Hedge Fund Manager Buys Astor Estate (FINalternatives)
Elm Ridge Capital’s Ronald Gutfleish and his wife, Stacey Sorrow, bought Brooke Astor’s 65-acre Westchester County estate in December. Astor, who died in the 85-year-old mansion in 2007 at the age of 105, had owned the Briarcliff Manor home for 47 years. Gutfleish and Sorrow paid just $6.45 million for the 10-bedroom, 11-bathroom home, just half its initial listing price of $12.9 million.
Hedge-Fund Millionaire Diggle Targets $150 Million for Farm Fund (Bloomberg)
Vulpes Investment Management, the Singapore company set up by hedge-fund manager Stephen Diggle, plans to raise as much as $150 million over the next few months for a fund that invests in farms around the world. The $35 million Vulpes Agricultural Land Investment Company, which has a cattle and sheep farm in Uruguay, two corn farms in Illinois, and a New Zealand kiwi-and-avocado orchard, is seeking to raise at least $50 million in the next couple of months to expand investments into Africa and Eastern Europe, Diggle said.
Hedge Funds Fell 1% in April as Global Markets Decline (Bloomberg)
Hedge funds fell 1 percent in April, tracking stocks worldwide, as renewed concern that the European sovereign-debt crisis would worsen and global economic growth would stall halted an equity-market rally earlier in the year. Hedge funds are trailing global stocks this year, gaining 3.4 percent in the first four months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, compared with the 11 percent advance for equities worldwide, including reinvested dividends. The Bloomberg aggregate hedge fund index decreased to 117.45 from 118.60 last month as long-short equity, multistrategy (BBHFMLTI) and global macro funds fell. “Hedge fund managers have been somewhat cautious,” according to Jay Krieger, principal at Fundamental Capital Management LLC, the $70 million Pasadena, California-based fund of funds.
Paulson Hedge Fund Said to Extend Slump With April Loss (Businessweek)
John Paulson, the billionaire hedge- fund manager seeking to reverse record losses in 2011, lost 6.7 percent last month in one of his largest funds as gold-mining stocks dropped, said two people briefed on the returns. The decline leaves Advantage Plus, which seeks to profit from corporate events such as takeovers and bankruptcies and uses leverage to amplify returns, down 8.8 percent this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Since inception in 2005, it has gained 15 percent annually on average.
Yahoo’s ‘inadvertent error’: Investor wants CEO fired (CBS News)
Scott Thompson’s reign as CEO of Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) is in jeopardy after just four months on the job because he allowed an inaccuracy about his academic credentials to recur for years. A major Yahoo shareholder who exposed the fabrication is now leading the charge to oust Thompson for unethical conduct. In a letter Friday, activist hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb demanded that the board of the struggling Internet company fire Thompson by noon EDT Monday or face possible legal action.
