ValueAct Capital Starts Bioverativ Stake

Jeff Ubben's activist investment firm ValueAct Capital just filed a 13D with the SEC regarding shares of Bioverativ (BIVV).  Per the filing, ValueAct now owns 7.1% of the company with 7.7 million shares.

This is a newly disclosed stake for the firm and the filing was made due to recent activity.  BIVV just went public in January as a spin-off from Biogen (BIIB). ValueAct did not own any BIIB shares as of the end of 2016 per their latest 13F filing with the SEC.

The 13D filing notes Ubben's firm made equity forward purchases and were buying between mid-January and early February with the bulk of their purchases coming with a forward price of around $44.41.

The filing contains the standard boilerplate that they bought shares because they thought the security was undervalued.  They've had and anticipate having further discussions with directors of the company.

For more on this firm, we just highlighted other recent ValueAct portfolio transactions.

Per Google Finance, Bioverativ is "focused on the discovery, research, development and commercialization of therapies for the treatment of hemophilia and other blood disorders. It markets approximately two products, including ELOCTATE [Antihemophilic Factor (Recombinant), Fc Fusion Protein], and ALPROLIX [Coagulation Factor IX (Recombinant), Fc Fusion Protein], extended half-life clotting-factor therapies for the treatment of hemophilia A and hemophilia B, respectively. ELOCTATE and ALPROLIX use a process known as Fc fusion to link recombinant factor VIII and factor IX, respectively, to a protein fragment in the body known as Fc. The fusion of the factor with the Fc protein fragment uses a naturally occurring pathway and is designed to extend the half-life of the factor thereby making the product last longer in a person's blood than various factor therapies. Its pipeline includes BIVV 001(rFVIIIFc-VWF-XTEN) and BIVV 002 (rFIXFc-XTEN)."

Carl Icahn Sells Tons Of Yahoo Shares: 13F Filing Analysis

(This post is part of our series on tracking hedge fund portfolios. If you're unfamiliar with tracking investments they disclose via SEC filings, check out our series preface on hedge fund 13F filings.)

Next up is Carl Icahn and his hedge fund Icahn Partners. Icahn has been labeled a corporate raider and a rabblerouser for instituting change at various companies through his activist investing style. We've covered his movements on the site in the past and back in October he laid out the idea to short real estate. In the past, we've also detailed his additional insight from his guest lecture at Yale. Keep in mind that since the date of this 13F filing, Icahn has added to his Take Two Interactive (TTWO) stake numerous times.

The positions listed below were their long equity, note, and options holdings as of December 31st, 2009 as filed with the SEC. Note that we are only covering the major portfolio maneuvers. All holdings are common stock unless otherwise denoted.


Brand New Positions
CIT Group (CIT)
Lions Gate (Note 3.625%)


Increased Positions
Take Two Interactive (TTWO): Increased by 233.8% ~ And remember he has since added even more to his position
Genzyme (GENZ): Increased by 230.7%
Forest Labs (FRX): Increased by 21.3%


Reduced Positions
Yahoo (YHOO): Reduced by 76.1%


Removed Positions (Sold out completely):
n/a


Top 15 Holdings by percentage of assets reported on 13F filing

1. Motorola (MOT): 32.34%
2. Biogen Idec (BIIB): 23.93%
3. CIT Group (CIT): 9.32%
4. Genzyme (GENZ): 8.18%
5. Yahoo (YHOO): 6.99%
6. Amylin (AMLN): 6.40%
7. Lionsgate (LGF): 3.35%
8. Take Two Interactive (TTWO): 2.34%
9. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN): 2.11%
10. Cyberonics (CYBX): 1.49%
11. Forest Laboratories (FRX): 1.35%
12. Enzon Pharmaceuticals (ENZN): 1.03%
13. Exelixis (EXEL): 0.60%
14. Blockbuster (BBI): 0.24%
15. Wendys Arbys Group (WEN): 0.10%
    

While Icahn did not sell completely out of his Yahoo (YHOO) stake, he certainly sold off a huge chunk. It seems he was fighting somewhat of a losing battle here as he has dumped over 76% of his shares. The other big story in Icahn's portfolio is the addition of CIT Group (CIT), as it's now his third largest position. We see Seth Klarman's Baupost Group add CIT to their portfolio as well.

As you can see, he obviously runs a highly concentrated portfolio given his activist investing nature. Don't overlook the fact that Icahn also added heavily to his Genzyme (GENZ) stake and remember he is still adding to his TTWO position. The vast majority of Icahn's holdings remained unchanged on a quarter over quarter basis though.

Lastly, Icahn must be happy with the developments out of Motorola recently as they announced they will split the company into two business segments. After all, it is by far his largest holding on the 13F. Keep in mind also that Icahn has been involved in numerous distressed transactions involving casinos that obviously won't show up on these public SEC filings. That wraps up all the portfolio changes on Icahn's 13F filing.

Assets from the collective holdings reported to the SEC via 13F filing were $2.87 billion this quarter compared to $3.13 billion last quarter, so a slight down tick. Remember that these filings are not representative of the hedge fund's entire base of assets under management. Therefore, the figures above represent the percentage of their reported 13F assets, not their entire portfolio.

We'll be tracking 40+ prominent funds in our fourth quarter 2009 hedge fund portfolio tracking series. We've already covered Seth Klarman's Baupost Group and Mohnish Pabrai's Investment Funds so check back daily for our updates.

Baupost Group To Buy More Facet Biotech, Reject Biogen Idec's Tender Offer

Fresh off the presses, Seth Klarman's hedge fund Baupost Group will be purchasing additional shares in Facet Biotech Corporation (FACT). Facet has announced that they've agreed to amend their Rights Agreement to let the purchase go through. Baupost owned 3,506,875 shares as of December 16th, a 14% stake in the company. The new provisions will allow Baupost to increase their stake to 15-20% of the company.

However, there is a catch. Baupost must vote any shares in excess of a 15% stake in conjunction with the majority shareholders vote or with the recommendations of Facet's board. This becomes interesting because as many of you already know, Biogen Idec (BIIB) is trying to close its all cash tender offer of $17.50 per share for Facet. And the drama heightens when we see that Baupost has told Facet that they have no intentions of tendering their shares into Biogen's offer. Things are starting to get interesting as Facet currently trades around $16.45, well below Biogen's $17.50 offer price. With these recent developments, it looks like this process has been drawn out further. Head over to Tickerspy to view Baupost Group's portfolio to see what else they're investing in.

In terms of other recent activity, Klarman was recently selling more Syneron Medical (ELOS). Additionally, in November we saw in November they started a new stake in Enzon Pharmaceuticals. Klarman received his MBA from Harvard and then went on to work for Baupost at age 25. Nowadays, it's his show to run. Baupost is one of the select few funds we have included in our Market Folly custom portfolio that is seeing over 26% annualized returns by combining 3 hedge fund portfolios into a cohesive whole. (Head over to Alphaclone to see the hedge fund portfolio replication in action).

Taken from Google Finance, "Facet Biotech is a biotechnology company. The Company is engaged in identifying and developing oncology therapeutics. It has four antibodies in the clinic for oncology and immunologic disease indications, of which two are in phase II and two in phase I. The Company has several investigational compounds in various stages of development for the treatment of cancer and immunologic diseases, three of which it is developing with collaboration partners: two with Biogen Idec and one with BMS."

For more resources on Klarman and Baupost Group, check out Klarman's interview from the annual Graham & Dodd breakfast, some additional thoughts from Seth Klarman, and another interview with Seth Klarman.