Rishi Bajaj’s Altai Capital Management Trims Stake In This Tech Stock

Altai Capital Management, the hedge fund managed by Rishi Bajaj, Toby Symonds and Steve Tesoriere, recently disclosed a reduction of more than 16% in its wage on RealD (NYSE:RLD). The stake currently comprises 4.7% of the company’s shares outstanding, or 2.36 million shares of Common Stock, down from 2.83 million shares declared by the end of the third quarter of the year.

Rishi Bajaj, Toby Symonds, and Steve Tesoriere’s Altai Capital is a New York City-based mid-sized hedge fund with a focus on the technology sector, founded in 2009. Though it may file a 13D every once and a while (like it did for RealD), Altai Capital is not an activist fund per se, and should not be conceived of as one. Its equity portfolio has only 6 stocks, with a combined market value of approximately $326 million.

RealD (NYSE:RLD) is a $570.11 million market cap licensor of 3D and other visual technologies. The company’s property portfolio is used in applications that enable a 3D viewing experience in the theater, the home and elsewhere. The stock price was quite low during the third quarter; however, it jumped considerably right after it ended. The reason behind the rally was Jeffrey Smith’s intention to take the company private. Starboard Value, the fund led by Mr. Smith, offered to acquire the company for $12.00 per share; it already held 4.95 million shares (or roughly 10%) of the company at the time.

Immediately after the offer was made, and the stock price climbed to more than $11.50 per share, Altai Capital Management decided to sell 14,200 shares of RealD (NYSE:RLD) for $11.68 per share. A month later, the company ended up rejecting Starboard’s takeover bid, but the stock maintained its price. Over the following three weeks, Altai disposed of more than 450,000 more shares of Common Stock, for prices ranging from $10.95 per share to $11.74 per share. The fund got more than $5.3 from these sales.

Also betting on RealD (NYSE:RLD) are Brian Bares’ Bares Capital Management, which held more than 7.96 million shares by the end of the third quarter of 2014, and Brett Hendrickson’s Nokomis Capital, which boosted its exposure by 62% between July 1 and September 30, and now owns about 1.24 million shares.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any stocks or funds mentioned