Seth Klarman's Baupost Group Exits Facet Biotech (FACT)

Seth Klarman's hedge fund firm Baupost Group recently filed a Form 4 and a 13G with the SEC in regards to shares of Facet Biotech (FACT). In the filings, we see that Klarman's fund sold 1,500,000 shares of FACT at a price of $27 on April 19th, 2010.

Upon completion of this sale, Baupost Group now owns 0 shares of FACT. They have completely sold out of the company and have profited quite handsomely on this investment. You'll recall that Klarman has been selling FACT shares as of late because the company is being bought out at a price of $27 per share by Abbott Laboratories (ABT). Through his activism, Klarman helped Facet Biotech engineer a materially higher takeover offer. And now, Klarman moves on to his next investment. For more on his firm, we recently posted a Baupost Group portfolio update.

Taken from Google Finance, Facet Biotech is "a biotechnology company dedicated to advancing its pipeline of several clinical-stage products and expanding and deriving value from its protein engineering platform technologies to improve the clinical performance of protein therapeutics."

Seth Klarman's Baupost Group Wins Big With Facet Biotech (FACT), Sells Some Shares

Seth Klarman's hedge fund Baupost Group recently filed an amended 13D and a Form 4 with the SEC in regards to shares of Facet Biotech (FACT). In the Form 4, we see that Klarman has sold 1,506,875 shares at a price of $27 per share. This transaction took place on March 16th, 2010 and Baupost Group is now left with 2,000,000 shares of FACT, a 7.97% ownership stake in the company. For more investments from Klarman, we've detailed Baupost's portfolio.

This news comes after Facet Biotech saw a bid from Abbott Laboratories (ABT) to acquire the company for $27 per share, a 70% premium from where shares were trading before the bid. This is well above Biogen Idec's prior offer of $17.50 that preceded the most current bid from Abbott. So, Klarman has definitely locked in some solid gains here. You'll remember when we previously detailed how Baupost had secured the right to buy more FACT after Biogen's initial bid. It seems the hedge fund took a very active role in trying to generate shareholder value through a higher bid here. For more insight from this investment guru, check out Seth Klarman's lessons from the financial crisis.

Taken from Google Finance, Facet Biotech is "a biotechnology company dedicated to advancing its pipeline of several clinical-stage products and expanding and deriving value from its protein engineering platform technologies to improve the clinical performance of protein therapeutics."

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.