As major funds continue to disclose their long equity positions for the third quarter of 2014, I came across Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management LLC 13F filing. In this document, the firm acknowledged having started 10 new stock positions, added to 11 of its preexisting ones, and sold out of 20, over the third quarter. Following these transactions, its equity portfolio is worth more than $7.5 billion. In this article we will take a closer look at its three most important positions that saw an increase in its stake: Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA), Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA) and FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT).
Chase Coleman founded Tiger Global in 2001 with $25 million seed money from legendary investor Julian Robertson. He is one of the more successful tiger cubs. Its flagship hedge fund, Tiger Global, is managed by Feroz Dewan; the firm as a whole, by Mr. Coleman. The firm has about $8 billion in assets under management.
For the third quarter of 2013, the firm’s largest bet was placed on Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA). However, the stake was trimmed by 9% over the period. Opposite is the case of Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA), the $97.28 billion market cap global payments company, which saw Tiger Global more than double its exposure to 7.58 million shares, worth more than half a billion dollars, even in spite of a recent downgrade by Investment banking firm, Sandler O’Neill.
Although macroeconomic headwinds could hurt the company’s profits, other major institutional investors are also quite bullish on Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA). For instance, Harris Associates disclosed, by the end of the third quarter, a 9% increase in its wage on the company, to 24.58 million shares, worth about $1.8 billion.
Another company that felt Tiger Global’s confidence is Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA), a $3.61 billion market cap provider of Internet content and marketing services the automobile industry, including advertising services, subscription services, listing services and one-stop digital marketing services in the PRC. The firm started a position, with 6.56 million shares, worth about $512 million, over the third quarter, and now stands as the largest institutional investor, amongst those we track, with 14.9% of the company’s outstanding stock.
William Von Mueffling’s Cantillon Capital Management also started a new position in Bitauto Hldg Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:BITA) over the third quarter, with 924,169 shares.
Finally there’s FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT), a $12.35 billion market cap independent global provider of fuel cards and workforce payment products and services to businesses, commercial fleets, major oil companies, petroleum marketers and government entities in countries throughout North America, Latin America and Europe. Following an 11% raise in its exposure to the company, Tiger Global owns 2.91 million shares, worth approximately $414 million. FleetCor Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT) was responsible for plenty of Tiger Global’s high returns this year.
Another institutional investor riding this wave is Robert Pitts’ Steadfast Capital Management, which also upped its wage on the company over the quarter, and now owns 1.33 million shares.
Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any stocks or funds mentioned
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