Hedge Funds Active in Smurfit-Stone Container (SSCC)

Dan Loeb's hedge fund Third Point LLC and Barry Rosenstein's JANA Partners have filed a 13D and 13G respectively on shares of Smurfit-Stone Container (SSCC). Smurfit-Stone recently received a takeover bid from Rock-Tenn (RKT) worth roughly $38 per share in a cash and stock deal. Late last week we detailed that a consortium of hedge funds opposed Smurfit-Stone's takeover.

Third Point

According to SEC filings, Third Point has disclosed a 2.46% ownership stake in SSCC with 2,250,000 shares as of their February 1st portfolio. Loeb's hedge fund has filed in cooperation with Royal Capital Management (who owns 3.04% of SSCC) and Monarch Alternative Capital (who owns 3.47% of SSCC). This consortium of hedge funds collectively oppose the takeover.

While these hedge funds received the majority of their shares in Smurfit-Stone's recent reorganization, they've also been buying shares in recent months. Third Point had purchased shares of SSCC on the open market throughout December 2010 and even bought 250,000 shares as recently as February 1st after the takeover was announced (at prices of $37.5680 and $37.7497).

In their SEC filing, Third Point argues that the $38 per share valuation is inferior. According to an attachment to Third Point's disclosure, "we wonder just what numbers Smurfit’s board was looking at when it approved the Merger? This is the critical question, because if Rock-Tenn had been willing to pay 6.1 times the more appropriate Adjusted EBITDA of $938 million, and if an appropriate value had been ascribed to the NOL, Smurfit’s shareholders would receive nearly $44.00 per share of Common Stock in the Merger."

They also highlight that, "precedent containerboard transactions over the last decade had a median TEV to EBITDA ratio of 7.7x." Such a valuation would make shares of SSCC worth more like $59 per share.

JANA Partners

In a separate 13G filed with the SEC, Barry Rosenstein's hedge fund JANA Partners has disclosed a 5.7% ownership stake in Smurfit-Stone Container (SSCC) with 5,230,591 shares per their portfolio as of January 26th, 2011. Back on September 30th, 2010, the hedge fund only owned 521,479 shares, so this is a whopping 903% increase in their position size. We recently detailed some of JANA's new positions as well for those interested. While JANA is an activist oriented firm, this filing marks a passive SSCC stake.

While it's speculation on our part, it seems that JANA potentially acquired their new shares after the Rock-Tenn (RKT) takeover deal was announced and saw SSCC shares as undervalued. Since JANA did not file an activist 13D, it's unclear if they oppose the current deal. We're inclined to assume they're likely to side with Third Point's consortium. Under this scenario, you'd essentially have 14.67% of SSCC shares owned by hedge funds that oppose the takeover.

For more specifics of this deal, head to the hedge funds' letter of opposition to the deal.

Lee Hobson's Highside Capital Starts MIPS Technologies Position

Lee Hobson's hedge fund firm Highside Capital just filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of MIPS Technologies (MIPS). Due to portfolio activity on January 26th, 2011, Highside has disclosed a 6.2% ownership stake in MIPS with 3,100,000 shares. This is a brand new position as the hedge fund did not own shares as of their last portfolio disclosure.

Hobson graduated from Princeton University and earned his MBA at Harvard Business School. He founded his Dallas, TX based hedge fund after working for Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital. Highside employs a long/short equity strategy and invests in public markets.

Per Google Finance, MIPS Technologies is "a provider of processor architectures and cores that power some of the home entertainment, communications, networking and portable multimedia products. The Company’s technology is used in markets, such as mobile consumer electronics, digital entertainment, wired and wireless communications and networking, office automation, security, microcontrollers, and automotive. MIPS customers are global semiconductor companies and system original equipment manufacturers (system OEMs)."

Keep up with all of the latest moves from prominent managers with our hedge fund tracking posts.

Bruce Berkowitz & Bill Ackman: Summary of Their Harbor Investment Conference Talk

We're continuing our focus on the recent Harbor Investment Conference that took place late last week and wanted to point out a discussion between Fairholme Capital's Bruce Berkowitz and Pershing Square Capital Management's Bill Ackman. The two interviewed each other on their respective investments.

Below courtesy of our friends at Benzinga.com is a guest post summarizing the managers' talk at the Harbor Investment Conference:

"Berkowitz of Fairholme Capital, was interviewed by Bill Ackman, the conference's Co-Chair, and he discussed why he's been long Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) and Leucadia National Corp. (NYSE: LUK) for a long time. He bought both of them around 1985, for similar reasons. He liked the company's management, and he specifically liked Berkshire because he said that Warren Buffett was a "smart guy" who ran other people's money. He paid about $2,700 per share for each A share he owns.

Ackman of Pershing Square Capital, asked what Berkowitz's biggest investment error was of his career. Berkowitz responded by saying that his biggest mistake was trusting management, and not verifying them. He said that in order to verify management, you have to try to prove them wrong, and kill their thesis.

He also discussed some of his better investments, like Imperial Metals, which Berkowitz said he has no idea why it's doing well, it just is. He discussed his position in Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) in the late 1980's and early 1990's, and said that he really likes the banks now. He believes we are rebuilding now, and a lot of banks are trading below book value, with low valuations, and said that the worse the bank was perceived, the better it will probably wind up being. He owns positions in Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Regions Financial (NYSE: RF), AIG (NYSE: AIG), CIT Group (NYSE: CIT), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) in the financial sector. Berkowitz said there is a black box risk to owning banks, but after three years, you can get an idea of who's going to do well. Berkowitz said he would own more of Goldman Sachs if he could, but as a mutual fund, he's forbidden by law.

Regarding AIG, he said that AIG is more respected in Asia than it is here, and he sees tremendous value in the company's remaining assets, which it has so many of. Berkowitz said that former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg was a serial acquirer of assets, and there is tremendous value still there. He said that the current AIG is trading below book value, and it's trading at a single digit P/E. A major reason why he likes AIG is the company won't have to pay taxes for quite some time, as the company lost over $100 billion in market cap."

To read about the rest of Ackman and Berkowitz's talk, we highly recommend heading to the full summary at Benzinga here.

Alex Klabin of Senator Investment Group Likes Valspar (VAL): Harbor Investment Conference

Today we're focusing on the latest investment theses from top hedge fund managers that recently presented ideas at the Harbor Investment Conference. Alex Klabin of Senator Investment Group sees value in Valspar (VAL). Instead of focusing on cyclical businesses, Senator is targeting defensive businesses for the foreseeable future. We had covered some of Senator's investment theses at a previous conference as well.

The following is a guest post from our friends over at Benzinga.com summarizing the hedge fund manager's talk:

"Klabin, who has $3 billion dollars under management, said he believes that defensive businesses are trading at a discount of about 20% to where they should be trading, given historical valuations. He specifically mentioned looking at Merck (MRK), after the drug company missed earnings this week. Klabin said the company is probably full of bloat and there is a lot of fat that could probably be cut there.

Klabin said that expectations for defensive companies are very low, with only about 4% earnings growth, barely outpacing inflation.

The specific name he discusses at the conference is the Valspar Corporation (NYSE: VAL), which manufactures and distributes coatings and paints across the world. Klabin described the company as a combination of Sherwin Williams (NYSE: SHW) and a coating application company.

The company is a global leader in coating applications, with a 40% market share. Valspar makes the coatings on the inside of plastic bottles used for Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and other manufacturers. Without it, the acidic acid in the Coke would eat away at the bottle.

In the paint segment of the business, Klabin said he sees the quiet ability to raise prices for paint, and no one would notice."

To read the rest of Klabin's thoughts on the company, head to Benzinga for the full post here.

Mick McGuire of Marcato Capital Likes SFN Group (SFN): Harbor Investment Conference

The Harbor Investment Conference took place late last week and featured a bevy of hedge fund managers sharing their latest investment ideas. Mick McGuire of Marcato Capital Management was one of the speakers and his pick was SFN Group (SFN). Before founding Marcato, McGuire previously worked at Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management.

The following is a guest post from Benzinga.com with a summary of McGuire's bullish case for SFN Group:

"Mick McGuire of Marcato Capital Management spoke at the Harbor Investment Conference yesterday and recommended SFN Group Inc (NYSE: SFN) to the audience.

McGuire, who is a former chairman of Borders (NYSE: BGP) is an activist investor in the midcap space, and he believes there is significant value in SFN Group. McGuire said that the market cap of SFN is equal to the enterprise value of this U.S. based staffing firm.

He likes SFN because its' normalized earnings power should exceed the historic levels, and it's trading at a lower earnings multiple.

The company owns a variety of different staffing firms, including Spherion and Tatum, as well as others. It staffs different types of employees, from the entry level worker, to a seasoned company executive. The company receives higher margins on higher paying jobs.

McGuire believes that a lot of companies could maintain a high percentage of temporary workers, as he believes that many companies will want to maintain employee flexibility, should unforeseen events occur in the economy.

With an enterprise value of only $550 million, and $100 million in expenses from SG&A removed, McGuire believes the company is poised to increase its value over time. The company also has a significant amount of net operating losses at both the federal and state levels, which should allow the company to double EBITDA over the next year. The only major expense the company has is capital expenditures, and the company recently made a major technology purchase for its systems, which should allow Capex spending to drastically slow down over the next few years. The increase in EBITDA goes straight to the company's free cash flow.

McGuire also mentioned that the company is buying back 5% of its stock, thanks in large part to the increase in free cash flow it's seeing.

McGuire said that he believes SFN has an implied stock price of $20.26 by 2012."

Benzinga has covered the Harbor Investment Conference extensively and we highly recommend reading their coverage of the event:

- David Darst of Morgan Stanley Likes "Global Gorillas"
- Craig Nerenberg of Brenner West Capital Likes CLO's
- Todd Sullivan Sees Value in Audiovox

Hedge Fund Compensation Report

The pain of 2008 now seems like a distant memory for those working at hedge funds.

As the U.S. economy continues to recover at a slow pace, hedge fund managers are recording double- digit growth and outperforming the markets once again. According to Eureka Hedge, total assets in the industry are now on track to cross the historical high of US $1.95 trillion by end of 2011. The upside is showing in hedge fund pay.

The latest report on Hedge Fund Compensation revealed that hedge fund managers received double-digit increases in total compensation to match the fund's performance, primarily driven by big year-end bonuses. The annual industry report is based on data collected directly from hundreds of hedge fund managers and employees.

In contrast with 2009 compensation, that was essentially flat when compared to the year earlier, 2010 pay came in 10 percent higher. More than half expected a raise in total compensation with the average coming in at USD $326,000 and about one quarter expecting to earn between $300,000 and $500,000. The number of professionals expecting pay cuts decreased from 19 percent last year to 12 percent.

Investors have started asking more questions than in the past and the fund manager's track record is no longer enough to get them to part with their money. They want to know how the strategy is being executed and they want more transparency in the reporting and fee calculations as well.

Despite increased investor demands, hedge fund managers still have a business to run. Some are requiring limited liquidity (a more stable base of capital) and investors are seeing a reduced management fee structure in return. Performance fees, however, are still driving big bonuses.

The front page criticism of Wall Street bonuses has primarily discussed investment banks, but hedge funds are not immune to this criticism. Investors also want to see a bit more skin in the game; 12 percent of hedge fund professionals reported that they are now required to invest a portion of their bonus back into the fund.

The report reveals that the higher the overall earnings, the more bonus matters, especially for those in the highest pay ranges. The top earning hedge fund employees expect a full 80 percent of their cash compensation to come in the form of bonus payments, but these payouts are by no means in the bag. Fewer than one in five hedge fund employees reported having a guaranteed bonus.

(click to enlarge)

The 2011 Hedge Fund Compensation Report has grown to become the most comprehensive benchmark for hedge fund compensation practices in the industry. It is based on compensation data collected directly from fund professionals representing both large and small firms. Click here for the full Hedge Fund Compensation Report.


About the Author

David Kochanek is the publisher of HedgeFundCompensationReport.com and the hedge fund career site, Hedge Fund Jobs Digest, a web-based career service catering to investment professionals.

Third Point, Royal Capital, & Monarch Alternative Capital Oppose Smurfit-Stone Takeover

A group of hedge funds including Dan Loeb's Third Point, Royal Capital Management, and Monarch Alternative Capital recently penned a letter to Smurfit-Stone (SSCC) opposing the company's proposed acquisition by Rock-Tenn (RKT). The hedge funds collectively own 9% of SSCC and oppose Rock-Tenn's cash and stock bid that valued SSCC at $38 per share.

Smurfit-Stone recently emerged from bankruptcy and these funds received the majority of their shares through the restructuring process. The various hedge funds are pushing for shareholders to veto the deal. They feel the company can either do better as a standalone company or attract higher offers from Rock-Tenn or others in the packaging industry (such as Temple-Inland (TIN), Packaging Corp of America (PKG), International Paper (IP), MeadWestvaco (MWV), or KapStone Paper (KS)).

We'll have to see if their letter can shake things up and unlock further shareholder value in the stock. Embedded below courtesy of Dealbook is the hedge funds' letter to Smurfit-Stone (email readers visit the site to view it:



As we've detailed before, Third Point likes post-reorg equities and Smurfit-Stone is one of those positions. The hedge fund also has a sizable stake in recently re-listed Lyondell Basell (LYB). And just a few days ago, we highlighted how John Paulson likes restructured equities as well.

Shumway Capital Returns Capital to Investors, Will Manage Internal Assets

Chris Shumway's hedge fund Shumway Capital Partners sent out a letter to investors today notifying them that the fund will be returning capital to outside investors. The firm will live on, instead only managing internal capital. Shumway, who has seen 17% annual returns, is one of the widely regarded Tiger Cub hedge funds started by former members of Julian Robertson's Tiger Management.

Late last year, Chris Shumway announced that he would be stepping down from his Chief Investment Officer role. This initiated a wave of redemptions as investors in the funds became wary. Shumway writes,

"In a sense, these changes created more risk for many of you who committed to stay invested in SCP and makes short term results of the fund a primary issue for us all. As a result, it has become more difficult for us to focus on long term investing as we have for the last nine years, which I believe has been a main driver of our success."

It's obvious from the above that Shumway is not fond of Wall Street's and an investor's focus on short-term performance. We'd venture to guess that Shumway also somewhat tired of the 'corporate' nature of running a large investment firm. Catering to each investor's concerns meant less and less of his time was dedicated to investing.

Shumway isn't alone in his desire to focus on investing for the long-term. Fellow Tiger Cub manager Roberto Mignone of Bridger Management closed to new investors, effectively capping assets under management so that he could focus on investing rather than having to worry about running a large organization.

It will be interesting to see who stays behind at Shumway to manage internal capital and who leaves to start their own funds. There are already a few notable Shumway alums managing their own funds including John Thaler's JAT Capital, Anu Murgai's Suranya Capital Partners, and Matthew Crakes' Greenhart Capital. The reason we mention these established and potentially future Shum-alum funds is that some former SCP investors could potentially allocate capital there.

Shumway will return outside capital by the end of the first quarter, which undoubtedly means they'll be selling partial positions. Here are Shumway's top 10 holdings as of September 30th, 2010. We'll get an updated look at their holdings here in a few weeks, so keep in mind the below is quite dated:

1. Apple (AAPL)
2. Citigroup (C)
3. Priceline.com (PCLN)
4. Pfizer (PFE)
5. Las Vegas Sands (LVS)
6. Baidu (BIDU)
7. SPRD Gold Trust (GLD)
8. Target (TGT)
9. Air Products & Chemicals (APD)
10. BP (BP)

A screenshot of Chris Shumway's letter is posted below via ZeroHedge:

(click to enlarge)

It will be interesting to see what happens to Shumway's portfolio once outside capital has been returned and the fund is only managing internal capital.

Soros Fund Management Adds to Harvest Natural Resources (HNR)

George Soros' investment firm, Soros Fund Management, just filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Harvest Natural Resources (HNR). Per portfolio activity on January 24th, 2011, Soros has disclosed a 5.94% ownership stake in HNR with 2,008,417 shares.

This marks a 241% increase in their position size as the hedge fund owned 588,100 shares at the end of September last year. In addition to Soros, one of the largest institutional holders of HNR shares is value investor Mohnish Pabrai.

Soros often takes stakes in energy and natural resource plays as we detailed their new stake in San Leon Energy and an increase in their position in Aurelian Oil & Gas as well.

Per Google Finance, Harvest Natural Resources is "an international petroleum exploration and production company. The Company focuses on acquiring exploration, development and producing properties in geological basins with proven active hydrocarbon systems. The Company holds interests in Venezuela, the Gulf Coast Region of the United States through an area of mutual intent (AMI) agreement with two private third parties, the Antelope prospect in the Western United States through a joint exploration and development agreement (JEDA), and exploration acreage mainly onshore West Sulawesi in the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesia), offshore of the Republic of Gabon (Gabon), onshore in Oman and offshore of the People’s Republic of China."

We'll be updating George Soros' latest portfolio in our new issue of Hedge Fund Wisdom due out in a couple of weeks.

What We're Reading ~ 2/4/11

Rules for shorting [Big Picture]

See also: Kathryn Staley's The Art of Short Selling [Amazon]

Video interview with value investor Vitaliy Katsenelson [Abnormal Returns]

Three ideas for the under-invested (reprise) [ReformedBroker]

Productivity: 12 steps to getting things done [KirkReport]

David Tepper cautious on Pittsburgh Steelers & markets [AbsoluteReturnAlpha]

Atticus' Tim Barakett backs macro fund launch [AbsoluteReturnAlpha]

Iridian Asset Management's latest letter [ZeroHedge]

Why Jamie Dinan worries about small hedge funds [Dealbook]

Video: Why Jim Chanos is short China [FT]

Chanticleer's letter to investors [MyInvestingNotebook]

Manager from Viking Global resigns [Bloomberg]

A technical overview of the market [Trader's Narrative]

Absolute Return Partners LLP letter [Scribd]

New investment screening tool [Zignals]

Tiger Asia disappointed with small 2010 gain [Bloomberg]

Profile on Meredith Whitney [Bloomberg]

Perry Capital: Bargains Not As Plentiful, But Growing Amount of Event-Driven Opportunities

Richard Perry's hedge fund firm Perry Capital is out with its 2010 year-end letter to investors and Perry Partners International finished last year up 16.21% (more 2010 hedge fund returns here). Perry's letter places emphasis on the fact that they don't necessarily abide by economic forecasting as much as other market participants. Instead, they focus on event-driven value investing in both equities and debt and have seen an annualized rate of return of 12.28%.

Perry's Targeted Investments

The hedge fund seeks to invest in securities that fall into various categories:

- "Capture most of the bell curve's area as a positive outcome for our investments"

- "Look for securities that do not suffer huge losses from unfavorable future economic outcomes (truncate the left tail)"

- "Buy securities that offer outsized rewards versus risk on favorable outcomes (bulging right tail)"

- "Find investments with little or no correlation to the economy that have positive expected value"

Looking Ahead in 2011

For this year Perry notes that, "Bargains are not as plentiful and dislocations are fewer today than a year ago. However, there is a growing amount of event-driven investing as we start 2011. Expectations about GDP growth and the market are almost euphoric ... This remarkable rally, as usual, has led investors to be more comfortable with the market at these higher levels than at the bottom. That is the nature of the market."

Potential Risks

As such, Perry Capital maintains numerous hedges on potential tail risk events. Baupost Group's Seth Klarman has done the same. Perry has protection against: European sovereign and banking issues, inflation in developing markets, and they are also concerned about the US Treasury and municipal bond markets.

Perry is not alone in their worry as we pointed out fellow hedge fund Kleinheinz Capital also thinks inflation is the biggest threat to emerging markets. Perry is particularly concerned about food and energy inflation and notes that increases in wage and input costs are resulting in higher finished product prices.

Fourth Quarter Portfolio

Below are excerpt's from Perry Capital's letter regarding some of their investments:

"Our position in Delphi equity continued to march higher. The company has performed quite well since exiting bankruptcy and, despite significant appreciation, we continue to hold our position. Delphi is well positioned as an automotive supplier - diesel, power train, safety and infotainment - with the best balance sheet in the industry." Market Folly readers will recall that Dan Loeb's hedge fund Third Point also owns Delphi.

"Universal American (UAM) was also one of our top performers in the fourth quarter. On December 31st, UAM stock increased approximately 40% on the news that CVS Caremark had agreed to acquire UAM's Medicare Part D plan for $1.25 billion. Subject to shareholder approval (likely in Q2 2011), UAM shareholders will receive $12.80-$13.00 for the Part D plan along with one share of the NewCo (remaining Medicare Advantage business), which will have approximately $8 per share of statutory capital upon separation."

Perry also had previously invested in Potash (POT) during the company's potential takeover by BHP Billiton (BHP). They exited their position before the Canadian government opposed the offer, anticipating (and jumping in front of) a potential heavy hedge fund sell-off. They were subsequently able to re-buy.

"We were able to re-establish a sizeable position after the arbitrage sell off at $138-139 per share, and hedged it using comparable companies that had traded up during the recent strong commodity price move. Fundamentals have continued to improve for Potash and we maintain a position in the shares." Dan Loeb's Third Point also has a sizable stake in Potash.

Lastly, Perry Capital invested in the AIA initial public offering (IPO), a wholly owned subsidiary of AIG (AIG). We've detailed how Bruce Berkowitz's Fairholme Capital also bought AIA in the IPO. Perry writes,

"AIA is a unique asset with hard-to-duplicate exposure to underpenetrated Asian markets that have had a high growth profile ... In our view, the IPO came at a meaningful discount to fair value due to i) its size, ii) poor execution during 2008-2009 due to issues associated with AIG, and iii) the AIG overhang caused by its remaining stake. Our investment paid off as AIA got rerated relatively quickly after the IPO."

That wraps up the main takeaways from the hedge fund's letter. Keep in mind of course that you can view Perry's latest portfolio in the new issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter in a couple of weeks.

JANA Partners 2010 Letter: New Positions in Cablevision (CVC), Williams Companies (WMB)

Barry Rosenstein's hedge fund JANA Partners released its year-end 2010 letter and in it we see they've returned 14.3% annualized since inception in April 2001. JANA returned 8.4% last year and you can see how they stack up against others in our post on 2010 hedge fund returns.

New Positions

We'll start with the newest additions to JANA's portfolio as they fall in the special situations category. They like these companies now that they are considering value-maximizing moves.

Cablevision (CVC): This cable company caught their eye due to the announced spin-off of Rainbow Media (cable networks that include the hit show Mad Men). This tax-free transaction will take place by the middle of the year and JANA likes that this spin-off will leave a more pure-play cable company that could be a consolidation target.

Market Folly readers will recall that many hedge funds owned CVC earlier last year (including JANA) due to the company's spin-off of Madison Square Garden (MSG) in a value-unlocking event. We wouldn't be surprised to see more event-driven/catalyst aficionados purchasing this name for the same reasons JANA has.

Williams Companies (WMB): Rosenstein's hedge fund has previously owned this stock before and returned due to the CEO's retirement in October 2010. JANA says, "We expect that WMB will find a way to separate their large exploration and production portfolio from their pipeline assets."

Renault SA (RNO FP): JANA is looking for the company to set higher free cash objectives and to resume dividend payments.

Embedded below is JANA Partners' year-end 2010 letter where you'll also find updates on their stakes in TNT NV (TNTTY), Charles River Labs (CRL), and Convergys (CVG). Email readers come to the site to read the letter:



For other hedge fund letters, we've started to post a bunch of other prominent manager commentary including:

- David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital letter
- John Paulson's year-end letter to investors
- Summary of Kleinheinz Capital's letter
- Dan Arbess & Xerion Fund's 2011 strategy

David Einhorn Buys State Bank Financial (STBZ), Updates MI Developments (MIM) Stake

David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital just filed two separate 13G's with the SEC. First, Einhorn has disclosed a brand new position in State Bank Financial (STBZ). Due to portfolio activity on December 27th, 2010, Greenlight shows a 6.6% ownership stake with 2,100,000 shares.

As we've detailed previously, the hedge fund has been somewhat busy as of late. They've started a new stake in BP (BP) and bought Sprint Nextel (S) as well.

Second, in the most recent wave of developments, Greenlight Capital has also filed a 13G regarding its position in MI Developments (MIM). Einhorn has disclosed a 12.3% ownership stake in MIM with 5,655,235 shares. This is the same amount of shares Greenlight owned back on September 30th, 2010 in their third quarter 13F filing.

So, their position size in MIM remains unchanged. In recent developments, the company has reached an agreement that ends Canadian billionaire Frank Stronach's control of MIM. This agreement eliminates the company's dual class structure (Stronach currently controls 57% of the vote). Stronach will cede control of MI Developments and $20 million in working capital in exchange for various assets including horse racing and gaming.

For more updates from the hedge fund manager, be sure to read Greenlight's year-end letter.

Per Yahoo Finance, State Bank Financial Corporation "operates as the holding company for State Bank and Trust Company that provides community banking services to individuals and businesses in the middle Georgia and metropolitan Atlanta markets."

Per Google Finance, MI Developments is "a real estate operating company. The Company is engaged in the acquisition, development, construction, leasing, management and ownership of an industrial rental portfolio leased primarily to Magna and its automotive operating units. The Company also owns land for industrial development and own and acquire land that it intends to develop for mixed-use and residential projects."

Whitney Tilson Reduces Short Exposure, Refocuses on Buying Cheap Stocks

Whitney Tilson and Glenn Tongue's hedge fund T2 Partners have had some rough sledding the past few months, mainly due to their large short exposure. Over the last five months, they are down 4.3% net while the S&P 500 has rallied 23.5%. As such, they've re-examined their portfolio construction and have concluded to reduce short exposure and get back to basics: buying cheap stocks.

Rationale for Reducing Short Exposure

Tilson cites the fund's maintenance of a large short book after the crisis as the primary mistake. Additionally he writes,

"Over time we've been quite successful shorting fads, frauds, promotions, declining businesses, and bad balance sheets. Where have had much less success, however, especially in recent months, is shorting good businesses that are growing rapidly, even when their valuations appear extreme. Such open-ended situations, regardless of valuation, are very dangerous, so going forward we will avoid them entirely unless we have a high degree of conviction about a specific, near-term catalyst."

The immediate thing that comes to mind is their well-documented short position in Netflix (NFLX). This short is obviously classified as a 'valuation short' but T2 notes that they are still digesting the company's recent earnings as well as other channel checks and it is unclear as to whether or not they've adjusted their position in anyway.

Buying Microsoft (MSFT) & Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)

Sticking to T2's 'back to basics' mantra, they've recently been adding to their positions in MSFT and BRK.A. You can see their analysis of Microsoft here and a summary of their other positions in their year-end letter.

Embedded below is T2 Partners' January 2011 letter to investors:



Be sure to also check out a ton of other hedge fund letters we've posted recently:

- John Paulson's year-end letter to investors
- David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital letter
- Summary of Kleinheinz Capital's letter
- Dan Arbess & Xerion Fund's 2011 strategy

John Paulson's Year-End Letter: Restructured Equities Will Drive Future Returns

John Paulson is out with his hedge fund firm's year-end letter and in it we learn that his funds have seen impressive compound annual growth rates ranging from 13.81% to 84.85% over their lifespan. Paulson & Co now has $35.9 billion in assets under management (AUM).

The bulk of Paulson's AUM can be found in his event funds (Paulson Advantage, Advantage Plus) as they collectively manage $18.6 billion. His original merger arbitrage funds garner just over $5 billion, his Credit Fund manages $8.6 billion, and his Recovery Fund manages $2.6 billion. Also, Paulson's gold fund (which we've covered in-depth) now manages just under $1 billion.

Focus on Restructuring Equities

Paulson's Recovery Fund, which is obviously betting on an economic recovery, primarily focuses on the financial sector but also takes stakes in industrials, hotels, and real estate. Interestingly enough, Paulson & Co's investment roadmap lays out the case for a focus on restructuring equities. We've detailed before how Dan Loeb's Third Point likes post-reorg equities as well. Paulson writes,

"In the midst of the credit bubble in 2006, we bought protection on our corporate and mortgage credit, which drove our returns in 2007. In 2008, we shifted our focus to shorting the equity of financial firms we thought could fail because of their exposure to credit losses, which was the main contributor to our gains in 2008. In late 2008 and early 2009, as credit markets bottomed, we switched to long distressed credit. From 4Q 2008 through 2Q 2009, we went from having no long exposure in credit to being $25 billion long. Long credit exposure drove our profitability in 2009.

As high yield bonds now trade at par and yields have plummeted, our focus has shifted to restructuring equities as the driver of future returns. While returns in our current-pay portfolio are still decent, we believe going forward the highest returns will be in restructured equities, mergers and acquisitions, and event arbitrage."

Paulson has essentially wagered over $20 billion in 40 different transactions. He feels that since these companies now have solid capital structures that their equity offers large upside potential. Paulson emphasizes that, "This is the part of the cycle where we want to have long event exposure and do not want to be under-invested."

Embedded below courtesy of ZeroHedge is Paulson & Co's year-end letter:



(Email readers need to come to the site to view the letter).

Finally, one other portion of Paulson's letter worth highlighting is his argument that his firm's large size will not be a detriment to finding opportunities and generating performance. So far, he is correct with Paulson's solid 2010 performance. We'll have to see if this holds true going forward as numerous hedge funds have struggled once they become asset gathering behemoths.

To see Paulson's latest investments, be sure to subscribe to the new issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter that will be released in two weeks.

Long/Short Hedge Funds Favor Large Caps & Nasdaq 100

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is out with its latest Hedge Fund Monitor report and they estimate that long/short equity funds are now 35% net long. This is an increase in equity exposure because over the past few weeks, hedge funds had reduced equity exposure. Additionally, their exposure is primarily focused on large caps and we've highlighted countless times that numerous high quality large caps are undervalued.

Recent hedge fund moves across various asset classes include reduced long positions in soybean and corn, but increased stakes in wheat longs. In forex, managers were buying the Euro, selling the dollar, and buying the Japanese Yen (now a crowded long). This is intriguing because last week we saw a hedge fund shorting the Yen.

In metals, hedgies sold gold and copper but continued to hold silver and palladium. Copper is a crowded long so the selling has been counter-trend while the selling in gold has dragged on for some time now.

Here are summaries of the recent moves across fund strategies:

Long/Short Equity: Increased equity exposure as of late, back close to historical average levels of 35% net long; mainly favoring large caps across the board (both high quality and growth).

Market Neutral Funds: Maintained 4% net long exposure, taising inflation exposure and favoring small caps.

Global Macro: These hedge funds continued to buy US equities and emerging markets, the latter of which is now a crowded long position.

Embedded below is Bank of America Merrill Lynch's latest Hedge Fund Monitor Report:



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Hedge Fund Moore Capital Reduce Collins Stewart (LON:CLST) Position

Louis Bacon's hedge fund Moore Capital have reduced their long position in financial advisor Collins Stewart (LON: CLST). Moore's reduction below a 3% ownership stake in the company triggered a regulatory filing with the London Stock Exchange.

We cannot be sure if the hedge fund still owns shares or not, as they are not required to report a position once they breach that 3% threshold to the downside.

Moore could have sold completely out of the position, or they could still hold a long stake in CLST below the 3% level. Unfortunately, this is one of the pitfalls of the UK regulatory disclosure system. In other activity, we also noted Moore Capital reduced its Mecom position.

From Google Finance - "Collins Stewart plc is a United Kingdom-based company. It is an independent financial advisory group servicing corporates, financial institution, private equity houses, private clients, governments and quasi-governmental bodies. The Company's services covers institutional stockbroking, United Kingdom, European and United States research, corporate broking, corporate finance, debt capital markets, restructuring and debt advisory services and private client wealth management."

Moore Capital's flagship Moore Global fund was up 3% last year as noted in our compilation of 2010 hedge fund returns. Its macro managers fund, on the other hand, returned 105%.

Lansdowne Partners Reduce Short in Legal and General (LON: LGEN)

UK hedge fund Lansdowne Partners recently disclosed activity on the London Stock Exchange. Paul Ruddock and Stephen Heinz's firm have reduced their short position in Legal and General (LON:LGEN). They have gone below the -0.25% threshold required to report a short position in the UK.

As such, it's difficult to say if they've covered their position entirely, or if they still maintain a smaller sized short position. Due to the reporting thresholds in place in the UK, we won't know unless they cross that line again.

Lansdowne held their short position in L&G for over two years as shares traded for less than 25p in January 2009 and today trade around 116p. We originally detailed this stake in our post on Lansdowne's short positions.  For other issues, there's LegalZoom.

Per Google Finance - "Legal & General Group Plc is a provider of risk, savings and investment management products in the United Kingdom. It operates in four segments: Risk, Savings, Investment management and International. The Risk segment includes individual and group protection, individual and bulk purchase annuities, general insurance and the housing network. The Savings segment includes unite trusts, individual savings accounts, investment bonds, non profit, pensions, structured products and with-profits products. The Investment management segment includes index funds, fixed income, risk management solutions, property and private equity. The International segment includes term insurance, group protection, wealth management and unit-linked savings."

Check out more hedge fund activity in the UK here.

Valinor Management Boosts Cott (COT) Position, Starts Solarwinds (SWI) Stake

David Gallo's hedge fund firm, Valinor Management, recently filed two 13G's with the SEC regarding recent portfolio activity. First, the hedge fund has increased its stake in Cott Corporation (COT). We previously detailed when Valinor started a COT stake back in early December.

Cott Corporation (COTT)

Gallo's firm now shows an 8.8% ownership stake in COT with 8,313,841 shares due to portfolio activity on January 19th. This is a 52% increase in their position size since a month ago.

Readers will be interested to know that shares of COT are largely trading around the level where Valinor established its position in the stock. This is one of those rare opportunities where the timelag in the regulatory disclosure is negligible in allowing an investor to purchase shares at relatively the same price as the hedge fund.

Solarwinds (SWI)

Second, Valinor Management has also revealed a brand new position in Solarwinds (SWI). Due to portfolio activity on January 19th, Gallo's hedge fund shows a 5.4% ownership stake in SWI with 3,803,204 shares.

For more portfolio activity from this hedge fund, we also detailed Valinor's new position in Swift Transportation (SWFT), as well as the addition to their DSW stake (DSW).

Per Google Finance, Cott Corp is "a non-alcoholic beverage company and a retailer brand soft drink provider. In addition to carbonated soft drinks (CSDs), its product includes clear, still and sparkling flavored waters, juice-based products, bottled water, energy-related drinks and ready-to-drink teas."

Solarwinds "designs, develops, markets, sells and supports enterprise information technology (IT), management software to IT professionals in organizations of all sizes. The Company’s offerings ranges from individual software tools to software products, which solve problems faced every day by IT professionals and help to enable management of networks and IT environments."

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