The Morning Brief: Citadel Funds Post Further Gains

Kenneth Griffin’s Citadel is well on its way to another strong year. The Chicago-based firm, which manages $24.3 billion, posted gains of 1.29 percent in its multistrategy funds, Wellington and Kensington, in November. That boosted their gains for the year to 16.57 percent. Citadel Global Equities rose 2.35 percent in November and are now up 20.07 percent for the year, while the Citadel Tactical Trading fund rose 3.22 percent last month and is now up 23.55 percent for the year. It is not known what trades drove returns, although it is clear the firm did pretty well in equities.

___

James Mitarotonda’s Barington Capital Group has launched a proxy fight against Omnova Solutions, a producer of specialty chemicals and other products. The New York-based activist hedge fund firm said it plans to nominate three individuals at the company’s upcoming annual meeting.

“Barington has been disappointed with Omnova’s share price performance, which has underperformed its peers and the market as a whole over the past 14 years,” Barington states in a press release, calling on the company to improve its profitability, strategic focus, organic growth, corporate governance and executive compensation practices. Last week Barington sent a detailed letter to the company calling on it to take steps to boost its stock price, including a suggestion that it sell its engineered surfaces segment. Barington also urged the company to maximize the use of its estimated $114 million in federal net operating loss carryforwards. It also indicated that it had several possible board candidates it thinks could help the company.

___

Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Fund enjoyed a strong November, posting a 4.52 percent return for the month. This brings its gain for the year to 9.72 percent. It is managed by Dallas-based Maverick Capital.

Sponsored

___

Shares of Sears Holdings jumped 3.7 percent, good news for its largest shareholder, Edward Lampert’s ESL Partners. Even so, the stock is still down about 25 percent for the year.

___

Shares of Delia’s, which last week filed for bankruptcy and said it would liquidate its holdings, rebounded by about 10 percent Tuesday. However, it still trades for less than two pennies per share. As we earlier reported, several well-known hedge funds had positions in the teen retailer at the end of the third quarter, although there is no way of knowing whether they are still in the stock or were shareholders when the stock got rocked last week.

___

Shares of Twitter rebounded by more than 2 percent on Tuesday, while Tesla climbed 1.2 percent and Apple rose 1.55 percent. We noted earlier that the three stocks combined accounted for 40 percent of Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management’s equity holdings at the end of the third quarter.

___

Gabriel Plotkin, a former trader at Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital — since converted to a family office called Point72 Asset Management — is set to launch at least three new hedge funds in the coming week. According to regulatory filings on Tuesday, Plotkin’s Melvin Capital Management is raising money for Melvin Capital, Melvin Capital Onshore and Melvin Capital Onshore Ltd. A spokesman for Melvin declined to comment, citing company policy. Plotkin was one of Cohen’s top traders, overseeing a $1.3 billion portfolio comprised of mostly consumer-oriented stocks, according to a New York Times article in August. He reportedly named the firm after his grandfather, Melvin Plotkin.

Related