Investors withdrew about $1.7 billion of the roughly $6 billion in outside money invested in Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors, according to Bloomberg News. Other reports say Cohen is giving investors more time to decide whether they want to redeem. The firm has extended the deadline for submitting withdrawal requests from Thursday, February 14, to mid-May. Moreover, investors can pull out as much as one third of their investment, instead of the maximum one quarter at a time. Meanwhile, SAC is said to have opened to new investors for the first time since mid-2011.
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So much for shorting Herbalife. The nutrition supplements company, Pershing Square Capital Management’s controversial and much-ballyhooed bet, surged 1.23 percent to close at $38.74. Earlier in the day Carl Icahn confirmed in a regulatory filing that he owns nearly 13 percent of the stock, including options, and plans to discuss with the company ways to boost shareholder value.
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The Pershing Square Foundation, founded by hedge fund manager William Ackman and his wife Karen, on Friday announced a $1 million grant to support the Innocence Project’s effort to overturn wrongful convictions. The foundation says it has committed more than $160 million in grants and social investments in diverse areas, including economic development, education, healthcare, human rights, the arts and urban development.
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Another top JP Morgan executive is quitting to get into the hedge fund business. Deepak Gulati has quit as the bank’s global head of equity proprietary trading to launch a hedge fund in Switzerland, called Argentière Capital. It is expected to open for business in either the second or third quarter of this year. James “Jes” Staley, the former head of JP Morgan’s investment bank, recently joined Blue Mountain Capital Management. Rumors surrounding Gulati’s possible plans to launch a hedge fund began swirling in June when he attended a conference hosted by Goldman Sachs in Rome.
