Another institutional investor is bailing on Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors. San Francisco-based Ironwood Capital Management, which invests in hedge funds on behalf of clients, is yanking out its entire $100 million or so investment from SAC, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the decision. Ironwood has been an investor with the hedge fund firm since 2007, but soured on its position after SAC said it would no longer provide investors with updates about the government’s probe or provide “unconditional” cooperation.
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Scout Capital Management, a hedge fund headed by Third Point alum Adam Weiss and James Crichton, disclosed a 5.9 percent passive stake in CST Brands, Inc. The company is the second-largest publicly-traded fuel and convenience store chain in North America and was recently spun off from Valero Energy.
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Glenview Capital Management sought to quell concerns it is seeking to take over Health Management Associates, Inc. The New York-based hedge fund firm, which owns 14.6 percent of the operator of acute-care facilities, assured investors and the company it has no intentions of buying the company even though it recently converted its Schedule 13G filing to a 13D and sought permission to buy as much as $2.2 billion of stock, or 75 percent of the company.
In response, last Friday Health Management instituted a poison pill that is triggered when an investor buys 15 percent of the stock. However, in a statement issued on Tuesday Glenview explained that under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, each of its three funds must make its own HSR filing. “Due to the size of our funds, and the proximity of their present ownership stake to the thresholds, three funds filed for the higher authorization size of up to $709.1 million and one filed for authorization of up to $141.8 million, thus adding up to $2.2 billion of stock,” it explained. “Such an investment size is both beyond our present intention and beyond our present resources available for any single position.”
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More good news for Pershing Square’s William Ackman. Credit Suisse raised its price target for Procter & Gamble — the stock the activist hedge fund manager recently touted at the Ira Sohn conference — to $85 from $75, citing the announcement of A.G. Lafley’s return as CEO. “We expect the stock to trade at a premium as investors anticipate better operating results combined with potential portfolio changes,” the investment bank wrote Tuesday in a note to clients.
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Stephen Mandel Jr.'s Lone Pine Capital disclosed it owns 7.46 million shares, or 5.1 percent, of Realogy Holdings Corp., a real estate brokerage company. The passive stake is more than triple Lone Pine’s holding at the end of the first quarter.
