JPMorgan’s Bruner Said to Plan Departure for Tradeweb Bond Job (Bloomberg)
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is losing credit trader Chris Bruner to Tradeweb Markets LLC, where he will help run the company’s corporate-bond trading unit, according to a person familiar with the matter. Following a career at some of the biggest players in credit markets, Bruner will move to Tradeweb in the summer as a managing director in its North American credit-trading business to focus on product development, according to the person, who asked not to be named because the details are private. Bruner, previously an algorithmic credit trader at hedge fund Citadel LLC, according to his profile on LinkedIn, will report to Tradeweb President Billy Hult, the person said.
Millennium Hedge Fund, Quant Trader Plan Venture (The Wall Street Journal)
For two decades, Igor Tulchinsky and his team of quantitative traders have helped fatten the returns of New York hedge fund Millennium Management LLC. Now, the roughly $28.5 billion firm and Mr. Tulchinsky are forming a joint venture that will allow the Belarussian trader to accept outside money and use a wider range of trading strategies, said people familiar with the matter, showing the value of star traders and the lengths firms are going to in order to keep them happy. The joint venture is expected to launch by the end of 2015 and marks the first time Millennium founder Israel “Izzy” Englander is creating a business with one of his portfolio managers, one of the people said.
Solus’s Pucillo Calls Troubled Toll Roads Best Distressed Wager (Bloomberg)
Christopher Pucillo, chief investment officer of Solus Alternative Asset Management, said his hedge fund has been finding some of the best distressed investments in toll roads financed prior to the 2008 credit crisis. Pucillo called the once-bankrupt Indiana Toll Road a “great opportunity” in a Bloomberg Television interview Monday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. He said the firm, which oversees $6 billion, is also considering debt of a road in Australia and a few in the U.S.
ISS Backs Nelson Peltz’ Demand for DuPont Board Seat-WSJ (Reuters)
U.S. proxy advisory firm ISS has recommended DuPont shareholders vote in favor of activist investor Nelson Peltz and another nominee joining the chemical conglomerate’s board, the Wall Street Journal reported. Peltz’s hedge fund Trian Fund Management, DuPont’s fifth-largest shareholder with a 2.7 percent stake, has for months criticized DuPont’s underperformance. Peltz had put up himself and three other nominees for election to DuPont’s board. DuPont had refused to add Peltz, but had said it was prepared to accept another nominee, John Myers.
Merger Surge Tempts Hedge Funds to Make a Bet (The Wall Street Journal)
Hedge funds that bet on mergers have had scant success in recent years. Now some are pinning their moneymaking hopes on Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s $70 billion planned takeover of BG Group PLC. The deal was announced earlier this month and leads a surge in European deal activity that hedge funds can place bets on. Hedge funds typically trade big mergers by buying shares in the target company and shorting the shares of the acquirer, profiting if the gap between the two narrows. Shorting means borrowing stock to bet on its price falling.
