Achica sells stake to hedge fund giant Lansdowne Partners (Retail-Week)
Documents filed at Companies House, which detail Lansdowne’s investment, show that the company is considering a stock market listing at some point in the future, the Telegraph reported. An IPO is understood to be some way off but is a possible exit route for Achica, whose early investors include technology-focused private equity firm Balderton. Achica is a ‘flash sales’ site which offers members discounts on furniture, homewares and kitchenware. It recently promoted former Tesco Direct boss Steve Robinson to chief executive while co-founder Will Cooper moved up to chairman.
Brevan Howard attempts to halt co-founder fund launch plan (CityWire)
A founder partner of hedge fund Brevan Howard is seeking to a court order to overturn a non-compete clause preventing him from launching a rival strategy, the Financial Times has reported. Jersey court documents reportedly seen by the FT show that Christopher Rokos, who stepped down from the $37 billion group in 2012, is challenging the terms of the five-year order. The filing argues that Rokos’ ability as a ‘star trader’ would ‘atrophy’ if he complied with the unusually-long time frame stipulated by the contact. Non-compete clauses more typically specific 12-18 month terms, at most.
Viking Manager In Rent Dispute (Finalternatives)
A hedge fund manager is demanding most of his money back from his former landlord, who, in a made-for-the-tabloids twist, is a former model. Viking Global Investors’ Paul Enright paid more than $1 million to rent a Manhattan townhouse from Brenda Schad—better known in some quarters as “Miss Wonderbra.” But Enright complained that he and his family were never given access to the basement of the East 19th Street house, and that the backyard was rendered useless by a rat infestation.
Marc Faber’s 20% Correction that Never Came (InsiderMonkey)
Marc Faber, is famously called Dr. Doom due to his never ending prophecies that something or the other is going to witness a correction. So, another prophecy by him that the U.S. Stock markets will collapse by 20% was nothing new when he said it on CNBC, exactly a year ago. The interesting observation though that one makes when rewinding to the views that he held then, is the logic. Mr. Faber is not someone who plainly utters verbiage when asked about the reasoning behind his predictions, he offers a logical explanation behind them. The problem is that even though his reasoning can be deemed right at times, the outcomes mostly don’t match up to it.
Cotton, sugar lead hedge fund pessmism on ags (AgriMoney)
Hedge funds cut their bullish positioning in agricultural commodities again as they turned net short in cotton and sugar for the first time in months, more than offsetting a more upbeat take on grains. Managed money, a proxy for speculators, cut its net long position in futures and options in the top 13 US-traded agricultural commodities, from cotton to cattle, by more than 3,000 contracts in the week to last Tuesday, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulator.
SEC: Brokerage Firm Worked With A Hedge Fund To Hide $45 Million (HedgeCo)
Hedge fund manager Nikolai Battoo is again under investigation, this time for his inappropriate business dealings with Bahamas-based brokerage firm Alliance Investment Management Limited. The SEC alleges that Julian R. Brown and his firm Alliance Investment Management Limited (AIM) purported to be the “custodian” for assets under the management of Nikolai Battoo. The SEC obtained a court-ordered freeze over Battoo’s assets after charging him in 2012 with defrauding investors around the world by hiding major losses while falsely boasting that their investments were performing remarkably during the financial crisis.
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