KYLE BASS: My Worst Trade Was One Of The Best Things To Ever Happen To Me (BusinessInsider)
Hedge fund advisor Steven Drobny, the author of global macro books “Inside The House of Money” and “The Invisible Hands”, is coming out with another book called “The New House of Money.” Drobny has just released the first chapter available for free on his website. It’s a Q&A with Texan hedge fund manager Kyle Bass. Bass, who runs Dallas-based Hayman Capital, crushed it by shorting subprime. In his interview with Drobny, Bass discussed a gamut of topics, including how he got into the hedge fund business and how he stays grounded by spear fishing in the Bahamas.
Lampert Cuts Sears Stake Below 50% as Hedge-Fund Clients Redeem (BusinessWeek)
Edward Lampert, the hedge-fund manager who for the past eight years tried to turn around Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD), cut his stake in the retailer below 50 percent. Lampert’s ESL Investments Inc. owns 48 percent of the Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based department store chain (SHLD:US), down from 55 percent reported as recently as October, according to a filing yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Sears has been struggling since Lampert, 51, engineered the merger of Kmart Holding Corp. and Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 2005.
Class-action suit seeks $50M from hedge fund’s money manager (Cincinnati)
A longtime Cincinnati money manager already targeted in several civil suits is also being sued in federal court on allegations he bilked about 200 investors out of more than $50 million. The class-action suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in downtown Cincinnati, likely will slow the progress of the already-complex civil suits that began this summer. Like the earlier suits, the latest filing targets not only Glen Galemmo, but his wife, Kristine Galemmo; alleged business partners Edward C. Blackledge and Wiley B. Kyles; and a slew of limited liability corporations that Galemmo formed.
Why this hedge fund became the first to advertise (Fortune)
Topturn Capital has become the first hedge fund manager to create and publish a public advertisement for its services, more than two months after the SEC lifted its decades-old ban on general solicitation. The ad, first noticed by Buzzfeed, focuses on the similarities between a “top turn” surfing maneuver and the Monterey, Calif.-based firm’s proprietary investment strategy, which includes equities, commodities, fixed income and currency. To drive home the point, Topturn hired pro surfer Joe Corren to appear in a speaking role.
Hedge fund Taconic Capital co-founder Brody to retire (Reuters)
Kenneth Brody, who co-founded Taconic Capital Advisors LP after spending decades at Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), told clients on Tuesday that he plans to retire from day-to-day management at the $8.2 billion hedge fund at the end of the year. Brody, 70, co-founded the multi-strategy hedge fund in 1999 with Frank Brosens, 56, and said that he will stay on as an advisor and investor, he wrote in a letter sent to clients and seen by Reuters. Brody’s decision comes at a time a number of hedge fund founders have stepped away from their firms, raising questions among investors about the durability of the businesses and whether they can survive beyond a founder’s departure.
Activist Fund Seeks Change at the Top of Abercrombie (NYTimes)
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) may have lost its crown as the king of teen fashion, but a hedge fund is hoping that a change in leadership could revive the retailer’s fortunes. Engaged Capital publicly urged Abercrombie on Tuesday to replace the company’s 69-year-old chief executive, Michael S. Jeffries, after his contract expires in February. Failing that, the activist hedge fund called on the company to put itself for sale. “We are confident that an independent and objective evaluation of management’s performance would result in the conclusion that an immediate leadership change is necessary,” Glenn W. Welling, the managing member of Engaged, wrote in the letter to the company’s board.
