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 – A major shareholder of Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. ( AMLN) is backing a slate of dissident directors nominated by Carl Icahn and another hedge-fund manager, Eastbourne Capital Management.
P. Schoenfeld and Associates, which owned 2.1 million Amylin shares as of the end of the first quarter, told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday it supports all five of Icahn’s and Eastbourne’s nominees because it sees that as the only opportunity for the company to make significant strides.
"We would like to see the largest minority possible elected to the Amylin board," said P. Schoenfeld founder Peter Schoenfeld.
StarTribune.com – Score a big one for Target Corp. provocateur William Ackman.
The activist shareholder got a boost from the business world’s most influential proxy advisory firm on Tuesday, when RiskMetrics Group said that investors should vote for Ackman and one of his dissident nominees on an expanded Target board of directors.
Meanwhile, another proxy-research firm, Glass Lewis, endorsed the Minneapolis-based retailers’ full slate of incumbents.
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.”
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.”
Bloomberg – Hedge fund Eastbourne Capital Management LLC nominated five directors to the board of Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and is supporting a slate put forward by investor Carl Icahn, after it “lost confidence” in leadership of the maker of the Byetta diabetes drug.
Eastbourne, which owns 12.5 percent of San Diego-based Amylin, said in a letter to management yesterday that the company’s board needs to be “significantly strengthened” after the stock fell almost 80 percent since Oct. 5, 2007. In November, Eastbourne said it was talking with Amylin about options including “a possible acquisition by a third party.”
New York Post – The JPMorgan Chase CEO is seeing the coffers of the bank he runs being filled with "billions of dollars a day" coming from hedge funds that have pulled their cash from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, according to several large hedge-fund managers and other Wall Street sources.
The flood of new business has actually caused a bottleneck at the banking giant, as the prime brokerage unit scrambles to quickly conduct due diligence and credit checks to set up new clients, a source close to the bank said.
Most of JPMorgan’s new clients are being serviced through the old Bear Stearns prime brokerage force, which was a key part of Dimon’s acquisition of the fallen brokerage firm.
A spokesman for JPMorgan confirmed that the bank has seen a significant jump in volume and "they are managing it well."
He also said the bank is maintaining firm due diligence and credit-review procedures.
Reuters – Boutique alternative fund firm Triple A Partners said on Friday it was backing a new South Korea-focused hedge fund which it expects to launch on Sept. 1 with around $40 million in assets.
Triple A, also known as Asia Alternative Asset Partners, said it would seed KS Asset Management, which will launch the KS Asia Long/Short Fund. The new hedge fund will be a Korean-focused vehicle with the ability to trade across Asia.
The new fund will be managed by Kyle Shin, formerly the head of Kingdon Capital Korea. Triple A said Shin will establish the new business in Hong Kong, from where he will build out his team.
It said he would be joined by an analyst with more than seven years experience in managing Korean portfolios, and an external investment consultant.
Shin has "an outstanding record in Asian stock picking and has an extensive local network with access to company executives … his proprietary research on the technology sector will also be of substantial benefit," Triple A Chairman Hans Tiedemann said in a statement.
