Hedge Fund News: Paul Singer, Jim Chanos, D.E. Shaw

Activist Paul Singer Expects Positive Change at Samsung (The Wall Street Journal)
Activist investor Paul Singer doesn’t think conflict is brewing with Samsung Electronics Co., one of the latest targets in his quest to push for changes that benefit shareholders. He said he is encouraged by Samsung’s public comments that leaders of the South Korean company are receptive to the ideas recently put forward by his firm, Elliott Management Corp. “We are optimistic about that one—we think it’s a tremendous platform and a tremendous value,” Mr. Singer said Tuesday during an appearance at The Wall Street Journal’s WSJDLive 2016 global technology conference.

Short-Seller Chanos Lays Out His Bear Case For Alibaba (CNBC)
Short-seller Jim Chanos laid out his bearish case for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, saying Tuesday that “this is an accounting story.” Chanos, who is famous for his previous bets against once high-flying companies like Enron, explained that his fundamental problem with the company is that “you don’t see the entire operation of Alibaba.” The founder of Kynikos Associates said there’s not enough detail about the individual delivery and warehouse companies that distribute items purchased through Alibaba.

D.E. Shaw Bids for SunEdison’s TerraForm Power Yieldco (Bloomberg)
D.E. Shaw & Co., a New York hedge fund that manages about $38 billion, bid to become the operating sponsor of TerraForm Power Inc., a yieldco founded and controlled by bankrupt clean-energy giant SunEdison Inc. D.E. Shaw’s clean-energy unit D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, or DESRI, made the bid on Oct. 21, according to a filing Tuesday. DESRI’s offer is preliminary and non-binding and didn’t include a price. D.E. Shaw proposes to oversee TerraForm Power’s wind and solar farms and reorganize the yieldco’s project portfolio “to re-establish a growth objective, including by overseeing and executing acquisitions and divestitures of projects,” according to Managing Director Bryan Martin. In a letter dated Oct. 21, Martin said his company is prepared to give TerraForm a right of first offer on a portion of existing and future DESRI projects.