Wall St Putting Cash on These Presidential Horses (CNBC)
Wall Street’s political kingmakers are reaching for their wallets again. The presidential election campaign may be in its infancy, but prominent members of the financial community are already picking favorites. Those getting involved include hedge fund magnate Bob Mercer backing Ted Cruz, billionaire investor Marc Lasry raising funds for Hillary Clinton and private equity titan Henry Kravis supporting Jeb Bush. If trends continue, traders and financiers will give more money than ever this election.
Ben Bernanke to Advise Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Hedge Fund (Bloomberg)
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is joining Citadel LLC, the hedge fund run by Chicago billionaire Kenneth Griffin, as a senior advisor. Bernanke will consult with Citadel on developments in monetary policy, financial markets and the global economy, the firm said in a joint statement with Bernanke on Thursday. “Citadel is a dynamic firm with tremendously talented people and a rigorous approach to research and investing,” Bernanke said. “I look forward to adding my perspective on a range of issues affecting our global economy.”
Hotel That Hosted Kennedy Put Up for Sale by DuPont (Bloomberg)
In its heyday, the 102-year-old Renaissance-style Hotel DuPont in downtown Wilmington, Delaware, hosted First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and President John F. Kennedy. Out in the city’s suburbs, the DuPont Country Club offers a choice of three 18-hole golf courses. A sale of the hotel and the club would line up with changes sought by activist investor Trian Fund Management, which is seeking the election of four nominees to the company’s board next month. Trian, founded by veteran activist Nelson Peltz, says DuPont has as much as $4 billion of “excess” costs and should be broken up.
Hedge Fund Engaged Capital Seeks to Replace Three Rovi Directors (Reuters)
Engaged Capital LLC has written to Rovi Corp, which sells television guide programs to cable providers, seeking changes to the company’s board. Engaged Capital, which owns a 0.49 percent stake in Rovi, is seeking to replace three of Rovi’s long-term directors, Andrew Ludwick, James Meyer and James O’Shaughnessy. Engaged Capital nominated David Lockwood, Raghavendra Rau and Glenn Welling for election to the board at the next annual meeting, scheduled for May 13. “We believe the incumbent board displays all the hallmarks of a broken and unaccountable governance structure,” the hedge fund said.
Former Top Financial Regulator Worked at Collapsed Hedge Fund Heather Capital (The Wall Street Journal)
A former top financial regulator who wrote a book on corporate governance worked as a director of Heather Capital, the $600 million hedge fund whose collapse has sparked a police investigation. John Bourbon, a former managing director of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority and head of supervision at the Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission, was a director of Isle of Man-based Heather from 2006 onward, according to corporate filings. He also worked as a director of Aarkad, the main fund that fed money into Heather.
Small Hedge Funds Get Bigger Share of Investors’ Money (The Wall Street Journal)
Hedge-fund upstarts attracted as much money as the titans of the industry last year, a shift for investors who have long favored larger firms. Managers with assets of less than $5 billion took in roughly half of the $76.4 billion committed to hedge funds after collecting 37% of new capital invested in 2013. That reversed an imbalance of the previous four years, when investors put $93 billion into larger funds while pulling $63 billion from small and mid-size funds, according to data collected for The Wall Street Journal by HFR Inc., which first started tracking the flows in 2009.
Blackstone’s First-Quarter Earnings Soar On Asset Sales (Reuters)
Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, said on Thursday that its first-quarter profit doubled from a year ago, as strong asset sales generated by its private equity and real estate units brought in record cash. For the second quarter in a row, private equity overtook real estate as Blackstone’s biggest earnings driver, thanks to the sale of shares in companies such as Catalent Inc, Pinnacle Foods and Michaels Companies Inc.
