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.
Reuters – Hedge fund manager William Ackman helped send Realty Income Corp (O.N), a real estate investment trust, down 4.5 percent on Wednesday after he identified it as good stock to bet against, analysts said.
Ackman, who manages $4.8 billion and whose investment ideas are closely followed in the markets, spoke at a conference in Texas on Tuesday where people who heard him speak said he identified Realty Income Corp as a possible stock to short.
Forbes – John Rutledge is the chairman of Rutledge Capital, a private equity investment firm that has invested more than $150 million in middle-market manufacturing, distribution and service companies. He is also member of the Advisory Boards of B.V. Group, a venture capital, hedge fund and real estate investment firm, and First Q Capital, a hedge fund.
Rutledge is a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief adviser for finance and investment to the governor of the Haidian District in Beijing. He is a board member of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, the Heartland Institute and a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute.
Bloomberg – William Ackman’s hedge fund that invests in Target Corp. fell 68 percent last year, more than double the loss by the second-largest U.S. discount chain.
Pershing Square IV declined 7.7 percent in December alone, according to a letter to investors from Pershing Square Capital Management LP. Ackman and Pershing spent about $2 billion in 2007 for a stake in Minneapolis-based Target. Ackman has since pressed Target to buy back shares, sell its credit-card unit and extract more value from its real estate.
Ackman, who controls 9.5 percent of Target, proposed last year that the company place the land under Target stores into a real estate investment trust that would lease the property back to the retailer. The New York-based investor has argued that such a move would free up cash for the company and result in a higher valuation.
Pershing Square IV’s loss last year followed a decline of 43 percent in 2007. The fund is structured so its returns to investors double the stock’s movement.
