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

Notes From Ira Sohn West: John Burbank, Barry Rosenstein, Jeffrey Ubben, Brian Zied & More

Zero Hedge recently posted up notes from the Ira Sohn West Conference that just took place out in San Francisco. It included a heavy-hitting speaker line-up of prominent hedge fund managers. Let's quickly summarize their investment picks and presentations:

John Burbank of Passport Capital: He focused on how the US should be viewed as an 'emerging market' from an investment perspective due to increased sovereign risk of the US. Burbank argues that the US is at an inflection point and can head in the direction of either Argentina or Germany. You can read more from this manager in a recent interview Burbank did as well.

Barry Rosenstein of JANA Partners: He thinks the activist investor environment is improving. Rosenstein also points out the high levels of cash at corporations and notes that private equity has $500 billion on the sidelines. In terms of investment picks, he likes Netherlands based TNT (TNT NA). The global transport company could be attractive to FedEx, who only has small market share in Europe. TNT trades at 6x EBITDA and 11x earnings. Rosenstein actually thinks the company will break up in the next 6-9 months and thinks it goes to 27 euros from its current price of 20 euros. The JANA Partners fund managers also is fond of Charles River Labs (CRL) as the company has raised prices and gained market share. Currently at $32, he believes $46 is attainable with a breakup value of above $50 per share.

Brian Zied of Charter Bridge Capital: Before founding Charter Bridge, Zied was previously a Managing Director at Lee Ainslie's Maverick Capital. Zied likes Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) here as 60% of new cars have built in satellite radios and 46% of those convert into paying customers. While the company is leveraged, he expects them to pay off debt soon. He also highlights John Malone's significant ownership stake in the company, arguing that they could acquire Sirius.

Jeffrey Ubben of ValueAct Capital: In his activist investing, he looks for oligopolistic industries and intellectual property. In recent investments, his hedge fund acquired 20% of Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) as a turnaround story. We've covered some of ValueAct's recent portfolio activity here.


Many other manages provided their thoughts and latest investment ideas at the event. Embedded below courtesy of Zero Hedge is a set of notes from the Ira Sohn West Conference (Email readers will need to come to the site to view it):



For more on the latest hedge fund portfolio movements, click here to scroll through our coverage.