Nehal Chopra, who heads up Tiger seed fund Ratan Capital Management, is looking to raise money for a new fund. The New York-based manager has raised more than $9 million since she launched Ratan SPV Fund, a special-purpose vehicle, on September 15, according to a regulatory filing. As is generally the case, not much else is contained in the regulatory filing except that the minimum investment is $1 million. It is also not clear what kind of investments she plans to make with the SPV.
Chopra is the best-performing fund in Tiger Accelerator Partners, an investment fund composed of managers seeded by Tiger Management founder Julian Robertson Jr. Chopra’s Tiger Ratan Capital Master Fund rose 47 percent in 2013 and 29 percent in 2012 after losing nearly 12 percent in 2011, which was a partial year as Accelerator was launched in mid-2001. According to Tiger Ratan’s documents contained in an Accelerator report sent to clients late last year, Tiger Ratan gained 26.3 percent in 2012, 6.2 percent in 2011, 9 percent in 2010 and 14.1 percent for 2009 (Ratan launched in May of that year). In any case, Tiger Ratan has about $750 million under management. A Bloomberg profile published Tuesday cited sources saying that Chopra is hard to work for and has experienced a revolving door of chief financial officers and other key people. The article also raised questions about a possible conflict of interest with her husband, who also runs his own hedge fund.
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Allergan announced it will hold a special meeting of stockholders on December 18 as part of a wider agreement with Pershing Square Capital Management and Valeant Pharmaceuticals, which have joined forces in a hostile takeover bid for Allergan. This is the date Allergan had set earlier this month. Under the deal, William Ackman’s Pershing Square and Valeant will dismiss their pending litigation before the Delaware Court of Chancery.
“Today’s announcement eliminates the distraction and cost of unnecessary litigation over the company’s bylaws and underscores the Allergan board of directors’ long-standing commitment to providing stockholders with a forum to express their opinion on the value proposition offered by Valeant,” Allergan stated in a press release. Allergan also said a U.S. District Court has set October 28 to hear Allergan’s motion for a preliminary injunction against Valeant and Pershing Square for violations of the federal securities laws, including insider trading.
“Allergan continues to believe that stockholders should have the opportunity to make decisions regarding their investment in the company based on compliant, full and fair disclosures, and to ensure that any stockholders voting on corporate matters acquired their shares in accordance with the law,” it states. Allergan states that if the motion is granted, the injunction would prevent Valeant, Pershing Square, and Ackman from voting their shares at a shareholder meeting. Allergan also called on shareholders to reject Valeant’s unsolicited exchange offer.
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Leon Cooperman of New York-based Omega Advisors disclosed that he owns 995,200 shares, or 10.3 percent, of Empire Resources Inc., a distributor of aluminum and steel products.
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BH Macro Ltd. is off to a strong start this month, posting a gain of 2.83 percent through September 12. As a result, it has cut its loss for the year to 0.18 percent. BH Macro Ltd. invests substantially all of its assets in the Brevan Howard Master Fund, the global macro fund managed by London-based Brevan Howard Asset Management.
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The average hedge fund gained 1.30 percent in August, according to London-based data tracker Preqin. This brings the gain for the full year to 4.97 percent. Emerging market funds posted their seventh straight monthly profit, gaining 1.75 percent in August. Embattled commodity trading advisors are up 4.64 percent for the year and have posted gains in nine of the past 12 months.
“Correlation of assets and market intervention by policy makers have affected CTA’s ability to successfully detect and profit from market trends in recent years; however since the tail end of 2013, there has been a noticeable improvement in the strategy’s absolute returns as well as the benchmark’s consistency of its returns,” Preqin states in a press release.
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The Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index rose 0.88 percent in August and is up 3.42 percent for the year.
