Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Oaktree Capital Group LLC (NYSE:OAK), Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG), Walter Energy, Inc. (NYSE:WLT), J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB), Superior Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE:SPN), MBIA Inc. (NYSE:MBI)
John Paulson to Start Fund to Reduce Clients’ Tax Bills (Bloomberg)
Billionaire Steinmetz sues ex-adviser over Soros link (Reuters)
Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz is suing his former London-based business advisers and a British ex-minister in a battle over Guinea’s mineral wealth. Steinmetz has been at odds with the government of the West African country for months over the right to mine half of the giant Simandou deposit, one of the world’s largest untapped iron ore discoveries. The mining arm of his business empire, BSG Resources (BSGR), accuses the government’s high-profile foreign advisers, including the hedge fund billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, of carrying out a damaging and personal smear campaign to thwart its ambitions in Guinea.
Hedge Funds Attract $11B In February (FINalternatives)
“The hedge fund industry continues to struggle with performance,” said Sol Waksman, president and founder of BarclayHedge. “The industry delivered a return of 0.4% in February, less than half of the S&P 500’s 1.1% rise. In the past 12 months, hedge funds earned 5.8%, while the S&P 500 rose 10.9%.”
Third Point Plans Greek-Focused Hedge Fund on Recovery Bet (Bloomberg)
Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC is starting a hedge fund focused on buying Greek assets after a wager that European officials would rescue the indebted nation from financial collapse helped drive gains last year for his $11.7 billion investment firm. Third Point Offshore Fund Ltd., the firm’s biggest hedge fund, rose 21 percent in 2012 after buying Greek sovereign bonds that surged when German Chancellor Angela Merkel softened her stance on spending cuts in Greece and the European Central Bank unveiled measures designed to keep the euro currency bloc intact. Third Point joins U.S. firms including Oaktree Capital Group LLC (NYSE:OAK) and Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE:FIG) in hunting for bargains in Greek assets after more than five years of recession drove down equities and property values.
MBIA Inc. (MBI) Was Just Given a Beat Down by The Legendary Bruce Berkowitz (Insider Monkey)
This just in, Bruce Berkowitz’s Fairholme sold off 11,069,600 shares of MBIA Inc. (NYSE:MBI) in a 13G filing with the SEC. Altogether, the fund’s position in MBIA is now worth close to $330.6 million, and on a share-basis, this represents a decrease of 26%. In investment circles, 13Gs indicate the intentions of passive fund managers. These mega-investors aren’t always exposed to the same amount of coverage as their activist peers, but passive hedgies must still be keyed on as well.
Ackman concedes JC Penney management mistakes, eyes future (Reuters)
J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) board member William Ackman on Thursday acknowledged the shortcomings of the chief executive officer he handpicked to turn around the retailer and said he was optimistic about the company and its future. Speaking at a luncheon in New York, Ackman said Penney’s former CEO Ron Johnson was not at the company’s Texas headquarters enough, since his family lives in California. Even though Johnson worked hard, Ackman said the lack of his physical presence “affected the morale of the home team.”
Blackstone Seeks Tech. Partners For Dell Deal (FINalternatives)
The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX) is in talks with several technology companies about joining its buyout bid for Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), while a major Dell shareholder said it supports Blackstone’s potential offer—or that of Carl Icahn—over the $24.4 billion deal from company founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners.
Gundlach Sees Falling Yields Curtailing Bond Deposits (Bloomberg)
Jeffrey Gundlach, manager of the top-ranked DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund (DBLTX), said shrinking bond-market returns may prompt investors to stop piling into fixed-income funds as soon as this year. “If bond yields stay where they are,…
…we’re getting to a place by the end of July where the 12-month trailing return is just over 1 percent,” Gundlach, whose Los Angeles-based DoubleLine Capital LP managed $56 billion as of March 31, said in an interview, referring to broad fixed-income benchmarks. “There will be a rethinking of bond allocations.”
Yearick is the third Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB) veteran to join BlueCrest this year, after mortgage-debt trader John Roach and distressed-debt analyst Matt Siravo.
Walter Energy says results to improve from 4th quarter (Reuters)
Coal miner Walter Energy, Inc. (NYSE:WLT), which is locked in a proxy fight with an activist hedge fund, said on Thursday that its first-quarter performance had improved from that of the fourth quarter of 2012. Walter said it expects to report metallurgical coal sales of 2.8 million metric tons for the first quarter, up 9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012, and above the 2.4 million metric tons it reported for the first quarter of 2012. British hedge fund Audley Capital Advisors LLP is aiming to replace half of Walter’s board at its April 25 annual meeting.
Singer Denial Failing to Quell Win-Win Charge: Argentina Credit (Bloomberg)
Billionaire Paul Singer has denied he owns credit-default swaps that would allow him to profit if Argentina shirks a court order requiring it pay him in full and halts payments. That hasn’t stopped Argentina from repeating the claim as its bond risk soars to the highest in the world. Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino said March 30 that the “sole” purpose of Singer’s legal dispute with Argentina over record $95 billion default in 2001 is to make money from his swap holdings, a month after his NML Capital Ltd. fund said in a court hearing it doesn’t own the contracts. Argentina and holders of restructured bonds have also said in filings in the U.S.
Five small caps Steve Cohen likes (MarketWatch)
Here are five small-cap stocks which billionaire Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors reported owning at the end of December. SAC increased its stake in Superior Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE:SPN) by 25% during the fourth quarter of 2012, to a total of 7.7 million shares. At a market capitalization of $4 billion, Superior trades at only 10 times its trailing earnings. At that level it barely needs to grow at all in order to be a good value, but analyst expectations are bullish with the forward P/E coming in at 9 and the five-year PEG ratio being only 0.6.
Income Partners Focuses on Liquid Credit as Chandra Departs (Bloomberg)
Income Partners Asset Management (H.K.) Ltd., a $1.3 billion credit hedge-fund manager, is moving away from investments in less-frequently traded assets, prompting the departure of one of its three partners. Jiffriy Chandra, who focused on private-capital investments since the 2008 global financial crisis, left last month after 15 years, Francis Tjia, Hong Kong-based Income Partners’s chief executive officer, said in a telephone interview on April 9. Hedge-fund companies, including Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners LLC, put their most illiquid investments in separate pools and restricted investor withdrawals in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to avoid fire-sales of such assets as their prices plummeted.
