Happy Birthday To Greenwich’s Ray Dalio (DailyVoice)
Dalio, who has owned a home in Greenwich, turns 65 on Friday. The businessman was born Aug. 1, 1949, in Jackson Heights, Queens, N.Y. He began investing at age 12 when he bought shares of Northeast Airlines for $300 and tripled his investment after the airline merged with another company. …In 1975, he founded the Westport-based investment management firm of Bridgewater Associates. In 2012, it became the largest hedge fund in the world, as it is today with about $154 billion in assets under management as of February 2014.
Man Group Drops on Inflows, CEO ‘Cautious’ on Second Half (BusinessWeek)
Man Group Plc (EMG), the world’s largest publicly traded hedge-fund manager, dropped in London after inflows slowed and the company said it was guarded on performance after 7 percent growth in assets under management. The shares fell as much as 6.6 percent to 111.2 pence, the biggest decline in five weeks, after rallying 13 percent in July. They dropped 5.2 percent to 112.8 pence at 11:06 a.m., valuing the company at 1.98 billion pounds ($3.4 billion).
Tom Steyer’s NextGen PAC starts anti-Rick Scott campaign with $750K boost (SaintPetersBlog)
Billionaire liberal environmentalist Tom Steyer has his sights set on Republican Gov. Rick Scott. Steyer’s San Francisco-based NextGen Climate Action Committee is mounting an on-the-ground campaign to aid Democrats and attack Republicans in key Senate and gubernatorial races, part of a $100 million effort to put climate change in the forefront in the November midterms. Scott is on the NextGen website as one of seven targeted GOP candidates.
Oil bull Hall’s fund up 20 percent at half-year, outpacing rivals (Reuters)
Famed oil trader Andy Hall‘s more than $3 billion hedge fund was up nearly 20 percent at the half-year mark, sharply outpacing its rivals in one of the best performances of its seven-year history, data obtained by Reuters showed on Thursday. The feat came as Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY), which owns 20 percent of Hall’s Westport, Connecticut-based hedge fund Astenbeck Capital Management and trading firm Phibro, reported a strong second quarter on Thursday, citing “improved marketing and trading” activity.
Hedge fund Aurelius denies any serious proposition to buy its holdout bonds (MercoPress)
Failure to reach an agreement between the holdouts, led by Aurelius and hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, and the Argentine government to settle a dispute before the midnight Wednesday deadline put Argentina into default for the second time in 12 years on its foreign law bonds. Bonds governed by local law are unaffected. …“Aurelius has received no such proposal that we considered worthy of serious consideration. We do not undertake to comment further on this topic,” the firm said.
2014 “a watershed” for hedge funds amid rising pessimism (AsianInvestor)
Fund managers and institutional investors have turned pessimistic on the hedge fund outlook, forecasting returns for 2014 will average out at half those of 2013. The majority of respondents to a survey by alternative asset research firm Preqin believe the 2014 All Hedge Funds benchmark will fall between 4-6%, against the 11.69% return for 2013. In the first half of 2014 the industry has underperformed the previous two years. As of June 30, the All Hedge Fund benchmark has posted net returns of 3.68%, of which the majority (2.33%) was recorded in the second quarter.
Argentina not plaguing US market: Strategist (CNBC)
Apollo Global Starts New Hedge Fund to Short Junk Bonds (WSJ)
Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO) -2.27% LLC, the $159 billion private-equity giant, is starting a new hedge fund to bet against U.S. junk bonds, according to people familiar with the matter. The move comes amid rising demand this year for the riskiest corporate bonds from investors frustrated by low interest rates on historically safer investments. There have been signs lately, however, that the rally may be waning. Prices on bonds issued by lower-rated U.S. companies tumbled last week to a three-month low, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index. Bond yields rise when their prices fall.
Hedge Fund Manager Wins Appeal Over Failed Oil Co. (Law360)
A Texas appeals court on Thursday affirmed a judgment dissolving Playa Oil & Gas GP LLC and ordering its former CEO to pay damages, attorneys’ fees and costs related to a failed partnership with a hedge fund manager. A three-judge panel dismissed Gary M. Beach’s arguments that a trial court erred in deciding that he and one of the entities under his control must pay damages, attorneys’ fees and costs in a dispute between Beach and his former business partner, New York hedge fund manager Paul…
Highland Holds Onto $2.8M Atty Fees In Fight With Ex-Exec (Law360)
A Texas state judge upheld a jury’s $2.8 million award of attorneys’ fees to Highland Capital Management LP against its former private equity head, who himself recovered $2.6 million from a Highland affiliate that had been set up for employee bonuses, bringing the long-running court fight to a close. Highland, a Dallas-based hedge fund and investment firm, had locked horns with the former head of its private equity division Patrick Daugherty since early 2012 over compensation terms and Daugherty’s alleged use of confidential Highland information to…
Jana Partners, Greenlight Capital report losses for July (Reuters)
Hedge fund managers Barry Rosenstein and David Einhorn, like many other investors, were hurt by last month’s late but sharp stock market selloff and are reporting losses for July, investors who saw their performance numbers said. Rosenstein’s Jana Partners funds lost 1.3 percent in July while his Jana Nirvana fund lost 1.7 percent. Meanwhile, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital fell 2.9 percent last month. For the year, however, all those funds are still in the black…
San Francisco hedge fund buys 16.8% stake in Armstrong for $336M (LancasterOnline)
A fast-growing San Francisco hedge fund has become a major investor in Armstrong World Industries, Inc. (NYSE:AWI). ValueAct Capital has acquired 16.8 percent of Armstrong’s outstanding stock for $335.6 million, it was disclosed Friday. The fund said it bought the 9.2 million common shares “for investment purposes… in (its) ordinary course of business.” According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, ValueAct acquired its stake in nine transactions between July 21 and July 31.
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