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 – Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor.
The second-largest U.S. bank by assets is looking at options now, including a sale of parts of the company or a merger with another firm, after its stock fell 50 percent this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Discussions so far have been internal, and some options –such as entering into a merger where other executives end up running the company — are unpalatable to managers at Citigroup, the person said. The bank’s board of directors is set to meet on Friday, and Morgan Stanley is not
Reuters – Chrysler LLC is rapidly burning through cash and being driven to prepare for a possible break-up if it can’t clinch a merger with General Motors Corp or get government funding needed to ride out the economic crisis, people with knowledge of the situation said.
Without new funding or a wrenching restructuring, executives have raised concern about the automaker’s ability to finance its operations from existing cash beyond the first half of 2009, said the sources, who were not authorized to discuss Chrysler’s performance.
Chrysler has had to pay out over $100 million a month to support strained suppliers on top of a total $200 million support to sales through dealers in August and September as it suspended vehicle lease financing, the sources said.
Reuters – General Motors Corp (GM.N) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) posted more than $27 billion of net losses in the first half of 2008 — and that was before a deepening economic slowdown pushed industry sales beyond 15-year lows.
What either automaker will report for an encore in the third quarter could be overwhelmed by the potential merger of Chrysler LLC into GM or various other scenarios of some or all of the Auburn Hills, Michigan automaker being sold.
Both are expected to post dismal third-quarter results on Friday, capping off a disastrous week that started with reports that U.S. auto sales plunged to the lowest annualized rate in a quarter century in the first month of the fourth quarter.
Analysts on average expect GM and Ford to post losses of roughly $2 billion each for the third quarter excluding one time items, according to Reuters Estimates.
Wall Street Journal – Hedge fund Elliott Associates LP made public a letter to Republic Services Inc. in which it said the company’s board wasn’t doing its duty by fully considering the raised $6.73 billion takeover bid from Waste Management Inc.
The fund, which said it is a "meaningful" shareholder in the company, asserted the Waste Management bid was more favorable to shareholders than Republic’s proposed acquisition of Allied Waste Industries Inc., initially valued at $6.24 billion in stock.
The size of Elliott’s stake couldn’t be determined, and an official wasn’t available for comment.
The hedge fund urged Republic’s board, in a letter dated Aug. 28 and released Friday, to "vigorously negotiate the best possible deal from Waste Management," maintaining the Waste Management proposal of $37 a share "can reasonably be expected to lead to an offer that is superior to Republic’s no-premium merger with Allied."
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.
Seeking Alpha- In a 13G filing after the close Friday on Sunoco, Inc. (SUN), Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital disclosed a 6.6% stake (7,732,600 shares) in the company. The hedge fund did not show a stake in Sunoco at the quarter ended 03/31/08.
A 13G indicates a ‘passive investment’, but Harbinger is a known activist investor. Most recently, Harbinger called on Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) to cancel its merger with Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (ANR), saying it was not in the best interest of shareholders.
