Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management, once a high-flying tech-oriented hedge fund, is down to just over $1.34 billion in assets under management, according to SEC filings. Benton, who had closed Andor in 2008 when it was managing $2 billion, disclosed that his largest holdings as of September 30 were Facebook, Apple and Google. Those three stocks combined accounted for nearly 40 percent of the assets. In 2011 Benton came out of retirement when he raised more than $500 million for the Andor Opportunity Fund and its offshore equivalent. In 2001 Benton was running about $8 billion when he split off from Arthur Samberg’s Pequot Capital Management. Benton is the first hedge fund manager to file his 13F detailing U.S. equity holdings as of September 30. Most hedge funds traditionally wait until the 45-day deadline after the quarter’s end.
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London-based Brevan Howard continues to boost its U.S. operations. According to a report, it is launching a new fund, the Brevan Howard Strategic Macro Fund, which is headed by Vinay Pande, a former chief investment adviser at Deutsche Bank. It has not yet raised any money for the fund, says the report. The firm also boosted its U.S. staff to 28 from 2 in June 2012.
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More migration: Odey Asset Management, a 22 year-old London-based hedge fund firm, is opening an office in New York. The firm, which currently has $9.7 billion in AUM, manages only about $300 million for U.S. investors even though half of its assets are invested in the U.S., according to a report. “It’s mad we’ve never had an office there before,” Odey founder Crispin Odey reportedly recently stated. “The nature of our business is that we enjoy and look for risk. Europeans sell risk and then eat it and Americans buy it.” Odey recently hired Tom Trowbridge, formerly head of U.S. marketing for Lombard Odier’s 1798 Investment Strategies, as head of U.S. sales.
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Credit Suisse raised its target price on Safeway to $40 from $34 in response to recent actions the company has taken following Jana Partners’ disclosure of its activist position. Specifically, the investment bank points to the supermarket company’s recent announcement that it plans to exit the Chicago market, where it operates 72 Dominick’s stores. “Company begins unlocking value in U.S. but story just beginning,” says an analyst’s report from Credit Suisse.
