The Herald – Toscafund, the hedge fund that was a catalyst for the sale of ABN Amro, made £158m profit in 2007 when Royal Bank of Scotland led the disastrous £49bn acquisition of the Dutch bank.

The investment firm, whose holding company is chaired by former Royal Bank chief Sir George Mathewson, enjoyed a spectacular increase in earnings which appears to have been helped by a surge in the value of ABN Amro.

The revelation of Toscafund’s success may stoke fresh controversy about hedge funds. These have been accused of causing massive problems for the UK’s banks with investment policies focused on making short-term gains.

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Tags: abn amro, acquisition, bank chief, catalyst, controversy, dutch-bank, earnings, holding company, investment policies, investment-firm, massive problems, mathewson, revelation, royal-bank-of-scotland, sir george, spectacular increase, toscafund

Multichannel Online – Harbinger Capital, the hedge fund that caused a stir last year when it began buying large blocks of Cablevision Systems shares, continued a sell-off of the stock that began earlier this year, reducing its holdings in the Bethpage, N.Y.-based cable operator to 5%.

Harbinger, seen by many observers to be the main catalyst in Cablevision management’s newfound openness with shareholders,  said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Tuesday that it had reduced its holdings in the cable operator to 11.7 million shares, or about 5% of its outstanding stock. That’s down from the 7.5% interest Harbinger held in Cablevision in January and almost half the 9.1% interest the hedge fund controlled in September.

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Tags: bethpage, cable operator, cablevision systems, catalyst, harbinger, harbinger-capital, observers, openness, outstanding stock, securities-and-exchange, securities-and-exchange-commission, shareholders