Daniel Loeb’s Third Point rose 2.3 percent in November, bringing its gain for the year to 6.6 percent. The results were reported by Third Point Reinsurance and reflect the estimated net returns of its investment account, which is managed by Loeb’s New York-based hedge fund firm Third Point. The investment account’s returns are usually roughly in line with the results of the hedge funds managed by Loeb.
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Jeffrey Smith’s Starboard Value on Friday announced it has launched a proxy fight with semiconductor maker Integrated Silicon Solution. The New York-based activist hedge fund firm said it owns 7.2 percent of the company’s shares and has nominated five directors to its board. In a letter to the board, Starboard said “significant change to the composition of the board is warranted given the qualifications of their nominees…and the long-term underperformance” of the company. Starboard did not disclose a position in Integrated Silicon at the end of the third quarter.
This was the second 13D Starboard filed last week. On November 24 it raised its stake in chemical maker LSB Industries to 7.2 percent. Back in early April, the company agreed to name three individuals to its board of directors as part of a settlement and standstill agreement with Starboard. In its latest regulatory filing, Starboard said it continues to think the company “has several viable alternatives available to create substantial value for stockholders.”
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Pershing Square Capital Management’s William Ackman says that as a result of his October 1 initial public offering of Pershing Square Holdings on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, about 40 percent of Pershing Square’s assets under management can now be considered “effectively permanent.” In the offering, Pershing Square raised $2.73 billion from new investors, $212.5 million from existing investors in Pershing Square International who rolled over their investments, and $129 million from Pershing Square employees who invested additional capital, according to the New York-based hedge fund firm’s third quarter letter to clients.
“When combined with existing assets, this capital raise translated into an initial public capital base of more than $6.2 billion,” the letter states. Meanwhile, Ackman says 50 percent of his open-ended capital allows investors to redeem one-eighth of their capital each quarter. Ackman also says he has generated more than $13.9 billion of profits over the past nearly 11 years.
Elsewhere in the letter, Ackman tells clients that if he holds his stake in Allergan until drug maker Actavis completes its acquisition of the Botox maker, Pershing Square will receive $3.4 billion in cash and 9.81 million shares of Actavis worth $2.6 billion at current value. “We are currently doing due diligence on Actavis to determine whether we should remain a long-term holder,” Pershing Square adds in the letter. “Whether or not we choose to hold some or all of our Actavis stake, we will generate substantial cash from this transaction, which will be available for our next investment.”
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Brevan Howard Asset Management is shutting down its commodities fund due to lousy performance, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The fund, which managed $630 million in assets, is down 4.3 percent this year through October after losing 4.2 percent last year, according to the report.
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The wife of Sir Christopher Hohn won one of the largest ever divorce settlements in the United Kingdom. Jamie Cooper-Hohn was awarded £337 million — or more than $527 million — which works out to nearly half of Hohn’s £700 million fortune, according to a Daily Mail report. The founder of the Children’s Investment Fund had argued that his wife of 15 years was only entitled to one-quarter of his total fortune, while she sought half, according to the report. The couple had separated in 2012. Over the years Hohn gave more than £1 billion to charity through his Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which was founded and run for most of the time by his wife and tied to the hedge fund, according to the report.
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Kingdon Capital Management disclosed that it owns 8.55 percent of Dipexium Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on producing a drug called Locilex, now in the late stages of clinical development, that aims to treat mild infections of diabetic foot ulcers. The company says there are no FDA-approved products on the market of its kind at this time.
