New York (HedgeCo.Net) – Shareholders in Falkland Gold & Minerals have approved plans to buy Bahamas-based oil exploration company BPC after a unanimous vote yesterday. 

Philip Richards, head of the RAB Special Situations Fund that owns a 76 percent stake in Falkland, will pocket around £1m thanks to the reverse takeover and his vast personal stake in BPC of 300,000 shares.    

While there has been some question regarding a possible conflict of interest with a hedge fund manager having that kind of stake in a company, Richards has been completely transparent in his holdings long before the meeting in which shareholders overwhelmingly approved the takeover. 

"This was a deal recommended by two strong independent and separate boards, both of which concluded that it was in the best interest of all their respective shareholders," said a spokesperson for RAB. 

Shareholders will get six shares of Falkland for every one share of BPC. 

RAB made headlines when the fund experienced sharp declines amidst the nationalization of Northern Rock, in which they amassed a significant stake.  Meanwhile, Falkland has posted losses of over 90 percent over the past four years, prompting investors in the Special Situations Fund to lose an estimated £11m.    

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

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New York (HedgeCo.Net) – GLG Partners started off the new year by suspending its dividend payments, after capping off a year that saw a steady decline in share value. 

This is the first time that GLG, who used to manage $24 billion, has done away with the dividend since it was listed in late 2007.  However, with hedge funds seeing a record number of redemption requests, GLG, along with other hedge funds may be trying to salvage as much capital as they can.  GLG currently manages an estimated $17 billion.

“We have decided at this time that it is prudent to retain capital rather than continue paying a regular quarterly dividend,” said Noam Gottesman, Chairman and Co-CEO of GLG.

2008 was a tough year for hedge funds across the board.  The $3 trillion that the industry was thought to manage at one point, should dwindle down to about $1 trillion, experts say.  On average, hedge funds dropped about 19 percent in 2008, according to the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index.

Shares of GLG closed at $2.27 yesterday, dropping over 80 percent since March 2008.

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

HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
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