Times Online – Hedge funds were accused by MPs yesterday of gambling against the taxpayer when they bet that the share prices of British banks would fall.

Appearing before the Treasury Select Committee, four leading hedge fund managers were told by John McFall, the committee’s chairman: “You’re snubbing the public; not only that, but you’re making shedloads of money.”

The hedge fund heavyweights — Paul Marshall, of Marshall Wace, Douglas Shaw, of BlackRock, Chris Hohn, of TCI, and Stephen Zimmerman, of NewSmith Capital Partners — came under particular attack over the practice of short-selling, only a day after it emerged that Paulson & Co, a renowned American hedge fund, had made an estimated £270 million in profits from betting against Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) , which is majority-owned by the State.

Read Complete Article

Tags: blackrock, british-banks, chris-hohn, douglas shaw, heavyweights, hedge-fund-managers, john mcfall, marshall wace, mdash, newsmith capital partners, paul marshall, rbs, royal-bank-of-scotland, share prices, stephen zimmerman, tci, treasury select committee

Houston Business Journal – A noisy, contentious proxy battle ended quietly Wednesday when shareholders of Vaalco Energy Inc. voted in the company’s chosen slate of board directors.

Houston-based Vaalco (NYSE:EGY) had spent the past three months fending off an attack from a New York hedge fund that was formed in January and built up a substantial position of shares — 4.7 million — on the open market before disclosing its position in March.

Nanes Delorme Partners I LP had proposed its own slate of three directors for election at the meeting and demanded big changes at the exporation and production company, which has most of its holdings in West Africa.

Vaalco had filed a lawsuit against the hedge fund as part of its response to the coup attempt but has dropped the proceedings as part of an agreement cobbled together late in the evening of May 23 to end the dispute. Nanes Delormes in turn agreed to vote in favor of Vaalco’s director nominees.

Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis & Co. weighed in a day earlier, recommending that shareholders withhold support for Vaalco board nominees W. Russell Scheirman, president and chief financial officer, and Arne Nielsen. The proxy firm said it agreed with many of the corporate governance and stock performance issues raised by Nanes Delormes.

Read Complete Article 

Tags: billionaire, blackrock, clothing-retailer, dan-hesse, edhec, financial-professional, stockholders