Hedge Fund News: Ken Griffin, Chris Hansen, Visa Inc (V)

…with three Bermuda ventures last year investing a combined sum of about $1.7 billion with the U.S. managers who set them up, Bloomberg News reported this year.

Chris Hansen’s hedge fund posts second consecutive quarterly loss (The Seattle Times)
Chris Hansen has another problem besides the NBA owners and league commissioner David Stern: The hedge fund that positioned him to lead a bid for the Sacramento Kings has lost money for the second consecutive quarter while the stock market soared. Valiant Capital Management, the hedge fund Hansen runs, posted an 8.7 percent net loss for the first quarter across its holdings, the finance blog Institutional Investor’s Alpha reported Monday. The setback included a 3.52 percent loss in its so-called “long” portfolio of straightforward stock investments, during a three-month period when the S&P 500 index of major U.S. stocks vaulted 10.6 percent.

Paulson Leads Hedge-Fund Lobby Push to Privatize Fannie (Bloomberg)
Hedge funds including Paulson & Co. Inc. are pushing Congress to abandon plans to liquidate Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac as investors buy up preferred stock that has long been considered worthless, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The improving finances of the two government-owned mortgage companies have kindled hopes among shareholders that they could be revived as private firms. Even as lawmakers from both parties and U.S. housing officials say that won’t happen, preferred shares of Fannie Mae have more than doubled in price since early March. They closed at $4.75 yesterday. Paulson & Co. is among funds that met with members of the Senate Banking Committee and with staff members in the House of Representatives, said two of the people briefed on the matter.

Visa Inc (V), Alliance Data Systems Corporation (ADS) & More: Navellier & Associates’ Top Portfolio Holdings (Insider Monkey)
With roughly $2.5bn in assets under management, Navellier & Associates is a team of about twelve investment professionals that use quantitative and fundamental analysis to employ its investors’ capital. Headed up by market veteran and educator Louis Navellier, the fund recently released its 13F filing for Q1 2013, outlining its latest holdings and market moves. Let’s take a look at Navellier’s top five equity holdings as indicated by its 13F. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) nears the top of Navellier’s portfolio, commanding a $77mm, 450,000 share investment from the hedge fund. The payment giant has fallen slightly out of fashion with Wall Street lately, as analysts from firms like Sterne Agee, BNP Paribas, and Argus have all rated the stock Neutral or Hold since the beginning of March. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) recently strengthened its e-commerce checkout business by adding online retail giant Overstock.com to its list of clients.

Credit: Visa Inc (NYSE:V)

Tiger Asia loses final appeal against Hong Kong regulator (Financial Times)
Hong Kong’s market regulator has won a key victory in its battle to show it can act quickly against offshore investors accused of market abuse after the city’s highest court dismissed an appeal by US-based hedge fund Tiger Asia Management. Tiger Asia, which was set up by protégés of Julian Robertson, one of the world’s best known hedge fund managers, was appealing against attempts by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong to use…