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MSN MoneyCentral- A British hedge fund said Monday it will accept the Japanese government’s rejection of its proposal to raise its stake in a major utility — although it added that it still doesn’t agree with the reasoning behind the order.
The Children’s Investment Master Fund had proposed raising its stake in J-Power — Japan’s largest electricity wholesaler — to as much as 20 percent from 9.9 percent. The government rejected that proposal earlier this year, citing potential disruptions to public order.
The fund has contested the decision as lacking transparency and including incorrect information and false premises.
But it said the government was unlikely to change its mind. The fund will now instead focus on improving corporate governance at J-Power, it said in a statement.
Times Online- Proper consultation is the rock upon which good regulation is founded. And for the Financial Services Authority, consultation is in its DNA. So when it does the unthinkable and drops a bombshell without warning or discussion — as last week with the announcement of the Short Selling Instrument — people are bound to be left shellshocked and confused, especially if they are lawyers under pressure from clients to advise on what needs to be done.
Designed, allegedly, to bring greater transparency to the market in the aftermath of the recent rights issues shambles by HBOS and Bradford & Bingley, the measure could have been called the “short notice instrument” because there were mere days between its announcement and its operational effect. The FSA’s justification for the move was that market conditions gave rise to increased potential for market abuse and therefore “immediate measures” were necessary to “maintain market confidence and prevent potential abuse during rights issues”.
New York Times- Christopher Cooper-Hohn and his wife, Jamie, follow a simple economic formula: he makes money, and she gives it away.
Mr. Cooper-Hohn runs the Children’s Investment Fund, or T.C.I., a successful — and controversial — hedge fund that has become a gadfly to corporate giants like CSX, the American railroad. Ms. Cooper-Hohn leads an affiliated charity, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which uses some of the profits that T.C.I. earns to finance programs for underprivileged children.
The partnership has made the Cooper-Hohns the most generous philanthropists in Britain. Last weekend, their foundation reported a £439 million ($856 million) jump in funds for fiscal 2007, reflecting £324 million in donations from T.C.I. and the Cooper-Hohns.
The New York Sun – Suspicions that illegal insider trading may have preceded the year’s biggest and most publicized corporate takeover attempt — Microsoft’s hostile $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo — have prompted the Securities & Exchange Commission to commence a trading probe, knowledgable regulatory sources say.
The investigation is just one of nearly a dozen stock trading probes that were recently initiated by the SEC, The New York Sun has learned, and they include trading in some of the best-known names in Corporate America, regulatory sources tell me.
"It looks like some of Wall Street’s bad guys may be at it again; these guys never learn," one source said.
Confirmations of these investigations — which are not of the companies themselves, but rather focus solely on the trading in their stocks — are clearly documented in a series of information-seeking letters (known as Bluesheets) that the commission recently sent to the brokerage community. The Sun has obtained copies of those SEC letters, which detail 11 such probes, including the one into Yahoo’s securities.
Times Online- This week, some of the City’s wealthiest people will descend on a lavish party in London intent on giving away a large chunk of their personal fortunes.
More than 1,100 will pile into the Absolute Return for Kids (Ark) annual dinner at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, including many leading members of the new City establishment from the hedge fund world.
Some will be flush with cash, despite the downturn and the credit crunch. Others will be feeling the pinch. At last year’s event, this group of modern-day philanthropists — with its smattering of Hollywood superstars and A-list celebrities — gave away an average of £26,000 each and raised a combined £26.6 million.
Times Online- Arpad Busson was 10 minutes late. As the 44-year-old financier (who is also actress Uma Thurman’s boyfriend) hobbled through the door of his Mayfair boardroom, it became apparent why.
“I’ve done my back in,” said Busson, in a hoarse French accent. The injury is an old one acquired on the ski slopes.
Born in France and educated “between France and Switzerland”, Busson skied as soon as he could walk. At the age of 13 he begged his mother to let him go professional — in downhill racing — but she wouldn’t allow it.
