David Einhorn’s Green Mountain Short Backfires (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR) got a java jolt and surged more than 3 percent, closing on Wednesday at a new all-time high of $86.66. The stock has more than doubled this year, but not many hedge funds are celebrating. The company is a high profile short sale of David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital, and it just hasn’t caught on as a long position among hedge funds. On Among the top 25 holders of Green Mountain stock, only one hedge fund appears: Coatue Management. And Coatue’s portfolio managers pared their holdings by about 40 percent in the second quarter of this year. Jeffrey Smith’s Starboard Value hedge fund has raised its stake in chip maker Tessera Technologies to 8.6 percent, making this the activist hedge fund’s third largest holding in its concentrated portfolio…
Hedge fund group forms advisory board (StamfordAdvocate)
The Hedge Fund Association, a global booster for the exclusive corner of high finance, announced Wednesday it had launched an academic advisory board designed to drum up support for the industry across this country’s university campuses. The five-person board plans to hold symposiums at schools featuring prominent hedge fund managers and investors as guest speakers. It will host a series of online “webinars,” offering information about investing and finance in hopes of developing a new generation of successful money women and men.
Investcorp brings in hedge fund principal (PIOnline)
Elena Ranguelova joined Investcorp’s hedge fund unit as principal and head of credit and equity strategies. Ms. Ranguelova’s position is new and brings with it oversight of the firm’s investments in emerging managers’ hedge funds and in its seeding activities with individual managers, confirmed James Cheston, an Investcorp spokesman, in an e-mail. Ms. Ranguelova was global head of credit and event-driven strategy research at Pioneer Investments. Geoffrey Smith, a spokesman for Pioneer, did not respond to a request for information about Ms. Ranguelova’s replacement by press time. Investcorp’s hedge fund group managed $4.2 billion as of June 30.
Icahn Bondholders Charge Premium After Gains: Corporate Finance (BusinessWeek)
Even as bondholders of Carl Icahn’s investing company enjoy market-beating gains, they’re demanding extra yield on new notes to compensate for risk in the maverick investing style of the world’s 35th-richest person. Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP) have returned 32 percent since Aug. 26, 2010, compared with 22 percent for bonds whose ratings are split between the lowest investment and highest junk grades. The New York-based company sold $500 million of 6 percent bonds last month that yielded 399 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, compared with a spread of 274 for debt in the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Crossover Corporate index.
Jim Rogers: US War with Syria Would Be Bullish for Commodities (MoneyNews)
It’s looks likely that the United States will launch a military attack against Syrian government forces, and that would boost commodity prices, says legendary investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings. He told Reuters he owns oil and gold. “If there is going to be a war, and it sounds like America’s desperate to have a war, they’re going to go much, much higher,” Rogers said, according to the news service. “Stocks are going to go down, some of the markets are already going down. Commodities are going to go up.”
Japan Moves the Needle for Sloane Robinson (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
Sloane Robinson has suffered a setback over the past few months, interrupting a ferocious comeback that began in early 2013. Even so, the long-short equity shop, one of London’s oldest hedge fund firms, is outperforming most of its peers this year. Four of the five portfolios within the SR Global Fund are up by double-digits through July 31. The firm’s best performer has been its Japan portfolio, launched in 2003. Sloane Robinson lost 5.2 percent in its Japan strategy between May and July after jumping 29.1 percent in the first quarter and more than 27 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. Despite the recent weakness, the portfolio is up more than 41 percent this year through August 13.
