Editor’s Note: Related tickers: JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS), BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY)
The Baupost Group, the Boston-based investment firm headed by noted value investor Seth Klarman, will probably return some capital to investors at year-end, according to a quarterly letter to clients obtained by Institutional Investor’s Alpha. Klarman says that unless investment opportunities dramatically increase by later in the year, he anticipates returning some money “to better match our assets under management with the opportunity set we see for new investments,” according to the letter, dated April 29. Klarman says he will provide more information and specifics in the fall regarding the return of capital.
Paul Tudor Jones Gave An Impassioned Interview About Poverty On 60 Minutes (BusinessInsider)
Hedge fund legend and billionaire Paul Tudor Jones rarely gives interviews, but last night he appeared on 60 Minutes to discuss his charity, The Robin Hood Foundation. The organization funds charter schools, job training, food programs and more. It all started back in the 80s when Jones saw a 60 Minutes segment about another philanthropist and decided that he wanted to get involved with NYC school children. He threw money at one school for 5 years, but it was a flop. “I felt like I had failed a great deal of those kids, but failure, a lot of times is the fire that forges the steel for success, right? There are going to be stops, there are going to be failures, there are going to be setbacks but you grow from those and you get better and it becomes transformative.”
Dumb money still drives hedge fund merry-go-round (BelfastTelegraph)
More money than God. That’s one of the colourful descriptions of hedge fund managers and the title of a fine history of the industry by Sebastian Mallaby. Leaving aside the Almighty’s personal finances, it’s certainly true that hedge funds have more money from investors than ever before. Figures from Hedge Fund Research last month showed $15.2bn of net new capital flowed in during the first quarter of this year. Total funds under management have hit $2.375trn, up fourfold since the turn of the millennium. The enduring popularity of hedge funds is odd. The HFRX index, a rough measure of the industry’s performance, rose by 3% last year. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 share index put on 18% and the FTSE 100 returned 6% last year. A passive stock market/bond market tracker would easily have beat the aggregate of the actively managed hedge fund sector over the past decade.
Understanding the legal issues of structuring a hedge fund and Fund Management Company (HedgeWeek)
One of the discussion panels at the Bloomberg Hedge Fund Start-up Conference on 28 November 2012 in London explored some of the legal issues start-up managers need to think about when establishing both the fund, and the fund management structure. Entitled Legal: Getting it Right from the Start, the panellists included Gus Black, Dechert LLP (pictured); Richard Perry, Simmons and Simmons LLP and Chris Hilditch, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP. The first and obvious point is that no single fund structure is going to suit everybody. Ultimately, it depends on how the start-up manager envisages the fund-raising process and where his investors are likely to be based:…
Hess boss says adviser ‘biased’ (NYPost)
John Hess, the chairman and CEO of New York oil giant Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES), says influential proxy advisory firm ISS is full of hot air. Hess yesterday blasted ISS as “biased” and “flawed” after it sided with activist investor Elliott Capital Management in a proxy battle. Last week, ISS recommended that Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) shareholders vote for the hedge fund’s slate of nominees at the annual shareholder meeting on May 16. “Instead of objective analysis … recent history suggests that ISS has adopted a pervasive policy of bias in favor of the activist,” Hess wrote in a so-called white paper. Hess said ISS is so biased that it has favored activist investors in 73 percent of proxy contests this year.
Three of JPMorgan’s top investors undecided on Dimon’s role – WSJ (Reuters)
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has yet to convince three of its largest shareholders to support the company in an upcoming vote on whether Jamie Dimon should retain both his CEO and Chairman titles, the Wall Street Journal said. …The investors, BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), Vanguard Group Inc and Fidelity Investments – which together control 12 percent of the shares – are still on the fence, the Journal said quoting people close to the firms. Two of the bank’s top 10 shareholders have told Reuters that they will consider voting in favor of the proposal. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)’s $6.2 billion loss stemmed from bets by London-based Chief Investment Office trader Bruno Iksil on an index for credit default swaps. His outsized positions earned him the nickname “London Whale” from hedge fund traders taking the other sides of his positions.
