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.
Dow Jones – hedge funds are looking for Kraft Foods Inc. to offer at least GBP11.7 billion for Cadbury PLC as the confectioner’s chief executive, Todd Stitzer, reportedly accused the U.S. food conglomerate of letting Cadbury’s share price “drift.”
One London-based hedge fund manager with an interest in Cadbury stock said most shareholders would be happy to see a valuation of around 15 times the company’s current-year earnings – or roughly 900 pence a share, valuing the chocolate bar maker at GBP12.3 billion – but that 850 pence, or around GBP11.7 billion, would probably be acceptable.
Hedge funds that have disclosed positions in Cadbury include New York-based Eton Park Capital Management and York Capital Management, also based in New York.
CNN Money – Hedge fund firm Och-Ziff Capital Management Group reported a wider second-quarter net loss Tuesday and lower-than-expected distributable earnings, a number analysts look at closely.
The New York-based firm, one of only a small number of publicly traded hedge fund firms, said its net loss grew to $88.3 million, or $1.15 per diluted Class A share because it earned less in management fees as assets under management shrunk. A year ago, Och-Ziff earned $60.8 million, or 82 cents per share.
Gulf News – Short-selling, one of the few tactics that made money for hedge funds in 2008, has become a risky bet as prospects for equities have improved, while getting hold of stock to sell is harder as lenders shun weak funds.
Some hedge funds have already changed tactics and are simply buying cheap stocks, wary of getting burnt if a stock they are shorting announces unexpectedly good earnings and the share price spikes – a real possibility in an improving economy.
High-profile hedge fund manager Philippe Jabre said he had no short positions because it was "too dangerous", although in future shorting could prove a better trade.
Guardian.co.uk – Big gains on derivative bets linked to Volkswagen shares offset a decline in nine-month earnings at Porsche SE’s core sports car business, the heavily indebted holding company said on Friday.
Porsche, scrambling to shore up its tattered balance sheet, blamed lower volumes and revenue as well as investments on its upcoming fourth model line and hybrid powertrain technology but insisted that its returns remained relatively healthy.
"A high earnings margin was still achieved," the company said in a statement, while a company spokesman added that it was "nearly in the double-digits".
That is still a drop from Porsche’s traditional margins of near 20 percent when markets were strong.
Alibaba News Channel – Investors generally put aside recent worries about the world economy and banking industry woes on Thursday, sending global stocks higher and reversing safety flows into the Japanese yen.
Mixed earnings plagued European markets, however, with Credit Suisse posting better-than-expected profits and engineering group ABB missing forecasts and giving a cautious outlook.
Euro zone purchasing managers provided the latest "green shoots" data to suggest some economic recovery. They signalled stabilisation in their sectors but also record job losses.
Reuters – Suncor Energy Inc has agreed to buy rival Petro-Canada to create Canada’s largest oil company, as the pair seek to tackle tough conditions in the oil sands industry by slashing costs.
Suncor will pay C$18.43 billion ($14.9 billion) for PetroCanada in the all-share deal which targets $1.3 billion in savings after soaring costs and plummeting oil prices made it hard to turn a profit from squeezing crude out of tarry soil.
The deal comes after a period of missed earnings targets and a project delay at Petro-Canada and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2009.
New York Times – The billionaire financier Carl C. Icahn put another $250 million into his hedge fund at the beginning of the year after suffering further losses in the fourth quarter on investments in Motorola and Yahoo, according to a letter he sent to investors.
The Icahn Fund Ltd. was down about 33 percent through the end of January after plummeting 22 percent in the fourth quarter, according to the letter. After receiving more than $1 billion in redemption requests from investors, Mr. Icahn put $250 million of his own cash into the fund in November to avoid selling shares to meet the redemptions.
Trying to instill confidence in his investors, Mr. Icahn decided to make another $250 million cash injection into the fund on Jan. 1. Still, over the last five months, Icahn Capital’s funds under management have shrunk by about $2.5 billion.
The losses are likely to affect the publicly traded Icahn Enterprises fund, which reports earnings on Thursday.
Hedge Funds Review – US hedge fund managers could be subject to higher personal taxes if changes to the taxation rules included in President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget proposal are adopted.
The budget proposal includes measures to treat carried interest as ordinary income as opposed to capital gains for tax purposes. That would raise taxes on income earned from performance and incentive fees from the current rate of 15% applicable to capital gains to over 39%.
Carried interest has been a sensitive topic in Washington for many years. Some politicians have argued that hedge funds and private equity groups have used the carried interest exemption to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
The proposed change in tax rules could have a deep impact on the earnings of hedge fund managers. The compensation structure at many hedge fund companies puts the onus on performance and incentive fees as the principal source of income for the manager.
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.
Bloomberg – Days after a March negotiating session to buy San Francisco’s Citicorp Center building for $370 million, Park Hyeon Joo is in the air on a Korean Air flight bound for Seoul, sipping a glass of red wine. He’s not celebrating.
Park, founder and chairman of Seoul-based Mirae Asset Financial Group, the biggest mutual fund company in South Korea, has just given up on his plan to open a branch of Mirae in Los Angeles despite its large Korean-American community.
He’s seen firsthand the swoon in U.S. markets triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis. Recalling the flight, he says he took out his laptop and spent the next three hours writing a somber memo to his 16,900 employees.
FINalternatives- Boston and San Francisco-based Bay Hill Capital Management this month launched its first hedge fund, a multi-strategy volatility offering with $25 million in initial assets.
According to Alec Petro, managing partner, the Bay Hill Fund has three sub-strategies: volatility arbitrage, which is a broad vega-neutral, high-frequency portfolio; dispersion, which trades different stock indices against the components that make up those indices; and relative value, which is more opportunistic and flow-driven.
“They’re not correlated so it produces a nice robust return stream, specifically in volatility,” said Petro. “It’s unique and I don’t know of any funds out there that think of volatility in different sub-strategies and combine them.”
Norwalk Advocate- A California firm that provides financial assistance to companies has chosen Westport to locate its first East Coast operation.
Seeking to expand its operations to lucrative Greater New York and Fairfield County, San Francisco-based Business Capital, a provider of commercial turnaround services, has opened an office at 191 Post Road West in Westport.
The goal is to build a stronger East Coast presence, as banks tighten lending standards and firms turn to nontraditional financing, said Chuck Doyle, managing director of the firm.
