Tuesday

June 14, 2016

www.bloombergbriefs.com

Noctua Starts Latin America-Focused Credit Fund  BY HEMA PARMAR

Noctua Partners, the $650 million emerging markets-focused firm, has started a new credit fund focused on Latin America. The Emerging Markets Credit Opportunities Fund started trading on June 1 with $50 million in assets, according to CEO .  Martin Guyot

The fund invests across emerging markets with a focus on Latin America, Guyot said. It looks for arbitrage opportunities within the event-driven space and also those prompted by dislocations in corporate bond prices and liquidity.

The fund bets around volatility in emerging-market sovereign bonds, prompted by lower commodity prices and political developments, Guyot said. "In corporates, we see a lack of secondary market liquidity creating attractive opportunities," he said. Guyot also said he sees long-short opportunities as "the diversity of corporates’ balance sheets has some more prepared than others to handle declining profitability and funding availability." Large redemptions from long-only funds in general have created forced selling and dislocations in emerging-market sovereign and corporate bonds, he said.

Latin America offers opportunities for relative-value bets as spreads on bonds in Brazil and Argentina, are "attractive" compared to those in Mexico and Colombia, Guyot said. "There are a number of corporate and quasi-sovereign issuances that we believe currently offer an attractive premium to their relative sovereign. Thus, we are looking for these spreads to compress, offering attractive capital appreciation for the fund," he said.

For directional bets, the fund prefers Argentina as sovereign and corporate bond yield curves in South America’s second-largest economy have begun to normalize and the new issue market for corporate and provincial debt continues to grow. In December, former Noctua Partners portfolio manager was appointed Argentina's Luis Caputosecretary of finance under it's new president Mauricio Macri.

Two large institutional investors and some private individuals have invested in the fund, which will be managed by , Guyot said, declining to give investor Ricardo Navarrospecifics. Navarro joined Noctua this month after six years at Itau Unibanco Holding.

Emerging markets-focused hedge funds fell 0.5 percent last month and are up 1.1 percent this year through May, according to Hedge Fund Research. Hedge funds on average are up 0.7 percent year-to-date and 0.4 percent in May, the data provider said. Latin American hedge funds, which still lead emerging markets in year-to-date gains, averaged a 3.4 percent loss in May, cutting year-to-date returns to 10.8 percent, it said.

The firm also has a $110 million Argentina fund that is up 12.5 percent this year through May, and manages a $72 million macro fund that has gained 6.4 percent in that time period, according to investor letters obtained by Bloomberg.

"The problem is demand, is spending. ... We don’t have enough growth around the world and I think with fiscal QE you could actually get more demand.”  

— Blackstone Group LP's Tom Hill in an

interview on Bloomberg TV

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Aurora redemptions said to have derailed takeover by 50 South Capital: Redemptions

Kingdon Capital trimmed its loss for the year with a gain in May: Returns

Ex-Soros duo Rogers and Donfeld take their team to start a fund with Druckenmiller cash: On the Move

Waratah Energy is bullish on Devon Energy: Market Calls

A BNY Mellon survey found that hedge funds are the least favored alternative asset class: Research

K2 Advisors' Robert Christian says managers are looking to liquid alts to access new clients: Spotlight

INSIDE

 BY MELISSA KARSH

Long-short equity liquid alternative funds rose 1.2 percent in May versus a 0.8 percent gain for long-short equity hedge funds in the same month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

On a monthly basis, long-short equity hedge funds outperformed liquid alternatives running the same strategy in nine out of 17 months from January 2015-May 2016, but experienced more volatility, according to Bloomberg Data analyst Sean Casey.

Since January 2015, long-short equity liquid alts on average outperformed long-short equity hedge funds, gaining 2.6 percent versus 0.4 percent, respectively. The data consists of 237 global open-end funds that utilize a long-short equity strategy, and more than 700 long-short equity hedge funds. For more from Bloomberg Data, run on your terminal.HFND

RETURNS IN BRIEF

L/S Equity: Liquid Alts vs. Hedge Funds

June 14, 2016 Bloomberg Brief Hedge Funds 2

 

RETURNS IN BRIEFA look at hedge fund performance last month. Funds in the table below not mentioned in the accompanying text on this page were reported in other issues of the Brief or in Bloomberg News stories. For questions, e-mail mkarsh@bloomberg.net.  

Kingdon Capital Management’s $1.7 billion global long-short equity fund gained 5.2 percent in May, cutting its loss for the first five months of the year to 3.2 percent, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Kingdon’s $345 million Credit Master Fund was up 2.6 percent last month, bringing year-to-date returns to 2.6 percent, the person said. A spokesman for ’s $2.2 Mark Kingdonbillion firm declined to comment.

— Hema Parmar

’s $12.8 Winton Capital Managementbillion Futures Fund lost 3.9 percent through May 31 after gaining almost 1 percent in 2015, said a spokesman for the firm. The London-based managed futures fund is run by , David Hardingwho founded Winton in 1997. Funds trading a managed futures strategy averaged losses in March, April and May, wiping out combined gains of 7.2 percent posted in the first two months of the year, according to Societe Generale SA’s index, which tracks the performance of the 20 largest CTAs globally that provide daily returns and are open to new investment. It lost 0.3 percent in the first five months of 2016 after rising by 0.03 percent in 2015. 

— Will Wainewright

 

REDEMPTIONS

May Returns

Year-to-Date to End-May Returns

June 14, 2016 Bloomberg Brief Hedge Funds 3

 

REDEMPTIONS

Aurora Redemptions Said to Have Derailed Takeover by 50 South Capital    BY HEMA PARMAR

The planned acquisition of Aurora by Investment Management 50 South

collapsed because Capital Advisors Aurora clients had asked to pull money after the deal was announced, according to four people with knowledge of the matter.

The deal required that a certain percentage of its $5.4 billion in assets stay with the firm after the merger, said the people. When that condition wasn’t met the deal was terminated, according to the people. The decision was mutually agreed upon by both parties, said John O'Connell, spokesman for Northern Trust Corp., of which 50 South is the $5 billion alternative-investment unit.

The failed merger eventually led Aurora

to tell clients it would wind down and return all capital, to avoid that remaining investors would be hurt by the redemptions, one of the people said. The surprise decision by one of Chicago’s notable hedge fund investors highlights the difficulties of the fund-of-funds business as declining assets force the industry to consolidate.

“Allocation to the fund of hedge fund industry has declined, which has made it more difficult to maintain scale,” said Ted Meyer, a spokesman for Natixis Global Asset Management, Aurora's parent company.

Funds of hedge funds have struggled to attract assets as investors voice concerns over paying a layer of fees to the middlemen on top of those charged by the

underlying managers. The number of fund of funds around the world declined to 1,616 at the end of the first quarter from 2,462 in 2007, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc.

50 South wasn’t the only suitor for Aurora. — which Mesirow Financialmanages $30.5 billion, including almost $12 billion in hedge funds — was also in talks to purchase the firm before the agreement with 50 South was struck, one of the people said. Both 50 South and Mesirow are also based in Chicago.

Debbie Krieps, a spokeswoman for Mesirow, declined to comment.

While Aurora winds down, at least one member of its senior team may spin out to start a new firm that will seed emerging managers, one of the people said.

 

ON THE MOVE

June 14, 2016 Bloomberg Brief Hedge Funds 4

ON THE MOVE

 

and , who left their jobs as money managers at David Rogers Joshua Donfeld Soros last month, are bringing most of their team to start a fund with a Fund Management

substantial anchor investment from , according to people with Stan Druckenmillerknowledge of the matter.

The investment from Druckenmiller, who trained Rogers at his former hedge fund , will be his biggest after the $1 billion he gave another Duquesne Capital Management

protege, , to help start in 2011, said the people. Zach Schreiber PointState Capital Rogers and Donfeld are planning to start in the fourth quarter of Castle Hook Partnersthis year. Rogers is “extremely talented and he did a great job when he worked for me,” Druckenmiller said in an April interview.

The pair are bringing seven members of their team, and has gotten help from billionaire ’s family office to keep the group intact, said one of the people. George SorosThe team includes , who specializes in real estate and infrastructure, Matthew Lentzand , a macro strategist. Both previously worked at Duquesne and Jake CarneyPointState. Castle Hook, which will be based in New York, will invest across asset classes.

Representatives for Castle Hook, Soros Fund Management and Druckenmiller declined to comment.

Rogers and Donfeld decided to leave Soros Fund Management after disagreeing with Chief Investment Officer about the direction of global markets, people Ted Burdickfamiliar with the matter said in April. Burdick earlier this year replaced , Scott Bessentwho had left to start his own hedge fund. He is the sixth CIO to hold the job since Soros decided to scale back risk following the departures of star traders Druckenmiller and

in April 2000.Nicholas RoditiSoros, 85, has been more time in the office directing trades and recently spending

oversaw a series of big, bearish investments, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this week. The philanthropist, who built a fortune through savvy wagers on markets, has taken a dim view of the world economy and particularly of China.

— Katia Porzecanski and Katherine Burton

Point72 Asset Management, the family office of billionaire , hired Steven A. Cohen from as a money manager for industrials at the $11 billion firm.Jon Harooni Citadel

Harooni will start in the fall and report to , the sector executive for Phil VillhauerPoint72’s industrials investments, said Jessica Schaefer, a spokeswoman for the firm. Harooni left his job as money manager at Surveyor, one of Citadel’s stock-trading units, in recent months, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Katie Spring, a spokeswoman for Citadel, and Harooni declined to comment.

The investment firm also said it hired , a former executive at Pacific Niall HessionInvestment Management Co., as an equity trader in London. Hession declined to comment.

Point72 is building its presence in London and is seeking to boost headcount to 70 people. , the former co-head of equity distribution for Barclays Plc in Europe, Will Toveywas appointed to head the office earlier this year and money managers have also been hired from hedge funds such as Moore Capital Management and GLG Partners.

External hires account for 20 percent of Point72, which prefers to groom analysts and money managers internally, Cohen said last month at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. He also said he was “blown away” by the lack of talent in the hedge fund industry, and that “it’s not easy to find great people.”

Before joining Citadel, Harooni worked at . Hedge Fund Viking Global InvestmentsAlert reported Harooni’s move as a stock specialist earlier.

— Katia Porzecanski and Nishant Kumar

Ex-Soros Duo to Start Fund With Druckenmiller Cash    

Cohen’s Point72 Hires Citadel’s Harooni for Industrials

Adam Levinson’s $4.5 billion macro hedge fund, Graticule Asset

, has hired former Management’s BlueCrest Capital Management John

in New York to invest in credit McNiff markets, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

McNiff is starting at the firm on Thursday, said the person. The Singapore-based company was spun out of Fortress Investment Group Inc.’s Asia macro hedge fund, where Levinson was chief investment officer, in January 2015 and counts the New York-based asset manager as a backer.

A spokesman for Graticule in New York said he couldn’t comment.

McNiff, who was head of U.S. credit at BlueCrest, was among money managers who left the investment firm earlier this year after its billionaire founder Michael

decided to return client money to Plattfocus on managing his own wealth and that of his partners.

Graticule managed $4.5 billion of assets by the end of March, up from $4 billion a year earlier, according to reports from Fortress.

— Nishant Kumar

David Allen, a money manager who left the $217 billion Canada Pension

last month, has Plan Investment Boardhired , former head of Matthew Coureyhigh-yield bond trading at Credit Suisse Group AG, as he prepares to start his own fund in London, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.  

Allen has also hired , Joseph Novarrothe former managing partner at investment firm Renshaw Bay, to become the chief operating officer of his private debt fund, which will open later this year, said the person. They will both be partners at the new firm, the person said.

Courey, Novarro and Allen declined to comment on the appointments or the fund.

— Nishant Kumar

Levinson’s Fund Hires Ex-BlueCrest's McNiff

Ex-Credit Suisse Trader Said to Join London Startup

MARKET CALLS ITEMS MAY BE SUBMITTED TO MKARSH@BLOOMBERG.NET FOR CONSIDERATION

June 14, 2016 Bloomberg Brief Hedge Funds 5

MARKET CALLS ITEMS MAY BE SUBMITTED TO MKARSH@BLOOMBERG.NET FOR CONSIDERATION

Waratah Advisors’ energy fund is looking for companies that are viewed by the market as low quality but it sees as moderate quality, such as Devon Energy Corp., said portfolio manager Jason

.Landau"We prefer to design our portfolio to be

long higher-quality energy names and short lower-quality, but in this market we do not feel that we can generate the appropriate level of return shorting low-quality stocks, given the risks embedded in these stocks today," Landau said.

Waratah Energy LP is focused on North American equities and is run on a low net basis. It's currently long energy producer Devon, which this month agreed to sell some of its oil and gas assets for almost $1 billion.

"Devon has a slightly bloated balance sheet, but does have large-scale, high-quality assets in both Canada and the U.S.that are being misinterpreted by the market," Landau said in an interview this month. Its a top-five position on the long side of the portfolio, which includes 40 to 50 positions on both the long-and-short sides of the portfolio on average, he said.

Waratah Energy opened to outside investors in the beginning of the year, after starting as a standalone strategy in April 2015. Prior to that, the strategy existed inside Toronto-based Waratah’s low net market neutral fund — WaratahOne LP — since inception in 2010. There'smore than $C275 million ($215 million) of gross market value currently invested in the strategy between the two funds, according to Landau, who declined to disclose the energy fund’s assets under management citing company policy. The fund is up 14 percent this year through the end of May after rising about 5.6 percent last month. The firm has about $C1.1 billion ($861 million) in assets and runs a total of five funds.

Waratah Energy Bullish on Devon Energy

 

MARKET CALLS, REVISITED BY HEMA PARMAR

Remy Trafelet, president of long-short equity fund , last Trafelet Brokaw & Co. saidJune that he was bullish on Cedar Fair LP, which owns 14 amusement parks in the U.S. and Canada, and had a price target of $84 for the stock. Trafelet said at last year’s Carter Burden Conference on June 11, 2015 that the company, whose shares are set up in a master-limited partnership structure, was akin to a "regional monopoly" with steep barriers to entry keeping new competitors from entering the market.

Since June 11, 2015, the stock has returned 7.9 percent. Trafelet did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Seven Generations Energy Ltd., a Calgary-based energy company that has been the second-best performing energystock in Canada this year, is another company where the fund sees opportunity this year.

"The Street is underestimating and under-modeling their production and

cash flow, so the stock is really cheaperthan it looks to everyone else," Landau said. "The asset scale is impressive, the management team and execution have been flawless since the IPO in 2014 and have vastly exceeded expectations, and the cost structure is very much in check."

Landau added that about three months

ago, the balance sheet was cleaned up or insulated more after its equity raise, so the company will probably have the fastest production growth in North America.

Landau said the fund is staying away from very crowded shorts. "We don’t think you are being paid to take that risk," he said. "Companies that were effectively insolvent or borderline bankrupt at $26 oil have seen their share prices double or triple. We do not find opportunity in these stocks particularly on the short side, nor do we think it’s a prudent area to deploy capital to today."

— Melissa Karsh

 

RESEARCH

Source: Bloomberg

Click on or a live version of this chart, click on image or run .G #HF.BRIEF 19

June 14, 2016 Bloomberg Brief Hedge Funds 6

 

 

RESEARCH

Hedge Funds Have Lowest Allocation Among Alternatives, BNY SaysBY JESSE RISEBOROUGH    

Hedge funds are the least favored alternative asset class by institutional investors, while holdings in private equity are the most favored, according to a survey of 400 investors by BNY Mellon.

Capital allocated to hedge funds stood at 14 percent as of last year's third quarter, while private equity funds have the highest allocation among alternative assets, with 37 percent. Fifty-three percent of investors said they planned to increase their exposure to private equity over the next 12 months.

The investors surveyed are also seeking to curb the costs. Sixty-three percent said they would seek to lower hedge fund fees in the next 12 months, while 62 percent planned to do so for private equity fees.

A total of 50 hedge fund executives were also interviewed for the study. Seventy-eight percent of those respondents said they would consider reducing their management fees over the

next 12 months, according to BNY, which commissioned FT Remark to survey executives from global institutions.

BNY Mellon has $1.6 trillion in assets under management and also serves as a custody bank.

Insurers Pull Back From Hedge FundsBY RYAN O'CONNELL AND HIMANSHU BAKSHI, BLOOMBERG INTELLIGENCE

American International Group Inc. and CNA Financial Corp. have above-average exposures to hedge funds, although each company is taking steps to reduce its holdings. AIG, for instance, intends to cut its hedge fund allocation by 50 percent, to reduce its investment risk and earnings volatility. AIG submitted notices of redemption in the first quarter for $4.1 billion, or about 40 percent, of its $9.4 billion invested in hedge funds. It has so far received proceeds for $1.2 billion pursuant to those redemption requests.

As of March 31, hedge funds represented about 3 percent of AIG's investments and about 4 percent of CNA's. Several peers have allocated less than 0.5 percent of their investments to hedge funds and yet they are still taking steps to lower their allocation. MetLife Inc. and Lincoln National Corp. fall into that category.

AIG and CNA have about 2 percent of

their investments in private equity. However, the insurers have said their private equity holdings generally performed well and they plan to keep their

allocations or raise them. Lincoln National said it will shift assets out of hedge funds into private equity.

OVER THE HEDGE

Hedge Funds Least Favored Alternative Asset by Investors

AIG, CNA Have Above-Average Hedge Fund Exposures

June 14, 2016 Bloomberg Brief Hedge Funds 7

OVER THE HEDGEStreep Does Trump in Activist Shakespeare for Hedge FundersBY AMANDA GORDON  

Meryl Streep made her face a shade of orange on the night of June 6, then whipped up her hair and stuffed a pillow or two under a dark business suit and red tie. She was Trump for the finale of the Public Theater’s one-night-only gala performance exploring Shakespeare’s influence on America.

It was a show of Shakespearean activism that completely bowled over the audience, including activist investors Dan Loeband .Barry Rosenstein

The show at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, titled "The United States of America," was crafted by Jeremy McCarter, who hosted with James Shapiro, editor of the Library of America volume "Shakespeare in America." There were sections about Abraham Lincoln’s affection for the Elizabethan playwright and the prejudiced responses to the interracial couple in "Othello." The first light break came with the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet," followed by the "West Side Story" version.

Streep’s number, with its nod to current events, had the crowd roaring right into the after party, where ’s Loeb got a Third Pointdrink as a DJ spun Aerosmith, Prince, and Bell Biv Devoe. The Public presents free performances of Shakespeare plays at the Delacorte attended by about 100,000 people annually.

A supper al fresco — no tent, no rain — preceded the performance with a menu that won the approval of Sandra Lee, a guest of Barry and Lizanne Rosenstein. The first course was roasted artichoke salad; the second was pan-seared chicken with cornbread pudding. There were almost 1,000 guests, a record, raising "way more" than $2 million, said Rachel Pivnick, the

Public’s chief financial officer.Paul Taubman sat with Len Tessler and Ashley Leeds, the co-

chair of the gala, whose dad, Larry Leeds, and husband, Christopher Harland, were one table over. Samantha Power sat with Tom Bernstein, recording Streep’s performance on her phone to show her husband, Cass Sunstein, who was in Chicago promoting his new book "The World According to Star Wars."

Charles Hale of Hale Global enjoyed the location. Peter Wallace of Blackstone and Chris Kojima of Goldman Sachs ruled over the eastern edge of the dinner party with "Hamilton" director Thomas Kail. Pledge cards on every table let guests enter a drawing to win tickets to "Hamilton," with donations of $100 and up.

   

SPOTLIGHT

Source:Amanda Gordon/Bloomberg

Dan Loeb

June 14, 2016 Bloomberg Brief Hedge Funds 8

SPOTLIGHT

Hedge Fund Managers Look to Liquid Alts to Access New Clients, Says K2's Christian

Robert Christian is senior managing director and

head of investment research at Franklin

Templeton's , which invests in K2 Advisors

hedge funds. He told Bloomberg Brief's Melissa

Karsh that managers are looking to liquid

alternative funds to attract new clients as money

coming into hedge funds plateaus. Comments

were edited and condensed.

Q: How much do you have allocated to hedge funds and liquid alts?A: About $3.1 billion in liquid alts, including $2.3 billion in UCITS and '40 Act funds combined, and we have $822 million of platform structure. As of May 1, there was $10.2 billion firmwide in hedge fund assets. In the hedge fund business, we work with 105 managers, and so about 25 of the 105 managers are involved in some way in liquid alts.

Q: How are these funds performing versus hedge funds this year?A: We found that more than half of our managers on the liquid side since inception, so from November 2013-May 2016, have beaten their hedge funds. A big driver is they don't have the hedge fund fee drag versus liquid alts where it's 1 percent flat. So in a low-to-negative return environment, that fee difference, while it may seem small, can actually make a pretty big different over a year or two. A second component would be the illiquidity premium — you just haven't gotten paid to take liquidity risk, and that’s just a phenomenon of where we are in the market cycle. And part of that is linked to this crowding effect everyone is talking about. So the illiquid names tend to get popular, then they get crowded, they do very well and then when there’s an unwind for something — either market specific or security specific — they can go down very fast. And suddenly it’s difficult for managers to capture that illiquidity risk premium. Over a full cycle, you would expect for hedge funds to outperform, but that's not what we’re seeing and time will tell. If we remain in this low-rate, low-return environment, it's going to be more difficult for hedge funds to make money and overcome their cost structure.

 

Q: Is there more interest in liquids?Liquid alts is high growth, and a lot of A:

that growth is coming from the retail side. You’re getting hedge fund expertise at a reasonable fee in a daily registered vehicle, as retail investors are finding it challenging in their traditional portfolios. Retail investors now have a new tool that offers diversification, reasonable fees, liquidity. That's been a driver of growth. More and more it's becoming adopted by big-name managers, and it's possible others will follow Brevan Howard, which is the best example recently. Part of the move is that the amount of new money coming into hedge funds is plateauing. It allows managers to access a new set of clientele, and it's an offshoot of what they're already doing.  

Q: How do fees play into this? I heard that liquid alts fees could be higher than hedge fund fees on the back end.

Fees are one of the drivers. We try to A:keep the fees very competitive. There are other products that have higher fees. That's from a retail point of view. Our fees are industry standard for the multiasset and multimanager funds. On the retail side, our fees are competitive and we do have different share classes, but what you heard could be true if you're a small investor buying off of a platform adding in fees on top of a fund. On the institutional side — we have an institutional share class and then we also have institutions coming directly to us. In particular, Asian and Australian institutional clients are very focused on fees and they'll come directly to us and engage in the platform where they bypass a lot of those fees.

Q: Which strategies lend themselvesbest to liquid alts versus hedge funds?

A: We have four broad strategy groups — equity long-short is one. Relative value, which is fixed-income RV, is another so there is an element of that that's not applicable. So some managers and programs don't fit but we work closely with them to have low-leverage programs and liquid underlyings. Part of that is traditional fixed-income RV trading, but also credit, mortgages, but the liquid tranches. The third bucket is event, but activism is not really scalable for liquid alts so we don't have any activism in there. But merger arbitrage is very liquid friendly. The fourth is global macro — so liquid listed futures contracts, liquid foreign-exchange and that has a leverage cap we've adapted. We also have an emerging-markets discretionary manager, but it’s their liquid component. A lot of people think of EM as not being liquid, but the market has really matured, so you can trade Mexico, Brazilian bonds, Russia. So it's the liquid slice of the EM component.

Q: Are you adding more managers?A: We’re happy with the fund now, but we’re constantly evaluating the opportunity set and managers we have. This calendar year we'll probably add around three managers. We added one in May — a European equity long-short manager that's somewhat catalyst driven. From a top-down point of view, there’s a lot of opportunity, a lot of dispersion in the European equity market. It’s a direct way to play that and then also we like the manager from a bottom-up manager point of view. So it made sense to add them. I can see that continuing. We like merger arb and we're working closely with a merger arb specialist to possibly add that in the near future.

Hometown/Residence: Grew up in Medford, Oregon. Currently resides in Westport, Connecticut.Education: Stanford University; MBA at NYUProfessional Background: Prior to joining K2 in May 2010, worked at FRM Americas. Also previously worked at Graham Capital Management and Julius Baer Investment Management.Hobbies: Anything outdoors including skiing, fishing, boating.Investment philosophy: We're very risk focused and the returns will come over time.

ACTIVIST SITUATIONS BY PATRICK BROWN AND MICHAEL THIEME, BLOOMBERG DATA

June 14, 2016 Bloomberg Brief Hedge Funds 9

Significant Actions at Companies Targeted by Activist Investors

COMPANY ACTIVIST WHAT HAPPENED

Omega Protein Corp.

Wynnefield Capital

Activist hedge fund sent a  to shareholders on June 13 urging them to vote in favor of its nominee to the company's board of directors over the letterincumbent. The activist said the health-care firm's current board is not qualified to serve the best interests of the company and its stockholders.

Facebook Inc.

Citron Research

Activist short-seller said in an  that the social media giant is too expensive and will lose market share to competing social media platforms interviewsuch as Snapchat, Bloomberg News reported June 13.

Ultratech Inc.

Neuberger Berman Group

Investment manager on June 13  it's rare activist proxy fight by criticizing the performance of the maker of lights and lasers for the escalatedtechnology sector. A public campaign is a rarity for the asset manager, which is the company's third-largest shareholder with 7.6 percent of outstanding stock, as it typically is a passive investor in public companies.

Vodafone Group Plc

Elliott Management

Activist investor  a court fight June 10 to get a second audit on the company's acquisition of Kabel Deutschland, potentially boosting its bid to wonget a bigger payout for its 13.5 percent stake in the cable operator.

Eastern Platinum Ltd.

Ka An Development Co.

Company facing a contested election for its board  activist shareholder on June 9 for nominating six new directors that may put the condemnedcompany's finances at risk.

CDK Global Inc.

Elliott Management

Activist hedge fund sent a  June 8 to the company outlining shareholders' positive responses to the recommendations it laid out on May 4 to letterunlock value within the company. The company's stock price has risen 15.7 percent since the May 4 letter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

TheStreet Inc.

Raging Capital

Activist firm with a 9.3 percent stake  a 13D on June 7 to postpone the New York-based financial media company's annual meeting set for June filed9. The activist said in the filing that the postponement would allow the board to discuss its composition with shareholders. This is the activist's fourteenth campaign since 2010, and its first targeting the communications sector, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Source: Bloomberg Data, , NI SHRHOLDACT BI BESG

This story was compiled by a Bloomberg LP employees involved with data collection and was edited by the News department. To suggest ideas or provide feedback, contact the editor for this story: Melissa Karsh at mkarsh@bloomberg.net. For more on activist investors from Bloomberg Intelligence, run on the terminal.      BI BESG <GO>

ACTIVIST SITUATIONS BY PATRICK BROWN AND MICHAEL THIEME, BLOOMBERG DATA

 

June 14, 2016 Bloomberg Brief Hedge Funds 10

 

CALENDAR TO SUBMIT AN EVENT E-MAIL MKARSH@BLOOMBERG.NET

June 14, 2016 Bloomberg Brief Hedge Funds 11

DATE ORGANIZER EVENT SPEAKERS/ATTENDEES OF NOTE/DETAILS LOCATION

June 15 Fidelity Investments '16 Alternative Investments ForumTheodore P. Enders, Goldman Sachs AM; Anthony

, SkyBridge; , Morgan Creek.Scaramucci Mark YuskoThe Pierre New York

June 15 BattleFin Discovery Day IntrepidAnthony Scaramucci, SkyBridge; Michael Kieffer, Kieffer Capital.

New York

June 16 RavenPack 4th Annual Research SymposiumGordon Ritter, GSA Capital;  , Millennium Matt OberPartners;  , Deutsche Bank.Yin Luo

New York

June 21 Markets GroupNew England Credit & Hedge Fund Investor Forum

Eric Nierenberg, Massachusetts PRIM; James Mnookin, Cambridge Associates; Kamal Suppal, NEPC.

Boston

June 21 Carter Burden Center for the Aging2016 Carter Burden Investment Conference

David Meneret, Mill Hill Capital; Joseph Peta, Kingsford Capital Management; , University of Melanie DavisVirginia Investment Management Co.

Bloomberg offices, New York

June 21   Managed Funds Association   Forum 2016Brian Hurst, AQR;  , Neuberger Berman; Ian Haas Sandy

, Man AHL;  , KKR Prisma.  Rattray Jackie RosnerFour Seasons, Chicago  

June 23 Hedge Fund AssociationCybersecurity Challenges and Solutions for Emerging Managers

Discussion of threats facing managers and steps to protect the business from cybersecurity threats.

Boston

June 23-24 Storm-7 ConsultingHedge Funds: Regulatory, Risk and Compliance

Sessions on EU and U.S. regulation, business continuity and disaster recovery and 3rd-party administration.

New York

June 28 Hedge Fund AssociationMitigating Risks Caused by Rogue Employees

Paul Neale, DOAR; , Gibbons; Mark S. Sidoti R. Scott , Gibbons.Garley

Harvard Club, New York

June 29 NYSSAAnnual Benjamin Graham Conference

Jason Karp, Tourbillon Capital; , Leon CoopermanOmega Advisors; , Halcyon Capital.John Bader

New York

June 30New York Hedge Fund Roundtable, Bloomberg

June RoundtableMaureen Sherry, author of "Opening Belle" and previously of Bear Stearns.

New York

July 11-14 Risk.net Quant Summit 2016 USA Maurizio Ferconi, BlackRock; , KKR.Attilio Meucci New York

July 18-19 FRA LLCPrivate Investment Fund, Operations and Compliance Forum East

Discussion topics include how are investors assessing fund operations, hedge fund tax and valuation issues.

New York

July 18-20 Opal GroupFamily Office & Private Wealth Management Forum 2016

Gregory A. Coleman, FBI (retired); Norm Champ, Kirkland & Ellis; Mitzi Perdue, Perdue Farms.

Hyatt Regency Newport, Rhode Island

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Bloomberg Brief: Hedge Funds

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