Is Steven Cohen starting to blink? Bloomberg Businessweek reports that lawyers for his SAC Capital Advisors are interested in discussing a possible settlement with U.S. prosecutors. The Stamford, Connecticut firm might be willing to pay as much as $1 billion to settle securities and wire fraud charges, according to the report. Cohen himself was never criminally charged. However, in July the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil administrative proceeding against Cohen alleging that he failed to supervise two former employees who have previously been charged with insider trading.
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John Paulson may have denied rumors that he is moving to Puerto Rico, but he did not say anything about doing business there. The founder of New York hedge fund firm Paulson & Co. announced that his firm’s Recovery Funds acquired a majority interest in The St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort, Puerto Rico and the Bahia Beach Resort & Golf Club. Paulson is acquiring the properties, which are part of a luxury housing and vacation community, through a major recapitalization. “The St. Regis Bahia Beach resort is already one of the premier leisure travel destinations in the Caribbean, and there is increasing demand from both those looking to purchase holiday homes in Puerto Rico and from those living in or moving to the island,” said Paulson in a press release.
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Sad news: Doug Millett, a former COO and partner at James Chanos’ Kynikos Associates, died of cancer over the weekend. Millett joined Kynikos in 1991 as an analyst and rose to become the firm’s second largest partner. Chanos reportedly stated in an e-mail: “No one who ever met Doug was not impressed with his rock-solid integrity, towering intellect, and unmistakable sense of humor. He in all ways embodied the qualities we hold dear, but more importantly, was simply a good person.”
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Shares of hedge fund favorite Apple Monday surged five percent to $490.75 after the company announced that sales of its new iPhones are very strong.
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Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, one of Greenlight Capital’s short positions, slumped 5.64 percent to $79.41 and are now off more than 8 percent in the past three trading days.
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George Soros’ Soros Fund Management disclosed that it owns a 9.57 percent stake in Penn Virginia, an independent oil and gas company.
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Shares of hedge fund favorite TripAdvisor fell more than 1 percent to $74.30 on Monday even though Stifel Nicolaus Monday raised its rating on the stock to Buy. At the end of the second quarter, top hedge fund holders included Alan Fournier’s Chatham, New Jersey-based Pennant Capital and Philippe Laffont’s New York City-based Coatue Management, each with around 3.3 to 3.4 million shares, and to a less extent Stephen Mandel, Jr.’s Greenwich, Connecticut-based Lone Pine Capital, which owned 1.9 million shares after slashing its stake by roughly two-thirds in the June quarter.
