New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Hedge Fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management has declared a proxy victory after replacing all but one of the board members of the Sun-Times Media Group.

Davidson Kempner, who owns a 6% share in the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times, expressed its discontent with the current board, blaming them for the financial woes of the company. 

Hedge funds are no strangers to shaking up boards of companies in which they invest, many times in order to gain a strategic position where they can be involved in management and the decision making process in hopes of garnering higher returns for shareholders.

"Through the provision of these consents, the stockholders have made clear their desire and support for a board of directors that is made up of professionals experienced in publishing and restructuring," said Davidson Kempner. "Given the operating and financial challenges before Sun-Times, we believe that the reconstituted board has the better potential to guide and lead Sun-Times."

The new slate includes Jeremy Halbreich, former General Manager for the Dallas Morning News and executives Michael Katzenstein and Robert Schmitz.   Robert Poole, who holds an 11% stake in the company, will remain on the board.  The hedge fund has also vocalized their desire to dump current CEO Cyrus Freidheim.

Julie Scuderi
Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net
Email: julie@hedgeco.net

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Reuters – The options market suffered a setback as U.S. exchange-listed volume last month fell 21.2 percent to 224.9 million contracts down from 310.8 million contracts for the same period last year, the Option Industry Council (OIC) said on Monday.

The drop in November volume comes as annual overall option volume stood at record levels of 3.4 billion contracts, up 28 percent from the 11 month period in 2007.

Trading fell for several reasons. Last month had fewer trading days. This year, November had two trading days less than November 2007.

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Tags: concord-massachusetts, discontent, investment-arm, wb

Reuters UK – The hedge fund industry’s trade-of-the-moment — betting on falling financial stocks and rising commodities — is set to offer further profits, despite July’s setback, but managers may have to alter their tactics.

Hedge funds may well profit from betting July’s bounce in battered financial stocks and decline in commodities was only a blip in a longer-term trend, since the fundamental reasons for disliking bank stocks and holding commodities remain intact.

However, with investors nervously watching every piece of performance data, many funds have had to scale back the size of these bets to avoid further poor numbers — or are taking bets likely to be less painful if markets go against them.

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Tags: accountant, ameriprise, bias, capital-management, credit-losses, difficult-period, discontent, downside, fund-specialists, investment-arm, medallion, ty