Druckenmiller Bets on Unexpected With China Boom, Oil Rise (Bloomberg)
Stan Druckenmiller is betting on the unexpected. The billionaire investor, who has one of the best long-term track records in money management, is anticipating three market surprises: an improving economy in China and rising oil prices. He also doesn’t expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in 2015, a move most investors are forecasting will happen in September after six years of keeping them near zero. “My fear is that we won’t see anything for a year and a half,” Druckenmiller, speaking of an interest rate increase, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “I have no confidence whatsoever that we’ll see a rate hike in September or December.”
This Chipmaker Looks Like A ‘Buy’: Analyst (CNBC)
“We think there is more chip growth to be had even with recent market share losses and concerns,” Morningstar Senior Analyst Brian Colello told CNBC on Wednesday. With Qualcomm share prices down 6 percent this year, Jana Partners‘ founder told CNBC on Monday that the tech company needs to review the units to decide whether they should be spun off. “What we think they ought to do is just a transparent review of the client businesses, and determine whether or not it makes sense to do either a partial or full split. So we are not definitely saying that they should split it up,” hedge fund Barry Rosenstein said.
Elliott Raises DMG Mori Seiki Stake Above 10 pct (Reuters)
U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management has raised its stake in DMG Mori Seiki to 10.1 percent, the German machine-tool maker said in a statement on Wednesday. DMG Mori Seiki’s smaller, Japanese partner, DMG Mori Seiki Co. Ltd, owns 50.8 percent of the German company following a tender offer that ended last month. Elliott’s share was previously just over 5 percent. It began building up its stake after Japan’s DMG launched the offer. Elliott declined to comment. The German and the Japanese companies have said they hope the merger will cement the German company’s position as global market leader in machine-tool manufacturing.
BlueMountain Hires Goldman Sachs’s Nick Pappas as CEO in Europe (Bloomberg)
BlueMountain Capital Management, which manages more than $20 billion, named Nicholas Pappas chief executive officer of its European operations. Pappas joins from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where he headed leveraged-finance trading and research in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to a statement distributed on PR Newswire. Pappas will take over the role from David Rubenstein, who will return to the firm’s New York office as a managing partner and general counsel, the statement said.
Clinton: Unfair That Fund Managers Pay Lower Tax Rate Than Truckers (CNBC)
Democrat Hillary Clinton blasted executive pay and tax rates for hedge-fund managers on Tuesday, using the first stop of her low-key campaign rollout in Iowa to highlight her promise to help Americans struggling toward economic recovery. “There is something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here over the last two days,” Clinton said, perched on a stiff metal chair in the automotive shop of a community college.
Indonesian Group Takes on Nat Rothschild With Proposed Bid For ARMS (CNBC)
A potential bid by Indonesia’s Sinarmas Group and hedge fund Argyle Street Management for London-listed Asia Resource Minerals Plc (ARMS) risks scuppering a long-awaited restructuring backed by ARMS co-founder Nathaniel Rothschild. Shares in coal miner ARMS, formerly known as Bumi, jumped more than 90 percent to as high as 29 pence on Wednesday after Asia Coal Ventures, a vehicle controlled by Argyle and funded by tycoon Era Tjipta Widjaja’s Sinarmas Group, said on Tuesday it was considering a 210 million pound ($310 million) cash offer.
Activist Shareholder Assails UBS Over Investment Bank (Bloomberg)
UBS Group AG is again under fire from Knight Vinke Asset Management LLC, a shareholder who asserts the bank would be better off without its trading operations. Eric Knight, the founder and chief executive officer of the activist fund manager, wrote to Swiss bank in March, questioning whether it is leveling with shareholders about the profitability of its investment bank.
