Florida-based hedge funds from 2008 to 2010. Robert Buckhannon, 53, of Las Vegas and Terry Rawstern, 66, of Aberdeen, S.D., are charged in a criminal indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. Buckhannon, who was arrested by FBI agents Tuesday in Henderson, pleaded not guilty Wednesday at an arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge George Foley, and was released on a personal recognizance bond pending trial.
Recommended Reading:
David Tepper Thinks US Stock Markets Are Not at High Multiples
RealD (RLD) Going Private With Starboard Will Make Investors Happy
