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.
Interactive Investor – The retreat of two high-profile activist funds from Japan underscores the difficulties such funds face in squeezing value from their investments and raises worries about lax corporate governance in the world’s second-biggest economy.
The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI) and Steel Partners have been scaling back since last year, joining a growing pool of foreign funds reducing exposure to Japan.
The departure also points to rising frustration among foreign funds that managers are not interested in maximising value, while domestic shareholders, often through complex cross-holdings, want to maintain the status quo.
Evening Standard – Control of the fund was wrested from Horlick supporters by its largest shareholder Vincent Tchenguiz after a tight shareholder vote last week.
Tchenguiz installed a new board with the brief to wind up the fund to create as much value for shareholders as possible.
Horlick will meet the new chairman Jonathan Carr this week and is expected to be told she is being axed as the fund’s manager.
That could lead to her claiming as much as £8 million as a termination fee although Carr is likely to challenge that figure.
VC Circle – Flower exporter Karuturi Global is raising Rs 290 crore from its promoter Ramakrishna Karuturi and a consortium of foreign institutional investors (FIIs). Both promoter and FIIs are together subscribing 241.5 million warrants of Rs 12 each, which would converted into one equity share. A group of four FIIs, which include hedge fund Monsoon Capital, are pumping in Rs 248.64 crore in the firm. The rest is being invested by the promoter, Ramakrishna Karuturi. The company is now seeking shareholders approval through a postal ballot.
The four FIIs investing in Karuturi will together hold a 29.82% stake in the post-issued capital. They include Emerging India Focus Fund (8.64%), India Focus Cardinal Fund (14.4%), Elara India Opportunities (3.91%) and Monsoon Capital (2.87%). The warrants can be converted within 18 months, and an amount Rs 3 per warrant would have to paid at the time of warrant allotment. The rest of the amount of Rs 9 would be paid when subscribing each equity share, which would have a lock-in of one year.
Times and Democrat – Activist shareholder William Ackman sought for months to replace four incumbents on the Minneapolis-based retailer’s board of directors with five of his own picks, including himself.
The head of Pershing Square Capital Management, which has a 7.8 percent stake in Target, has argued that the cheap chic discount retailer, which has stumbled as shoppers focus on basics, needed new perspective. He said it especially needed to beef up its board in the areas of retail and real estate to better compete with its chief rival, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark.
Shareholders rejected those arguments at their meeting outside Milwaukee Thursday. They also sided with the company in approving a measure that sets the board’s size at the current 12 members, instead of the 13 that Ackman had wanted.
Reuters – Warren Lichtenstein’s Steel Partners LLC is forging ahead with a controversial plan to convert its flagship hedge fund, Steel Partners II, into a publicly traded holding company in the face of opposition from shareholders calling for liquidation.
The New York-based firm told limited partners, in a shareholder letter dated Tuesday, that they have until June 5 to either approve its plan to convert the fund into shares in a listed company, Steel Partners Holdings, or elect to receive a share of the fund’s assets. Both options will also distribute some cash.
Seeking Alpha – I saw today a very interesting article in the FT about the discussion going on at the SEC about a rule allowing US investors to nominate company directors. Companies at present nominate their own directors. Shareholders have the right to vote, but not to nominate any directors, except through a difficult process that requires them to mail shareholders at their own expense. The new rule would allow large shareholders such as pension funds to nominate up to a quarter of a company’s board members.
Reuters – Warren Lichtenstein’s Steel Partners LLC is forging ahead with a controversial plan to convert its flagship hedge fund, Steel Partners II, into a publicly traded holding company in the face of opposition from shareholders calling for liquidation.
The New York-based firm told limited partners, in a shareholder letter dated Tuesday, that they have until June 5 to either approve its plan to convert the fund into shares in a listed company, Steel Partners Holdings, or elect to receive a share of the fund’s assets. Both options will also distribute some cash.
"For myself and many of our investors, the option provided by Steel Partners Holdings is too compelling to ignore," Lichtenstein said in his investor letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
Your Industry News – Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd (FOGL.L: Quote) said it conditionally raised about 7.6 million pounds ($11.8 million) to help fund capital expenditure on long-lead drilling equipment, and general and administrative costs through 2010 into 2011.
The AIM-listed oil and gas explorer said it issued about 10.4 million new shares to certain directors and institutional investors at 73 pence apiece, representing a 19 percent discount to the shares’ closing price of 90 cents on Tuesday.
Falkland Oil said it placed 1 million of the placing shares with one of its founding shareholders, RAB Special Situations (Master) Fund Ltd, managed by hedge fund manager RAB Capital Plc (RAB.L: Quote).
Stuff – Some of the biggest fund-of-fund investors expect hedge funds to lower management fees and introduce terms that let shareholders eventually claw back performance fees,
The traditional take-it-or-leave-it stance in the hedge fund world is wobbling. Investors are demanding better terms from managers after hedge funds worldwide lost an average of 19 percent last year.
Institutions and affluent families withdrew record amounts from funds last year even as a number of funds imposed bans on redemptions at the end of 2008.
Reuters – Forzani Group recommended on Thursday that shareholders oppose a bid from a New York-based hedge fund attempting to nominate its own members to the board.
The Canadian sporting-goods retailer said Crescendo Partners, which owns about 5 percent of the outstanding shares, "failed to provide a compelling rationale to support its demands and failed to identify any particular business initiatives."
Reuters – Hospice-care provider Chemed Corp, which also offers plumbing services under the Roto-Rooter brand, is urging shareholders to reject a hedge fund’s proposal to nominate five dissident directors to Chemed’s board.
Chemed has asked shareholders to discard proxy cards sent by MMI Investments LP, a New York hedge fund, and instead vote for the board’s nominees.
"MMI has one, and only one, idea for your company: to separate immediately Chemed’s businesses – VITAS and Roto-Rooter," Chemed said in a letter on Wednesday.
Reuters – U.S. hedge fund Steel Partners said it has urged shareholders of loss-making wig maker Aderans Holdings to reject an offer by Japanese private equity fund Unison Capital to buy Aderans shares.
Japan’s Aderans said last month it supported Unison Capital’s bid for at least a 35 percent stake in Aderans to replace top shareholder Steel Partners, which has been pushing for management changes.
Unison Capital’s proposed offer is "inadequate and coercive", Steel Partners said in a statement on Monday.
