market folly

Louis Bacon's global macro hedge fund firm Moore Capital Management has disclosed a new position in UK holding company Monitise (LON: MONI). 

Moore now hold 3.28% of Monitise's voting rights (or equivalent).  At first sight, we thought that Moore had bought their holding via the recent placing held on December 3rd.  However, closer inspection of the notification of holdings document shows that their stake is held completely via contracts for difference (explanation of CFDs here).

Per Google Finance, Monitise is "a United Kingdom-based holding company. The principal  activity of the Company is as a technology company delivering mobile banking, payments and  commerce networks worldwide. The Company’s segments include Live Operations, Investment in  future operations and Investment in technology platform. Live operations include both territory  deployments and development contracts, which consist of Monitise United Kingdom, Monitise  Americas and Global accounts. Investment in future operations segment represents the Company’s  operations which are not live operations covering both pre-sales and start-up period. Investment in  technology platform segment comprises the ongoing development, enhancement and maintenance  costs of the Monitise technology platform."


Moore's Other UK Positions 

Moore Capital Management's other disclosed holdings in UK markets which are greater than 3% of voting rights are as follows:

Brightside Group 8.21%
Camper and Nicolsons Marina 5.81%
Helphire Group 5.06%
Loudwater Trust 9.84%
Max Property Group 4.55%
NBNK Investments 8.76%
NewRiver Retail 3.93%

The hedge fund currently has not disclosed any short positions in the UK market.  We recently posted up a list of hedge fund short positions in European markets.

For more on the history of Louis Bacon's hedge fund, head to one of Moore Capital's 2010 letters.