It was only a matter of time before a $1 billion-plus hedge fund ran an advertisement. Dmitry Balyasny’s $4.3 billion multi-strategy Balyasny Asset Management has taken the JOBS Act at its word and placed an ad in the February 17 issue of Pensions & Investments magazine. Just in time for the Winter Olympics, the ad features a photo of snowboarders, with the slogan, “Performing in all conditions.” How much truth in advertising is this? The Chicago based firm’s flagship Atlas Global fund was up 12.94 percent in 2013 and 1.05 percent in January. That is ahead of multi-strategy funds overall, which returned 7.98 percent for 2013 and .58 percent in January, according to the Hedge Fund Research multi-strategy index.
—
The latest round of 13F filings for the fourth quarter of 2013 show that General Motors company is still the favorite stock among the hedge funds that have reported for the quarter so far. General Motors edged out Apple as the favorite stock of hedge funds in Q3 2013. David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital is a big investor, holding 17.05 million shares. Google is number two. Ken Griffin’s Citadel reported raising its stake in Google to 710,600 shares, up from 605,100 in Q3. The rest of the top 10 stocks are, in descending order, Apple, American International Group, Citigroup, Microsoft Corporation, JPMorgan Chase, Time Warner Cable, Hertz Global Holdings and Bank of America.
—
Could it be that Daniel Loeb has found inner peace? The activist Third Point founder and scourge of Dow Chemical, Sony Pictures and Sotheby’s auction house rubbed shoulders with the Dalai Lama last week. They shared spots on a panel at a conference hosted by the American Enterprise Institute. “Meditation, contemplation — it’s not just for monks and hermits,” Loeb told the audience. His Holiness later returned the compliment, claiming that after listening to Loeb and other guests of the conservative Washington think tank, “I developed more respect about capitalism.”
—
Nelson Peltz has revived his campaign to split PepsiCo’s food and drink divisions. In a 37-page letter to PepsiCo’s board that Peltz’s Trian Fund Management made public last week, the activist manager urged the company to spin off its beverage business from its snack business so that it can create “two leaner and more entrepreneurial companies.” The snack business, which includes Lays, Cheetos and Doritos, has been a much bigger revenue maker. Peltz is likely to face continued resistance, however. Just a week before his letter came out, PepsiCo CEO Indra Noye announced she had decided, after an exhaustive review, not to separate the beverage division.
—
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has been nothing if not vocal about his intentions to crack down on white-collar cybercrime — and on Thursday the D.A.’s office filed criminal charges against a former hedge fund analyst. Kang Gao, 28, worked at the $18.5 billion quant fund Two Sigma Investments from 2010 until just a few days before he was arrested February 11 on suspicion of stealing confidential security data. He has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges, the New York Times reports. Two Sigma has slapped Gao with a separate civil suit claiming he intended to use confidential quantitative research data — which the firm calls the “lifeblood of its business” — to either start his own firm in China or pass the information along to a competitor.
—
Earlier we reported that the hedge fund industry insiders are expecting 2014 to be a banner year for big hedge fund launches. While the world is not back to pre-2008 levels, when high-profile names could launch with $5 billion or more, $1 to $2 billion launches seem to be coming back, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Former Baupost Group co-portfolio manager Herb Wagner has plans to start Finepoint Capital with abut $2 billion. Yen Liow, who was part of the family office Ziff Brothers Investments until it shut its internal hedge fund, started his Aravt Global fund in January with $1 billion. Jim Parsons, who came out of Viking Global Investors, is reported to be starting Junto Capital Management with about $500 million.
—
Herbalife stock is down more than 15 percent since the start of 2014, but that won’t be much of a tonic for William Ackman. Despite his efforts to expose the nutritional supplement company as a pyramid scheme, his short positions against Herbalife have lost Pershing Square Capital Management a whopping 49 percent — making it the top loser since Ackman founded his fund, the Wall Street Journal reports.
