Why Is This $150 Billion Hedge Fund Buying Gold Stocks? (Fool)
Bridgewater Associates — founded by Ray Dalio, who famously predicted the global financial crisis in 2007 — is a $150 billion hedge fund with a wide spectrum of institutional clients, including central banks, pension funds, foreign governments, foundations, and endowments. In 2012 and 2013 Bridgewater, earned clients more than any other hedge fund in history. In 2011, while most hedge funds lost money, Bridgewater returned 23%. …In fact, Bridgewater increased its holdings in Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) by 80%, as reported in Bridgewater’s 13F filing for the last quarter of 2013.
‘Black Swan’ Firm Readies Australia-Focused Hedge Fund (Finalternatives)
Tail-risk specialist 36 South Capital Advisors is returning to its roots—or near them, at least—with a new “black swan” hedge fund for Australian investors. The London-based firm, which got its start in New Zealand before moving to the British capital in 2009, plans to launch its Kohinoor Pacific Fund on April 1. The new vehicle has been seeded by an Australian institutional investor. 36 South said the time was right to launch such a fund, with volatility protection currently cheap. The vehicle will buy long-based options across asset classes, with up to 30% of assets dedicated to strategies designed specifically to protect against volatility in Australian markets.
Morgan Stanley, Commodities Hedge Fund Settle (Finalternatives)
The dispute between Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Peak Ridge Capital Group has come to a negotiated conclusion. Morgan Stanley said it has settled the litigation between it and the commodities hedge fund, which it had sued in 2010, accusing Peak Ridge of saddling it with more than $40.6 million in losses on bad natural-gas bets after the hedge fund missed a margin call. Peak Ridge shot back with a countersuit, accusing Morgan Stanley of mishandling its trades and wrongfully seizing them after “arbitrarily and capriciously” imposing new margin requirements.
Hedge-funder Scott Bommer to pay $94M for Hamptons site (TheRealDeal)
Scott Bommer, founder of hedge fund SAB Capital, is in contract to acquire three East Hampton parcels for $93.9 million. If the purchase goes through, it would be one of the all-time priciest deals in the Hamptons market. The prospective deal arrives on the heels of Bommer’s $75 million purchase of the 14.5-acre Wooldon Manor last year from fashion mogul Vince Camuto. That acquisition was officially the priciest one in the Hamptons for the year. Bommer has already listed Wooldon Manor for $98 million, with Tim Davis of the Corcoran Group and Sothebys (NYSE:BID) International Realty brokers Harald Grant and Ed Petrie, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Blue Sky to acquire $70m hedge fund (TheAustralian)
Brisbane-based Blue Sky, which has about $400m in funds under management, said it would acquire all of Adelaide-based Investment Science’s shares and retain the hedge fund’s “key personnel”. The transaction will have to be approved at a meeting of Blue Sky shareholders next month. “There are pockets of talent everywhere,” Blue Sky managing director Mark Sowerby told Data Room. “We’ve known these guys for a while.” Investment Science was co-founded in 2007 by former Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB) analyst Simon Kitson and David Toohey, who worked at Funds SA…
Canada Pension Plan to Acquire Wilton Re for $1.8 Billion (BusinessWeek)
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the nation’s largest pension fund manager, agreed to buy Wilton Re Holdings Ltd. for $1.8 billion to expand into the life insurance business. The reinsurer is being acquired from investors including Stone Point Capital, Kelso & Co. and Vestar Capital Partners Inc., the Toronto-based fund manager said today in a statement. The purchase is Canada Pension’s first direct investment in the insurance sector.
Cramer calls out private equity (CNBC)
Herbalife’s Shorts — Hey Bill Ackman! — May Be Twisting in the Wind Soon (TheStreet)
Argus’s downgrade of Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)‘s is not as bad as you’d think. Argus, an independent analyst, lowered Herbalife’s rating to a hold from a buy following the recently announced Federal Trade Commission investigation into the health supplement, multi-level marketing company. Argus’s retreat from its bull thesis on Herbalife is based, in part, on a negative shift in market sentiment. Argus has a point: The company’s headline peril is far from imaginary, but maybe Argus’ timing is more “a dollar short and a day late” than clairvoyance. Even Argus states its expected earnings multiple is in single digits.
CB Fonder closes CB Hedge (InvestmentEurope)
Stockholm based CB Fonder has announced the closure of its CB Hedge fund, citing returns that have not met expectations, as well as increasing regulatory costs. CB Hedge is a long-short hedge fund that launched in mid-2007, intended to offer clients access to a market neutral exposure to the existing long only European fund CB European Quality. The closure of the fund means the manager will focus on its long only funds including the European Quality product and the CB Save Earth Fund.
A Pension Fund Invests Against the Rules, and Wins (NYTimes)
Are the trustees of the Tampa firefighters and police officers pension fund out of their minds? “Quite a few people tell me we’re crazy,” Richard Griner, a 41-year-old Tampa police detective and member of the pension fund’s board, told me this week. “I go to quite a few investment conferences. They just can’t believe that we do this the way we do. But then I tell them the numbers, and they tend to shut up.” The Tampa, Fla., pension fund may be unique in its approach to managing its assets, which totaled $1.76 billion as of last September. Unlike the so-called Yale model, which has been widely copied and stresses alternative investments, the Tampa fund has no hedge fund or private equity investments.
Can George Soros Get a Fair Deal for Penn Virginia Corp.? (Fool)
After George Soros increased his ownership stake in Penn Virginia Corporation (NYSE:PVA) to 9.2%, in addition to taking an active role in the oil and natural gas producer, shares soared higher. Soros expressed interested in exploring strategic alternatives for Penn Virginia, one of which would be selling the company and its valuable Eagle Ford assets in Texas. How well could this strategy pan out for Soros? If Halcon Resources Corp (NYSE:HK) teaches us anything, unloading shale assets is difficult when Big Oil is sitting on the sidelines.
How Carl Icahn Wins at Losing (InstitutionalInvestorsAlpha)
News that eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) is planning to sell 20 percent of PayPal rather than extricate the online payment company from the parent altogether is yet another example of a technology company essentially blowing off Carl Icahn. EBay is the fourth tech or media giant in roughly 18 months to refuse to capitulate to the septuagenarian investor and onetime corporate raider. The other three are Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), which refused to execute a gargantuan stock buyback; Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), which ignored Icahn and completed its management buyout; and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), which refused to put itself up for sale. Now EBay has rejected Icahn’s urging to spin off or break off PayPal after earlier rejecting the two individuals Icahn nominated to its board of directors.
Why Africa is the next frontier for fund investors (Reuters)
It only took a look at the financial statements of the world’s largest maker of spirits to convince Larry Seruma that Africa was the place to go. Seruma was then running a long-short hedge fund and had a position in Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO), the company behind the Johnnie Walker, Guinness and Captain Morgan brands. While African alcohol consumption lagged Europe or the Americas, Diageo’s rapid expansion on the continent was such that, by 2013, the region accounted for 13 percent of global revenue. “Africa accounted for its most profitable business lines and a high-growth, high-return opportunity,” Seruma said.
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