Retired Hedge Fund Manager Tom Steyer Donates $71 Million For Green Focus At Midterms (HedgeCo)
Just in time for the mid-term elections, billionaire philanthropist and retired hedge fund founder Tom Steyer has donated an extra $15 million of his own money in to his super-pac, NextGen Climate Action Fund. Steyer, an activist and former hedge fund manager has already given nearly $56 million to make climate change a top-tier issue in the midterm elections, the Guardian reports.
Bill Ackman and His Hedge Fund, Betting Big (NYTimes)
William A. Ackman, the silver-haired, silver-tongued hedge fund mogul, gestured out the window of a 42nd-floor conference room at Pershing Square Capital Management in Midtown Manhattan. The view was spectacular, but Mr. Ackman’s arm extended not downward, toward the vibrant fall foliage of Central Park, but skyward toward the top of a glittering glass building just around the corner on 57th Street. He was pointing toward One57, a new 90-story, lavish hotel and condominium building described by one critic as “a luxury object for people who see the city as their private snow globe.”
US gains from good deflation as Europe faces the bad and ugly (LiveMint)
When it comes to deflation there’s the good—and there’s the bad and ugly. That’s welcome news for US investors. Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, one of the most successful hedge-fund managers, said on 20 October that US stocks will outperform other equity markets for the rest of the year, according to two people who heard him speak at the closed-door Robin Hood Investors conference in New York. Hedge fund manager David Tepper, who runs the $20 billion Appaloosa Management LP, told the same conference the following day that investors should bet against the euro, two people familiar with his remarks said.
Black River Vet Readies Oil-Heavy Hedge Fund (Finalternatives)
A former Black River Asset Management trader is set to launch his own commodities hedge fund. Stephen Smethurst’s Zafiro Capital Commodities Trading Fund will debut at the beginning of next month, Reuters reports. The new fund will focus on oil, but will have the ability to invest in other commodity derivatives, as well, giving it plenty of opportunities to make money in spite of a months-long oil rout. …Zafiro said that about 70% of the new fund’s risk would be in energy investments, with the balance going to metals and agricultural commodities.
How Founders Of New Hedge Funds Can Avoid Most Taxes (Forbes)
Many hedge fund general partners have become exceptionally wealthy because of their investment capabilities coupled with the way hedge funds are typically compensated for success. However, by using various advanced planning strategies, it’s very possible for the hedge fund general partners to become considerably wealthier because they’ve legally avoided certain taxes. Somewhat simplified: most hedge funds are set up where the founders are the general partners of the fund and own the management company. The management fee goes from the fund to the management company. Meanwhile, the carried interest goes from the fund to the general partners…
Slower growth ahead: Pro (CNBC)
Woman Who Helped Bring Down SAC Avoids Jail (Finalternatives)
A former hedge fund manager has been spared prison for assisting in the government’s insider-trading investigation against SAC Capital Advisors. Reema Shah pleaded guilty two-and-a-half years ago to swapping tips and illegally trading on them with former Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) executive Robert Kwok. She had faced up to 25 years in prison, but was hit with only two years’ probation and a $500,000 fine. She must also pay $11,750 in forfeitures and $377,000 to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prosecutors cited her “remarkable cooperation” for the leniency, noting that her assistance helped win the convictions of several people, as well as that of SAC, which last year pleaded guilty to insider-trading charges.
US billionaire’s hedge fund dumps Sony stake (Brecorder)
US billionaire Daniel Loeb who last year tried to push Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) to spin off a key part of its business, has sold his shares in the struggling firm saying “more urgency will be necessary” to get it back on track. Loeb’s Third Point hedge fund failed to persuade Sony to hive off up to 20 percent of its successful US-based entertainment division, which includes a Hollywood studio and music label, to make it more profitable. However, Sony rejected the proposal, which grabbed international headlines and was widely portrayed as a clash of corporate cultures, pitting a hard-charging foreign billionaire against one of the bedrocks of Japan’s staid corporate sector.
Strauss-Kahn’s Hedge Fund Partner Dies In Apparent Suicide (Finalternatives)
Thierry Leyne, former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s partner in a planned hedge-fund venture, has died. The 49-year-old Franco-Israeli CEO of Leyne Strauss-Kahn & Partners killed himself on Thursday at the firm’s Tel Aviv office. It is unclear whether he left a suicide note. Leyne Strauss-Kahn earlier this year announced plans to launch a global macro hedge fund with US$2 billion. The fund would rely on Strauss-Kahn’s “comprehensive economic predictions.”
Managers more serious about compliance (PionLine)
Private equity and hedge fund managers, prodded by their institutional clients, are taking compliance more seriously as federal examiners and enforcers up their game targeting practices they say put investors at a disadvantage. “This is a new environment because the SEC, especially in the private equity context, is focusing less on complying with a set of rules and more on whether a manager, without adequate explanation to its clients, is taking actions primarily for its own benefit,” said Deborah Prutzman, founder and CEO of New York-based Regulatory Fundamentals Group, a compliance consultant to institutional investors. “Managers may find that practices they considered well-settled are less accepted than they thought.”
The Best-Performing Hedge Fund Manager Of 2013 Is Making A Big Bet On Millennials With These 3 Stocks (BusinessInsider)
Larry Robbins, the best-performing hedge fund manager of 2013, is making a bullish bet on Millennials. He thinks they’re ready to take on some of the life experiences they had to defer because of the financial crisis – like buying a house and getting a dog. To play this trade, Robbins, the founder of Glenview Capital Management, is betting on the hospital operator Community Health Systems (CYH), the animal hospital operator VCA Inc (NASDAQ:WOOF), and the real estate brokerage RLGYRealogy Holdings Corp (NYSE:).
Recommended Reading:
Resolute Forest Products Inc (RFP): Michael Johnston’s Steelhead Partners Keeps Selling Shares
Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. (EGLE): Oaktree Discloses New Stake Amid Financial Restructuring
