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.
Daily Times – Less than three weeks ahead of what’s expected to be a heated proxy contest at Target’s annual shareholders’ meeting, activist shareholder William Ackman aims to strengthen his case to investors for a new slate of directors by personally introducing his roster at a town hall meeting here Monday.
According to documents filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ackman, who runs Pershing Square Capital Management, which owns a 7.8 percent stake in the discounter, intends to “improve Target’s board and consequently, help make Target a stronger, more profitable and more valuable company.”
Reuters – Integrated Asset Management said on Wednesday it is repositioning as a pure play brokerage business after agreeing to sell a 51 percent stake in its French fund of hedge funds business.
The firm, listed on London’s AIM market, is selling the stake in Altigefi to Sal. Oppenheim in a deal which will also see the private banking group exit as Integrated’s major shareholder.
The move is evidence of smaller asset management players being forced to reexamine their business models as the financial crisis changes the market place. A spokesman said Integrated’s decision to concentrate on brokerage came because it had become more and more difficult to achieve the scale thought necessary to successfully run a fund of funds business.
Reuters – Integrated Asset Management said on Wednesday it is repositioning as a pure play brokerage business after agreeing to sell a 51 percent stake in its French fund of hedge funds business.
The firm, listed on London’s AIM market, is selling the stake in Altigefi to Sal. Oppenheim in a deal which will also see the private banking group exit as Integrated’s major shareholder.
The move is evidence of smaller asset management players being forced to reexamine their business models as the financial crisis changes the market place. A spokesman said Integrated’s decision to concentrate on brokerage came because it had become more and more difficult to achieve the scale thought necessary to successfully run a fund of funds business.
Independent – A New York-based hedge fund, run by former Goldman Sachs executives and family members of the Ziff Davis publishing dynasty, has become the biggest shareholder in Babcock & Brown Capital (BCM), Eircom’s main shareholder.
Och-Ziff Capital Management now holds just over 12pc of the potential takeover target, having increased its stake from 4.76pc just a day after the unsolicited €95m bid for BCM from an Australian consortium including Rob Topfer who orchestrated the company’s bid for Eircom back in 2006.
Interactive Investor – Activist hedge fund Algebris has sold its stake in Italian insurer Assicurazione Generali SpA , a newspaper said on Tuesday, but a financial source said Algebris would attend the shareholder meeting this week.
Algebris head Davide Serra criticised Generali’s governance last year, a rare move among Italian shareholders, and lost his bid to appoint an auditor. He resumed his campaign last July by querying Generali investments.
Cincinnati.com – A New York City hedge fund pushing Chemed Corp. to split up its plumbing and hospice care businesses has filed its own slate of five directors for the downtown-based company’s May 18 shareholder’s meeting.
In filing its five nominees Thursday, MMI Investments, which last month urged Chemed to split up its businesses to increase investor returns, said it wasn’t seeking control of the 11-member board but "to obtain better representation of stockholders and enhance stockholder value.”
Forbes – CSX Corp. said a New York Federal Court has approved a settlement in which the railroad operator will be paid $11 million by two activist shareholder hedge funds over alleged securities law violations.
CSX said late Friday it will receive $10 million from TCI, which manages The Children’s Master Investment Fund, and $1 million from 3G Capital Management, less $550,000 in attorney’s fees and other expenses.
Globe and Mail – A U.S. hedge fund with a reputation as an activist investor has become the biggest shareholder in AbitibiBowater Inc., putting added pressure on management at the struggling paper giant to find a speedy solution to its financial woes.
Seattle-based Steelhead Partners LLC revealed in a regulatory filing made Friday that it now holds 14.8 per cent of Abitibi’s shares. The fund has tripled its stake in the debt-heavy newsprint king in recent weeks, jumping to the head of the pack among Montreal-based Abitibi’s shareholders.
Steelhead first said in July that it had acquired 5 per cent of Abitibi’s shares, surpassing the threshold that required it to disclose its holdings under securities laws. Its stake had grown to 10 per cent in early January and almost 15 per cent by the end of the month, according to its most recent filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bloomberg – Paulson & Co., the hedge fund run by billionaire John Paulson, urged Dow Chemical Co. to slash its dividend, sell new stock and issue bonds to pay for the stalled $15.4 billion takeover of Rohm & Haas Co.
Dow should tap its committed $13 billion bridge loan and $4 billion of equity financing to complete the deal, which was supposed to close Jan. 27, Paulson said today in a statement. Dow could then repay the bridge financing with $4 billion of new equity and $5 billion of new bonds. Paulson, which manages $29 billion, is Rohm & Haas’s second-largest shareholder.
Financial Times – The London market’s new year bounce continued into a fifth session, but Tate & Lyle missed the trend.
Tate lost 8.5 per cent to 386¼p amid speculation that Harbinger, its second-biggest shareholder, might have to sell to meet redemptions.
The US hedge fund run by Philip Falcone cut its holding from 19 per cent to 13.9 per cent through December.
Tate shares were also hit by concerns that the sweetener industry had failed to push through price rises. Supply contracts for 2009 have been fixed at 1-2 cents above last year’s levels, but below the 3½-cent increase requested, according to a trade press report.
Tate shares rallied 5.5 per cent last week, helped by talk of a Russian investor looking to buy a 10 per cent stake but had struggled to find a broker willing to take the trade.
The FTSE 100 closed up 0.4 per cent, rising 17.85 points to a two-month high of 4579.64. Activity remained at holiday levels, however, with just over 840m blue-chip shares changing hands.
Fortis has closed three small hedge funds in the aftermath of its acquisition of part of ABN Amro and merger of the Belgian and Dutch banks’ asset management operations, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The Fortis European long/short fund, which had €120m ($167m) under administration, was shut after the decision to rope in the ABN European equity team, led by Andrew King.
The convertible arbitrage fund was shut in order to free up staff to focus on the enlarged long-only convertible bond funds. The final fund, a US long/short fund, was shut at the end of last year, the FT report said.
New York (HedgeCo.Net) – While the aftermath of the collapsed Bayou hedge fund may have left investors with nothing more than shock, the U.S. Marshals are trying to recoup some of the losses that were suffered. By selling Bayou’s failed investments, they are recovering some $115 million from the fund that once squandered over $300 million.
"You can’t believe some of the stupid investments these people made,” said Leonard Briskman, Deputy Chief for Business Management for the U.S. Marshals in an interview with Bloomberg. “The Bayou guys lost money during the late ’90s when almost everybody was making money in the market without even trying.”
Briskman is in charge of heading Bayou’s liquidation sale, in what has become a much more prominent role for the Marshals service with the rise of white collar crimes.
Investments aren’t the only thing being liquidated, however. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon ordered Israel to turn over his scooter and RV, the same vehicles that aided in his escape the day he was supposed to report to prison to start serving his 20 year sentence.
Also up for bid is the Tiffany & Co. watch that Israel was wearing. These things will help go towards the $150 million in restitution that he has been ordered to pay.
The U.S. Marshals Service is currently running a portfolio estimated at $1.7 billion that include 30 businesses.
Julie Scuderi Senior Editor for HedgeCo.Net Email: julie@hedgeco.net
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