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’Dear hedge fund investor… May has been a … multidirectional month
It’s not so much the depth of the losses — though in some instances they have been nasty — but rather, their breadth; across strategies, asset classes and managers, that has made May a particularly painful month for much of the hedge fund industry.
US mall investors set for bonanza
Hedge funds and other investors now stand to make billions from their holdings in bankrupt US mall owner General Growth Properties amid the recent rebound in financial markets. Among the biggest potential winners is William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management,
“I haven’t pulled an all-nighter since college”
So begins the email hedge fund manager Bill Ackman fired off on Monday to NYT business columnist Joe Nocera — an email that was a covering letter for a 5,238-word philippic (“every word is important”) directed against Nocera’s earlier criticism of Ackman’s abortive – and expensive – proxy battle against the directors of Target Corp.
Pershing Square critique hits Target
Pershing Square scored a significant win Thursday in its ongoing proxy fight – the “most expensive of all time” – with Target Corp.
As today’s FT reports:
Target, the US discount retailer, has suffered a setback in its efforts to stave off a challenge to its board by activist investor Bill Ackman,
Target’s rebels win proxy support
Target, the US discount retailer, has suffered a setback in its efforts to fight off a challenge to its board by activist investor Bill Ackman, after a key proxy advisory service endorsed two of the dissident candidates.
The moving Target
Herein the latest volly in what is already being widely billed as the “most expensive proxy fight of all time”.
That is, Target Corp v. Pershing Square.
Smarting from Pershing Square’s widely publicised “town hall meeting”
Ackman’s Gekko moment
Bill Ackman has had a tempestuous relationship with Target Corp; which has proved a rather large blot on the Pershing Square principal’s otherwise highly successful ride through the financial crisis.
Way back in July 2007,
Fannie and Freddie link fest – updated with key US Treasury pdfs
Government sponsored enterprises,
- US government takes control of Fannie and Freddie – FT
- Statement from James Lockhart at the FHFA
- Q&A on conservatorship
- Pref purchase plan
- MBS purchase plan
- GSE credit facility
- Barry Ritholtz has ten quick points to make.
CVS to acquire Longs Drug
CVS Caremark said Tuesday that it will buy Longs Drug Stores for $2.9bn, including debt, in a move that continues the consolidation of the US drug store sector. CVS Caremark will pay $71.50 per share in cash for California-based Longs Drug,
Dexia shores up its US monoline
Dexia, the Belgian-French financial services group, acted to bolster confidence in its US bond insurance division by providing a $5bn credit line to the subsidiary. The move comes after hedge fund manager Bill Ackman last week revealed that his $6bn Pershing Square Capital Management fund was betting against Dexia’s FSA unit.
JPMorgan in $3.6bn Target card deal
Target, the discount retailer, is to sell about half of its store credit card portfolio to JPMorgan Chase for $3.6bn, in a deal that follows activist investor pressure from Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management.
On Target
Equity Private, guest blogging at Dealbreaker, has two rather interesting sets of figures. They’re the H2 results for Pershing Square IV, the special investment vehicle set up by monoline-shorter Bill Ackman:
Target in talks on credit card stake
Target, the US discount retailer, is in talks to sell about half its credit card portfolio to an undisclosed investment partner, in what could be a $4bn deal. The talks follow a review of the credit card business launched in September after pressure from activist investor William Ackman,
Monowhine
Reuters have obtained a copy of the testimony MBIA has delivered to a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. The hearing is due later on Thursday.
Unable or unwilling to actually explain itself,
Downgrades ahead: monolines still don’t have enough cash
In light of Standard & Poor’s subprime risk model adjustment yesterday, bond insurers Ambac and MBIA had a tough trading day. Ambac was down 39 per cent, and MBIA down 17 per cent.
Shares in both fell once more.
Off target: that other Ackman bet
Pershing Square Capital may have made a lot of money shorting bond insurers, but not everything went well for Bill Ackman through the second half of 2008. Here’s one effect of the credit crunch he didn’t foresee:
Activist investors strike again at Ceridian
William Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management, the largest shareholder of Ceridian Corp, is gearing up for another corporate battle, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mr Ackman is expected to say he opposes the $5.3bn sale of the US human-resources and transaction-outsourcing company and that he has hired bankers to find a higher bidder for the company,
Pershing’s mystery target
The New York Post on Tuesday set a puzzle with its story that Pershing Square Capital has raised a $2bn pot to take a tilt at “just one specific iconic American company.”
The word “iconic” is currently out of favour here at FT Alphaville (oops,