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.
CNNMoney.com - Railroad CSX Corp. said Wednesday it has settled a case of alleged securities law violations with two activist shareholder hedge funds.
If the settlement is approved by a federal court, CSX will receive $10 million from TCI, which manages The Children’s Master Investment Fund, and $1 million from 3G Capital Management.
The case, brought by a CSX shareholder, accused the hedge funds of collecting "short-swing" profits, or using insider information to nab a short-term gain. But under the settlement, the hedge funds deny any wrongdoing.
Washington Post – New evidence has emerged in an insider-trading investigation that the Securities and Exchange Commission closed two years ago without filing charges, raising questions on Capitol Hill about the government’s oversight of what was once one of the nation’s most prominent hedge funds.
According to documents, the hedge fund — Pequot Capital Management — secretly began to pay $2.1 million to a key witness in the case last spring, just three months after several senators called on the SEC to reopen its investigation.
Top Republicans on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees asked Pequot’s chairman this week to provide records related to the payments. The FBI is also looking into the matter, according to people familiar with the case.
Struggling General Growth Properties Inc. rallied Tuesday after disclosing an investment from hedge fund manager Pershing Square Capital Management LP. General Growth stock nearly doubled in morning trading.
New York-based Pershing Square Capital bought 20.1 million shares of General Growth Properties stock this month, giving it a 7.5 percent stake in the company. It also has options on an additional 33.4 million shares for a total of a nearly 20 percent stake.
Chicago-based General Growth Properties reported a $15.4 million loss for its latest quarter. It has suspended its shareholder dividend and halted plans for new development. The company, facing a looming deadline for maturing
Bizjournals.com – Struggling General Growth Properties Inc., owner of the St. Louis Galleria and 200 malls nationwide, rallied Tuesday after disclosing an investment from hedge fund manager Pershing Square Capital Management LP.
General Growth stock nearly doubled in morning trading.
New York-based Pershing Square Capital bought 20.1 million shares of General Growth Properties stock this month, giving it a 7.5 percent stake in the company. It also has options on an additional 33.4 million shares for a total of a nearly 20 percent stake.
Petroleumworld.com – The hedge fund of billionaire investor George Soros increased its stake in Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro ( Petrobras) to 21.1 million American Depositary Receipts as of Sept. 30 from 11.5 million at June 30.
Soros Fund Management LLC made the move as the ADRs tumbled during the quarter to about $44 from about $71 each. Although the fund added nearly 10 million ADRs to its Petrobras stake, the value of the holding only rose to $930.7 million from $811.5 million.
Since the end of the quarter, Petrobras ADRs have fallen further, closing on Friday at $21.45.
Reuters UK – Dozens of hedge funds have told investors they cannot get their money back right now as managers try to limit a wave of redemptions to safeguard all their clients’ investments — as well as their own futures.
Only a few months ago, hundreds of the world’s estimated 9,000 hedge fund managers made it tough for wealthy investors to put money into their funds by requiring high investment minimums of $1 million (617,500 pounds) or more and charging heavy fees.
Now managers are making it hard for investors to get out.
"Everyone is looking at their gate provisions (mechanisms that limit redemptions) and what rights they have to close their gates," said Timothy Mungovan, a partner who advises hedge funds at law firm Nixon Peabody LLP. "It is a phenomenon that has been occurring for some time and is picking up pace now."
Reuters – Fidelity Investments’ Harry Lange, manager of its one-time star Magellan fund, made what now looks like a poorly timed move in June: he nearly doubled his holdings of AIG.
Lange, who has already seen other financial bets sour, driving the $35.2 billion (19.6 billion pound) fund down 17.3 percent since July, may be just one of several fund managers to get burned by American International Group Inc’s meltdown.
Though it’s unclear where Magellan’s holding stood when the government launched its $85 billion government bailout of the giant insurer on Tuesday, Lange in June boosted the fund’s holdings of AIG to $865.1 million from $475 million in May.
And that was just a piece of the substantial 5.81 percent stake, or 156 million shares, held by Fidelity, the world’s biggest mutual fund company, as of the end of June, according to Reuters data.
Reuters Dubai- Bahrain-based investment bank Investcorp’s INVB.BH profit in the six months to June 30 fell to about a third of the year-ago period as asset-based income dropped on global economic woes.
The company, which generates most of its income from investing Gulf Arab wealth in the West, made $63.3 million in the period, down 71.5 percent from $222.49 million in the year-earlier period.
The Bahrain- and London-listed firm made net income of $151.1 million in the fiscal year to June 30 compared with $302.3 million in the previous fiscal year, it said in a statement on Thursday.
FINalternatives- The $154.5 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund last month made commitments to a trio of hedge fund and private equity managers.
The CRF committed €150 million (US$233 million) to CVC European Equity Fund V and $50 million to Levine Leichtman Capital Partners IV, a $4 billion middle-market, woman-owned private equity shop.
The fund last month also made a $1 million commitment to Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund, through one of its funds of hedge funds, which was not disclosed for competitive reasons
Los Angeles Times – The hedge fund industry can only exist because investors believe their fund managers will deliver above-average returns over time, despite the portfolios’ hefty fees.
Master investor Warren Buffett, who has long derided those fees, now has made an interesting bet with a firm that runs so-called funds-of-hedge-funds: He’ll beat their net returns over the next decade simply by owning a mutual fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
The bet is the subject of this article in Fortune magazine by Buffett’s long-time friend, writer Carol Loomis.
Buffett is going up against Protégé Partners LLC, a New York-based money manager that picks hedge funds for its clients.
Loomis writes: "Each side put up roughly $320,000. The total funds of about $640,000 were used to buy a zero-coupon Treasury bond that will be worth $1 million at the bet’s conclusion." Whichever side wins, the proceeds will go to charity.
The Lowell Sun – A Burlington hedge fund and its former manager have agreed to pay more than $1 million for trading on inside information surrounding the Citizen Bank’s $10.5 billion purchase of Chapter One.
Federal regulators from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a settlement with Global Time Capital Management and former chief Michael Tom, of Waltham, over trades made about six days before the 2004 Citizens Bank deal with Charter One.
Tom has agreed to surrender $801,000 in profits, penalties and interest, while Global time Capital and its GTC Growth Fund will pay an additional $252,000.
