A little reminder from Financial News this morning of one man - and his fund - who continue to enjoy the downward of spiral of Barclays and its wayward management (as Wednesday’s FT reports, proud receivers now of a rare “red-top” alert from the ABI for severe breach of govenance).
John Paulson, one of five prominent US hedge fund managers grilled by Congress last week, made a £6.3m (€7.5m) paper profit on his short stake in Barclays in just two hours this morning as the bank’s share price fell 4% by 10:30 GMT.
That was yesterday. Today BARC is currently down another 6.35 per cent (in the end it closed down 3 per cent yesterday).
Paulson’s hedge funds are short 1.18 per cent of Barclays stock.
Paulson is, though, short Britain’s banks in general. Viz:
HBOS (0.95%)
RBS (0.87%)
Lloyds TSB (1.7%)
Banks which so far this week are down 18 per cent, 19 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.
And if you track those holdings back to when they were disclosed by Paulson, back at the end of September…
Lloyds TSB down 39.65%
HBOS down 50.42%
Barclays down 58.23%
RBS down 76.91%
All that in a time period over which the banks have been shored up by a global bailout package.
Related links:
Hedgies v. Waxman - FT Alphaville
Paulson hedge fund buys into mortgage securities - FT
“While stand the banks of England…” - FT Alphaville
_____
