- Another American Real-Estate Bubble
- DE Shaw mulls new private equity fund
- Tide turns against short-sellers
- Global ‘Bache’ For Pru
American Real-Estate Bubble – Barron’s
CARL ICAHN’S INVESTMENT SUCCESS IS GETTING recognized in the stock market. Too recognized, in fact.
Shares of American Real Estate Partners (ticker:ACP), an Icahn-controlled investment vehicle, have tripled since early 2006 to 110 a share, giving the limited partnership a market value of $6.8 billion.
Wall Street, however, may be getting carried away in its enthusiasm for Icahn, who calls the investment shots at the partnership and controls 90% of its shares. Our analysis of the company’s assets suggests that American Real Estate Partners shares now are overvalued. We estimate that the company is worth just $65 a share. Owing in part to the thin public float in the shares, there is no analyst coverage of American Real Estate…..
DE Shaw mulls new private equity fund
- Financial Times
DE Shaw, the $29bn US hedge fund, is considering launching a private equity fund into which it could inject some of its existing holdings, potentially including New York’s biggest toy shop, said investors consulted on the idea.
According to people who have discussed the fund with DE Shaw, in which Lehman Brothers bought a 20 per cent stake last month, a separate fund would be structured with fixed life and buy-out-style fees, rather than hedge fund charges.
The move would further demonstrate the speed with which the private equity and hedge fund industries are converging…..
Tide turns against short-sellers
- Financial Times
Short-sellers are facing growing structural barriers in their quest to profit from share-price declines, a reversal of fortune that helps explain the heavy losses suffered recently by hedge funds that bet against Amazon, the internet retailer.
The hurdles for short-sellers range from the rise of private equity buyers, which are taking cheap or poorly managed companies out of the public markets, to the explosive growth of corporate share buy-backs, which are sapping liquidity and exaggerating price moves.
This year, hedge funds that specialise in shorting stocks – meaning they sell stocks they do not own and profit by buying them back at lower prices – have performed less well than funds with other strategies. Short-sellers lost money in March and analysts believe that April proved a particularly cruel month as stocks rallied…..
Global
‘Bache’ For Pru – New York Post
Bache, one of the grand old names in Wall Street history, is making a comeback of sorts as insurance giant Prudential rebrands its global commodities business.
Long banished to the dusty archives of Wall Street lore, the Bache name is once again attached to Newark-based Prudential in the form of Prudential-Bache Commodities.
In 1981, after a disastrous attempt to help the Hunt Brothers corner the silver market, Pru bought Bache & Co. for $385 million, and tried to compete against the likes of Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch as Prudential-Bache…..
