Each business day HedgeCo.Net keeps you informed with the top hedge fund industry news, opinion and insight from around the globe. From the latest hedge fund launches, to the impact of regulation, competition, and investor activism - we track the topics and people that make a difference to you.
Bloomberg – The office of Kenneth Moelis in Los Angeles is a shrine to an investment banking career spent catering to the rich. Shelves and a table groan under the weight of dozens of Lucite deal tombstones featuring companies controlled by Carl Icahn, John Kluge, Donald Trump, Steve Wynn, Sam Zell and other business-section boldface names.
“My job is to be ready when the bat phone rings,” says Moelis, 51, perched on the edge of a leather chair. He’s referring to the hot line used in the 1960s-era Batman television series. Reinforcing the point, a framed architectural drawing of the fictional Wayne Manor that housed Batman’s wealthy alter ego, Bruce Wayne, leans against a table.
Reuters – Carl Icahn and other investors who failed to block Steel Partners’ plan to convert a hedge fund into a listed partnership in Delaware court, continue to fight the plan in the Cayman Islands, Steel Partners said on Thursday.
The New York-based fund manager announced it completed the controversial merger of Steel Partners II into a pink sheets portfolio company, WebFinancial. Yet a spokesman acknowledged that the deal, which will create an exchange-listed investment partnership later this year, is only partially consummated.
msnbc.com – He is hardly your average movie investor. He cultivates his privacy, and he heads a $13 billion hedge fund that, unlike those run by Carl Icahn and others, rarely mounts a proxy fight. But while most Hollywood bankers have turned off the money spigot, billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Associates appears to be stepping up its investments.
Last year the firm lent money to film investor Ryan Kavanaugh, who is providing financing for as much as 75% of Universal Studio’s films through 2011. In recent days movie moguls have been buzzing that the hedge fund could be eyeing a play for the debt-hobbled MGM studio by buying up a small piece of the iconic film company’s nearly $4 billion in debt.
CNNMoney.com – A major shareholder of Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. ( AMLN) is backing a slate of dissident directors nominated by Carl Icahn and another hedge-fund manager, Eastbourne Capital Management.
P. Schoenfeld and Associates, which owned 2.1 million Amylin shares as of the end of the first quarter, told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday it supports all five of Icahn’s and Eastbourne’s nominees because it sees that as the only opportunity for the company to make significant strides.
"We would like to see the largest minority possible elected to the Amylin board," said P. Schoenfeld founder Peter Schoenfeld.
FINalternatives – The richest hedge fund manager in the world, clocking in as the 29th richest person in the world, is George Soros, whose $11 billion fortune actually increased during the difficult 2008. Joining him among the top 100 are fellow hedge fund managers Carl Icahn (43rd place with $9 billion), James Simons of Renaissance Technologies (55th place with $8 billion), John Paulson (76th place with $6 billion) and Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors (87th place with $5.5 billion).
Bloomberg – Hedge fund Eastbourne Capital Management LLC nominated five directors to the board of Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and is supporting a slate put forward by investor Carl Icahn, after it “lost confidence” in leadership of the maker of the Byetta diabetes drug.
Eastbourne, which owns 12.5 percent of San Diego-based Amylin, said in a letter to management yesterday that the company’s board needs to be “significantly strengthened” after the stock fell almost 80 percent since Oct. 5, 2007. In November, Eastbourne said it was talking with Amylin about options including “a possible acquisition by a third party.”
Reuters – Steel Partners this week asked a Delaware court to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the hedge fund firm by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, saying he is "looking for a scapegoat" for investment losses that happened as the financial crisis deepened.
Steel Partners said the suit, which claims it committed fraud, has no merit.
The court papers were made public on Tuesday.
Two weeks ago ACF Industries, a railcar component maker closely associated with Icahn, sued Steel Partners in Delaware Chancery Court, saying the fund firm failed to properly inform investors about plans to turn one of its funds into a public company.
CNNMoney.com – ACF Industries and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) are suing hedge fund Steel Partners, accusing the fund of fraud by failing to tell investors of plans to go public, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Reuters says ACF, which court documents say is affiliated with Carl Icahn, invested $15 million with Steel Partners Offshore Fund Ltd, which became Steel Partners II (Offshore) Ltd. In the suit, Bank of America, acting as trustee for ACF’s employee pension fund, accuses Steel Partners of failing to give proper notice of plans to become a publicly traded partnership.
Wall Street Journal – Down in the morning, up in the afternoon. Or is it the other way around? The topsy-turvy stock market is tough to read.
In the last year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has briefly been over 13,000 and below 8,000. The past month has felt like the Cyclone roller coaster on Brooklyn’s Coney Island — lots of ups and downs, the whole rickety thing feeling like it’s going to crash at any minute.
