Eton Park Capital Short Burberry Group and J Sainsbury

Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital has recently disclosed updated short positions in Burberry Group (LON:BRBY) and J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY).


Eton Park Short Burberry Group

Per regulatory filings in the UK, Eton Park has disclosed it is net short 0.7% of Burberry's shares as of July 13th.  This is up from a 0.62% net short position back on May 11th.

Institutions are required to publicly disclose when they build a short position above the 0.5% of shares threshold.  Keep in mind that this could either be an alpha short or a hedge to one of their long positions.

Last week we also highlighted 2 stocks that prominent hedge funds are short.

Per Google Finance, Burberry Group is "a United Kingdom-based manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of luxury goods. The Company designs, produces and sells products under the Burberry brand. The Company’s product categories include women’s and men’s apparel and accessories and beauty. The Company owns distribution network consisting of: 497 directly operated stores and concessions, offline and burberry.com, a digital platform active in 11 languages, online. The Company’s Licensing revenues are generated through the receipt of royalties from the Group’s partners in Japan and global licensees of fragrances, eyewear, timepieces and European children wear. The Company’s retail/wholesale engages in the sale of luxury goods through Burberry mainline stores, concessions, outlets and digital commerce as well as Burberry franchisees, prestige department stores globally and multi-brand specialty accounts. The Company has subsidiaries in Europe, Middle East, India, Africa, United States and Asia Pacific region."


Eton Park Also Short J Sainsbury

Per a separate regulatory filing in the UK, Eton Park has disclosed a net short position in 0.69% of J Sainsbury's shares as of June 29th.

Per Google Finance, J Sainsbury is "engaged in supermarkets and convenience stores, and an online grocery and general merchandise operation. The Company also has two property joint ventures with Land Securities Group Plc and The British Land Company Plc. Sainsbury’s Bank provides a range of banking and insurance products."

Eton Park Capital Increases Riverbed Technology Position

Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding their position in Riverbed Technology (RVBD).  Per the filing, Eton Park now owns 5.63% of the company with 9 million shares.

This means they've increased their position size by over 6 million shares since the end of the second quarter.  The filing was made due to activity on September 18th.

Per Google Finance, Riverbed Technology "has developed solutions to the fundamental problems associated with information technology (IT) performance across wide area networks (WANs). Riverbed’s family of performance products include solutions for branch offices, mobile workers, private data centers, private clouds and cloud computing. The Company’s products include Steelhead products and Cascade product line."

Eton Park Capital Starts Armstrong World Industries Position

Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Armstrong World Industries (AWI).  Per the filing, Eton Park now owns 6.69% of the company with over 3.66 million shares.

This is a newly disclosed equity position for the hedge fund and the filing was made due to activity on August 1st.

Eton Park is now the second major hedge fund to recently reveal a stake in the company as Jeff Ubben's ValueAct Capital took an AWI stake as well.

Per Google Finance, Armstrong World Industries is "a global producer of flooring products and ceiling systems for use in the construction and renovation of residential, commercial and institutional buildings. The Company designs, manufactures and sells flooring products (resilient and wood) and ceiling systems (mineral fiber, fiberglass and metal) globally. The Company segments includes: Building Products, Resilient Flooring and Wood Flooring. The Company’s Building Products, Resilient Flooring, Wood Flooring and Cabinets segments sell products for use in the home. Its products are used in new home construction and existing home renovation work. Its products, primarily ceilings and Resilient Flooring, are used in commercial and institutional buildings."

Eton Park Capital Reduces Numerous UK Positions

Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital has reduced its disclosed positions in the UK market in the last six months without disclosing any new ones.  They've reduced the following holdings below the disclosure threshold of 3% during last year:

- Lohnro (LON: LONR)
- Daisy Group (LON:DAY)
- Sable Mining (LON:SBLM)
- Blackstar Group (LON:BLCK)
- Britvic (LON:BVIC)
- 3Legs Resources (LON:3LEG)
- Cove Energy (LON:COV)

The only remaining disclosed stakes we have in our records for Eton Park are a position in Burford Capital at 8.76% and Goldenport Holdings at 4.49% (LON:GPRT) at last disclosure.  Apparently there has been some press speculation about possible redemptions though we've not been able to confirm anything.

Eton Park Capital Discloses Cove Energy Stake, Reduces Sable Mining Position

Eric Mindich's hedge fund Eton Park Capital has just disclosed activity in two positions in UK markets.


Cove Energy

First, Mindich's firm has disclosed a new position in Cove Energy (LON: COV).  Due to trading on May 16th, the hedge fund has disclosed a position of 3.09% of outstanding shares in COV via equity swaps.

Per Google Finance, Cove Energy is "engaged in the exploration for and the development and production of oil and gas reserves. The Company operates in two segments: oil and gas exploration, and mineral exploration. The Company properties include Rovuma Offshore, where it has 8.5% working interest; Mozambique Onshore, where it has 10% working interest; Tanzania Mnazi Bay, where it has 16.38% working interest in production and 20.475% exploration interest; Kenya Offshore (L5, L7, L11A, L11B and L12), where it has 15% working interest, and Kenya Offshore (L10A and L10B), where it has 25% and 15% working interest."


Sable Mining

Second, Eton Park has significantly reduced their position in the London listed African miner Sable Mining (LON: SBLM).  Their disclosure shows they've gone below the threshold of a 3% ownership stake.  Market Folly originally flagged when Eton Park bought Sable back in April 2010 at a placing.

Sable Mining is still owned by Audley Capital who hold 7.1% of the shares outstanding.

Per Google Finance, Sable Mining is "formerly BioEnergy Africa Limited, is a mining company. It focuses on investing in early stage exploration and development mining businesses or assets located in sub-Saharan Africa."


In other activity from this hedge fund, we've detailed Eton Park's new position in Teekay (TK).

Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital Discloses New Position in Teekay (TK)

Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital just filed a 13G with the SEC revealing a new equity stake in Teekay (TK).

Per the filing, they now own a 6.51% ownership stake in the company with 475,000 shares and options to purchase 4,000,000 shares.

The company spun off various operations over the last couple of years. It holds stakes in Teekay LNG Partners (TGP), Teekay Offshore Partners (TOO), and Teekay Tankers (TNK).

Wells Fargo recently upgraded its price target on the company to $38-41 (shares currently trade around $35). They feel that the company is undervalued and it will likely raise its dividend in 2013 and could possible boost its buyback later in 2012.

Per Google Finance, Teekay is "a provider of international crude oil and gas marine transportation services. It also offers offshore oil production, storage and offloading services, primarily under long-term, fixed-rate contracts. With a fleet of over 150 vessels, offices in 16 countries, Teekay provides marine services to the oil and gas companies, helping them link their upstream energy production to their downstream processing operations."

Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital Adds to 3Legs Resources Position

Eric Mindich's hedge fund Eton Park Capital has added to its position in London listed 3Legs Resources (LON: 3LEG). Due to trading on October 9th, Eton Park now owns 5.58% of 3LEGS' shares.

We originally reported when Eton Park took its initial position in 3Legs when they bought stock via the placing on the AIM market in June 2011. They've since acquired an additional 2.1% of the company.

Per Google Finance, 3Legs Resources is "engaged in the exploration, evaluation and development of oil and gas targets, from unconventional resource plays. The Company has six exploration and prospection licenses covering approximately 4,387 square kilometers (1,084,000 acres) (gross) in the onshore Baltic Basin."

In other activity from this hedge fund, we also detailed Eton Park's position in MSCI.

Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital Buys More MSCI

Eric Mindich's hedge fund Eton Park Capital just filed a 13G with the SEC on its position in MSCI Inc (MSCI ). Per portfolio trading on July 29th, Eton Park has disclosed a 5.81% ownership stake in with 7,000,000 shares.

This activity represents a 18.6% increase in the hedge fund's position size because at the end of the first quarter, they owned 5,900,000 shares. Per data from the first quarter, Eton Park is now the fourth largest shareholder of MSCI shares.

MSCI is very visible in markets as popular indexes (and exchange traded funds) bear its name, such as the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (EEM).

Of other funds we track, Stephen Mandel's hedge fund Lone Pine Capital had previously owned MSCI back in 2009 but sold it in 2010. Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital held a sizable position at the end of Q1, but we won't know their recent Q2 position size until next week.

In other activity from Eton Park, we detailed their new position in 3Leg Resources.

Per Google Finance, MSCI Inc is "a provider of investment decision support tools, including indices, portfolio risk and performance analytics and corporate governance products and services. The Company consists of two segments: the Performance and Risk business and the Governance business."

Eton Park Capital Opens Position in 3Legs Resources

Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital has opened a brand new position in 3Leg Resources. According to a UK regulatory filing made on June 28th, Eton Park now own 3.49% of 3Legs' outstanding shares.

3Legs Resources is involved in the exploration and development of unconventional oil and gas resources with a particular focus on shale gas in Europe. Poland is the group's main country of operation.

The company was admitted to trading on London's AIM market on June 14th, so it seems likely that Eton Park acquired their shares via the placement.

For other activity from Eton Park, we've covered the reduction in their Airgas (ARG) position.

Eton Park Reduces Airgas (ARG) Position

Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital has reduced its stake in Airgas (ARG). Due to an amended 13D filing with the SEC, Eton Park now shows a 4.92% ownership stake in ARG with 4,145,191 shares due to portfolio activity on March 29th.

This is a 31% reduction in their position size. Back in December 2010, Eton Park owned 7.15% of Airgas. The bulk of their recent sales came on February 16th and March 30th at weighted average prices of $63.0019 and $66.3244, respectively.

You'll recall that Airgas had in the past been subject to a takeover bid by Air Products (APD). Eton Park had supported the bid after APD raised its offer numerous times. However, Airgas did not seem receptive. For now, Eton Park still holds a position, albeit a smaller one than previous months.

Per Google Finance, Airgas is "a distributor of industrial, medical and specialty gases (delivered in packaged or cylinder form), and hardgoods, such as welding equipment and supplies."

Eton Park Capital Reduces Vallar Position

Eric Mindich's hedge fund Eton Park Capital recently filed a disclosure in the UK due to trading on March 7th. Eton Park have reduced their ownership in Vallar (LON: VAA) from 5.03% of shares outstanding down to a 3.52% ownership stake. Eton Park first started a new position in Vallar shares back in December 2010.

Mindich founded Eton Park after being named the youngest partner in Goldman Sachs history at age 27. He launched with $3 billion in 2004 and it was one of the largest hedge fund launches ever. The hedge fund primarily pursues arbitrage strategies.

Per Google Finance - "Vallar PLC, formerly Vallar Limited, is a holding company formed to acquire a single company, business or asset that has operations in the global metals, mining and resources sector. The Company focuses on the Americas, Russia, Eastern Europe and Australia. It focuses on commodities, including base metals, coking coal, iron ore, thermal coal, gold, silver and uranium. As of July 31, 2010 the Company had not yet commenced operations. The Company’s subsidiary is Vallar Holding Company Limited."

Eton Park Starts New Vallar (LON:VAA) Position

Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital Management has started a brand new position in Vallar (LON: VAA). The London Stock Exchange has revealed that due to trading activity on the 22nd of December, 2010, Eton Park now controls 5.03% of Vallar's voting rights.

In terms of other recent Eton Park activity, we saw that the hedge fund supported Air Products' (APD) latest bid for Airgas (ARG) in one of their arbitrage trades. However, nothing has materialized there. Eton Park's most recent acquisition is a bit of a head-scratcher and you'll see why below in the company description:

Per Google Finance, Vallar is "a holding company formed to acquire a single company, business or asset that has operations in the global metals, mining and resources sector. The Company focuses on the Americas, Russia, Eastern Europe and Australia. It focuses on commodities, including base metals, coking coal, iron ore, thermal coal, gold, silver and uranium."

For other activity out of Eton Park, we also detailed an increase in their Lonrho (LONR) stake.

Eton Park Capital Supports Air Products' Latest Bid For Airgas

Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital Management recently filed an amended 13D with the SEC regarding their stake in Airgas (ARG). Per the updated disclosure, Eton Park shows ownership of 7.15% of Airgas with 6,014,200 shares. Their position remains unchanged as they held this amount of shares at the end of the third quarter. This has been a longstanding merger arbitrage play in their portfolio.

Today we continue 'merger arbitrage day' on MarketFolly.com as we examine some of the largest trades hedge funds have put on in recent quarters. Eton Park mainly filed their amended 13D to publicly voice support behind Air Products and Chemicals' (APD) latest offer for Airgas. Here's Eton Park's statement:

"To The Board of Directors of Airgas, Inc.: As you know, funds managed by Eton Park Capital Management own more than 6 million shares, or approximately 7.15% of the outstanding shares, of Airgas, Inc. We write to express our views to the Board of Directors with respect to Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.’s $70 per share offer to acquire Airgas.

Until now, we have refrained from public comment on either Air Products’ efforts to acquire Airgas or on Airgas’ efforts to defend against the bid. We generally do not oppose poison pills or staggered boards and believe that the Airgas board to date has served its shareholders well. Airgas’ defense has forced Air Products to raise its bid several times. But now, circumstances have changed. Air Products has raised its offer to $70 a share and stated that the offer is best and final. In our view, the $70 per share bid is fair, represents an appropriate price for control of Airgas and, accordingly, presents an opportunity and not a threat to Airgas or its shareholders.

We believe the Airgas board should now either allow shareholders to accept Air Products’ revised offer or establish a clearly defined process designed to achieve greater value through an alternative control transaction."

So, given the lengthy nature of this takeover saga, Eton Park feels that Air Products' latest offer is fair and are fully in support of it. It will be intriguing to see if other hedge funds also publicly voice their support of accepting this offer as this has been one of the larger merger arbitrage plays in hedge fund land. If some funds support the latest bid while others oppose it, things could get very dicey.

Shares of ARG are currently trading around $63, about 11% lower than APD's offer of $70 per share. Since this is an arbitrage trade, keep in mind that Eton Park has most likely hedged this play somehow, possibly by shorting APD shares. We'll have to see if Airgas' board agree with Eton Park and accept the latest bid. For other activity out of Eton Park, we also detailed an increase in their Lonrho (LONR) stake.

Per Google Finance, Airgas is "a distributor of industrial, medical and specialty gases (delivered in packaged or cylinder form), and hardgoods, such as welding equipment and supplies. Airgas is also a United States distributor of safety products, producer of nitrous oxide and dry ice, liquid carbon dioxide producer in the Southeast, and a distributor of process chemicals, refrigerants and ammonia products."

Stay tuned for one more merger arbitrage post this morning. In the mean time, check out our other hedge fund tracking here.

Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital Raises Lonrho Stake (LONR)

Eric Mindich's hedge fund Eton Park Capital have increased their long position in Lonrho (LON: LONR). Due to trading in UK markets on October 29th, Eton Park has boosted their stake from 5.97% of Lonrho shares outstanding up to a 9.42% ownership stake. LONR is an interesting play on Africa as the company owns numerous businesses on that continent. Regarding other recent activity from Mindich's fund, you can see an update on Eton Park here.

Taken from Google Finance, Lonrho is "a pan-African company with a portfolio of investments in agribusiness, infrastructure, hotels, transportation and support services. The Company's agribusiness sector include Rollex 51% holding. Its infrastructure portfolio of investments include Luba Freeport Limited 63% holding and KwikBuild Corporation Limited 70% holding. Its transportation portfolio includes Fly540 Angola 60% holding and Fly540 Ghana 60% holding. Its hotel portfolio include Hotel Cardoso in Mozambique 59% holding plus management contract and The Grand Karavia Hotel in Lubumbashi 50% holding plus management contract. Its support services include Bytes & Pieces 65% holding, Lonrho IT 50% holding plus board control and CES Zambia 45% holding plus Board control."

You can scroll through all our past coverage of Eric Mindich's hedge fund here.

Hedge Fund UK Positions Update: Eton Park, Lansdowne, & Odey

While Market Folly typically focuses on that of equities traded on US exchanges, we also like to track the UK holdings of the top hedge funds. Today we'll summarize the latest moves in the UK from some of the biggest managers due to regulatory filings.

First, Crispin Odey's hedge fund firm Odey Asset Management has increased their position in Pendragon (LON: PDG) two times in recent months. Due to portfolio activity on August 8th, Odey boosted their stake from a 14.56% stake to 16.35%. Then, on the 9th of September, Odey again raised their stake, this time to the current 17.79% ownership level. Pendragon is a UK car dealer and Odey has actually been involved in this sector/industry for much of the year.

Back in February, we posted up an investor letter from their flagship Odey European fund in which Odey disclosed a position in another UK car dealer, Lookers (LON: LOOK). We can't confirm whether or not Odey still have the Lookers stake as they've not crossed above the UK"s mandated 3% disclosure threshold. However, Odey has revealed their thesis behind the car dealer play writing,

"I have bought well managed businesses, where management have taken the necessary action to live in a world in which demand remains excessively weak. Where management have demonstrated the ability to take advantage of further dislocation - for instance if interest rates were to rise, they would be able to exploit this as an opportunity to buy their rivals. In the UK this has put me into the likes of Lookers and Pendragon, both car dealers. Current new car sales are running 1.8 million cars a year, some thirty per cent below the replacement rate of 2.8 million cars. Money is being made in used car sales and servicing, both of which are benefitting from the ageing of the fleet. On a P/E for this year of 5x, I find shares that are on discount to a level of profitability which already discounts the worst. That double discount gives me a great deal of comfort."

For more thoughts from this hedge fund, head to Crispin Odey's recent market outlook.

Second, we see that Eric Mindich's Eton Park Capital has disclosed a brand new position in Goldenport Holdings (LON: GPRT). They own 5.57% of the shares outstanding and this was due to portfolio activity on September 8th, 2010. Taken from Google Finance, Goldenport Holdings is "an international shipping company that owns and operates a fleet of container and dry bulk vessels that transport cargo worldwide." In terms of other activity from Eric Mindich's hedge fund, we revealed their new stake in Doral Financial (DRL) in August and also detailed some of Eton Park's portfolio as well.

Third, we'll turn to portfolio activity from Steven Heinz and Paul Ruddock's Lansdowne Partners. The major UK hedge fund reduced their position in Petropavlovsk (LON: POG) below the regulatory threshold of 5% ownership in a company. Petropavlovsk is involved in the development and mining of gold. Previously, the hedge fund owned greater than a 5% stake but now we no longer can view their stake due to portfolio activity on August 5th. Conversely, Lansdowne increased their position in RGI International (LON: RGI) to a 4.76% ownership stake due to portfolio activity on August 20th. RGI is involved in property development in Russia. Other past portfolio activity from Lansdowne includes covering their Old Mutual short position.

Last, we wanted to touch on a few merger arbitrage related plays. Eric Mindich's Eton Park has been in Dana Petroleum (LON: DNX), a company in takeover talks with a Korean company. Also, John Paulson's hedge fund Paulson & Co has been in SSL which is in takeover talks with Reckitt Benckiser.

For all our other coverage of stocks in this market, head to our posts on UK positions taken by hedge funds.

Gold is NOT Eric Mindich's Biggest Holding: A Memo to Bloomberg Regarding 13F Filings

Yesterday afternoon, Bloomberg ran a piece entitled, "Eric Mindich, Like John Paulson, Makes Gold ETF His Fund's Biggest Holding." There's just one problem with that headline: it's not really correct. Here at Market Folly, we pride ourselves on in-depth analysis of SEC Filings, and in particular, the 13F's that disclose the latest hedge fund investments. And today, we get the perfect chance to prove it.

The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is not the largest holding at Eric Mindich's hedge fund Eton Park Capital Management. As per the most recent 13F detailing positions as of June 30th, 2010, Eton Park's largest position is puts on the iShares MSCI Emerging Market Index (EEM). At quarter close, Mindich's position in GLD was valued at $800,289,000. His put position on EEM was valued at $895,680,000. In the second quarter, Eton Park actually increased their bet against EEM by 61%, buying puts representing 9,100,000 additional shares. Their put exposure on this name now represents 24,000,000 shares of EEM.

Maybe Bloomberg's data-set didn't take into consideration the put/call column on the actual filing. (Numerous automated data sorting programs skip over this and omit options positions entirely). Maybe it was an honest mistake. Maybe Bloomberg doesn't classify puts as an 'investment' and so it merely comes down to technicalities of the language used in their article. But even if that was the case, you still can't really call the SPDR Gold Trust their single 'biggest reported investment'.

Why? Well, because Eton Park also owns both puts and calls on GLD as well. In the second quarter, Mindich's hedge fund bought the following:

$800,289,000 worth of SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) shares
$608,400,000 worth of GLD calls
$486,720,000 worth of GLD puts

We don't know their true exposure to gold because a 13F filing does not disclose the strike price or expiration date of underlying options positions. However, you could net out their ownership of common shares, calls and puts to find that they have around $921,969,000 worth of long exposure to GLD. But you also have to keep in mind that Eton Park is an arbitrage focused fund. As such, all of these discrepancies are relevant to determine the type of wager they are making with various positions.

The only way that GLD is Eton Park's top holding is if Bloomberg is treating all of the above as gross exposure to GLD or if they are netting out the exposure as we have above. But even then, there was no mention of this in their article at all. They merely cited the $800 million position in the underlying shares. The fact that Bloomberg completely omitted the information that Eton Park owns both calls and puts on the same exchange traded fund is somewhat appalling. It's one thing to own just the shares of GLD as a directional bet (as they've mistakenly construed). It's entirely different when you add in ownership of both puts and calls on the underlying shares as those affect the net position and exposure. Nevermind that Bloomberg missed the fact that their standalone position of GLD shares are not Eton Park's 'biggest reported investment' in the first place.

The comical part of all of this is that Bloomberg completely skipped over Eton Park's options positions in both EEM and GLD, and yet they end their article with this note (emphasis added by MarketFolly):

"The SEC requires money managers who oversee more than $100 million in U.S. equities to report their holdings on a Form 13F within 45 days of the end of each quarter. The filing must include all holdings in stocks that trade on U.S. exchanges, as well as options and convertible debt."

Factually, Eton Park's largest single reported holding is in puts of the iShares MSCI Emerging Market Index (EEM). Their position in shares of the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is the second largest reported holding. But even then, there's some ambiguity surrounding their entire GLD exposure and the type of wager they're making when you consider the puts and calls they also own. This just goes to show that attention to detail is a must when examining SEC 13F filings.

Apologies for this little diatribe, but it's irritating when potential misinformation is floated around, especially by a mainstream media source. In the end, Bloomberg will probably update the article from 'biggest' holding to 'big' holding or something of the sort (with zero mention of Market Folly of course). That's perfectly fine, as long as they remedy the misinformation that's currently out there. Our readers know where to come for hedge fund portfolio updates.

Stay tuned this week as we are set to release an in-depth summary of the new batch of 13F filings and latest positions of the top hedge funds in the game. For more on Eric Mindich's hedge fund, we also detailed Eton Park's new Doral Financial (DRL) position.

Eric Mindich's Eton Park Discloses New Doral Financial Position (DRL)

Per a 13G filed with the SEC due to portfolio activity on August 6th, 2010, Eric Mindich's hedge fund Eton Park Capital has disclosed a new position. Eton Park has revealed a 7.52% ownership stake in Doral Financial Corporation (DRL) with 8,444,354 shares. However, this percentage is based on the current amount of shares outstanding. Realistically, Doral will have more shares outstanding due to conversion of "mandatorily convertible non-cumulative non-voting preferred stock". So if you were to base the figure on the anticipated number of shares outstanding, Eton Park would own a 6.63% stake.

Breaking down the position at Mindich's hedge fund, we see that they own 3,827,091 shares of common stock and then 21,932 shares of preferred stock which will convert into 4,617,263 additional common shares. All in all, this is a newly disclosed position as it did not appear in our past coverage of Eton Park's portfolio. Mindich founded Eton Park after being named the youngest partner in Goldman Sachs history at age 27. He launched with $3 billion in 2004, one of the largest hedge fund launches ever. Mindich's hedge fund is primarily arbitrage focused and we've detailed some of their previous new positions as well.

Doral Financial Corporation is "a bank holding company. Doral Financial’s operations are principally conducted in Puerto Rico. The Company also operates in the New York City metropolitan area. Doral Financial manages its business through three operating segments: banking (including thrift operations), mortgage banking and insurance agency."

Stay up to date with the latest hedge fund portfolio movements on our site daily.

Hedge Fund Eton Park Increases Position in Airgas (ARG), Bets on Takeover

Due to activity on May 21st, 2010, Eric Mindich's hedge fund Eton Park Capital has disclosed an updated position in Airgas (ARG). Per a 13D filed with the SEC, we learn that Eton Park now has a 7.27% ownership stake in the company with 6,014,200 shares. This is an increase in their position as back on March 31st, 2010 they owned 3,910,000 shares. So, over the past two months, Mindich's firm has added 2,104,200 shares (a 53.8% increase in their position size). They spent $370 million to acquire the additional exposure and the filing did mention that part of this transaction was conducted on margin.

This makes Eton Park the second largest shareholder of Airgas (ARG), a company which recently received a buyout offer from Air Products & Chemicals (APD) for $60 per share. Eton is obviously wagering that Air Products & Chemicals will increase their offer as shares of Airgas are currently trading around $62, above the $60 offer price. Please also keep in mind that since Eton Park is an arbitrage focused fund, they most likely have hedged this position somehow (possibly via shorting shares of Air Products). They are not required to disclose short positions so we will not be able to see the other part of this trade they could theoretically have on.

For other recent investments from Eric Mindich's hedge fund, check out Eton Park's new position in Cohen & Company (COH) as well as their new stake in Sable Mining (SBLM). And for more of our coverage on Mindich, we recommend checking out some of his thoughts on whether or not there is alpha in asset allocation at a previous hedge fund panel.

Taken from Google Finance, Airgas is "a distributor of industrial, medical and specialty gases (delivered in packaged or cylinder form), and hardgoods, such as welding equipment and supplies. Airgas is a producer of nitrous oxide in the United States, the liquid carbon dioxide producer in the Southeast, the producer of atmospheric merchant gases in North America and a distributor of process chemicals, refrigerants, and ammonia products."

For the latest investments from prominent managers, head to our hedge fund portfolio tracking series.

Eric Mindich's Hedge Fund Eton Park Capital Discloses New Position in Cohen & Company (COHN)

Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital recently filed a 13G with the SEC disclosing a stake in Cohen & Company (COHN). In the filing, Eton Park has disclosed a 6.26% stake in with 647,701 shares. This is a brand new position for Mindich's firm as they did not show ownership when we detailed Eton Park's portfolio. However, while this new filing was made after market close on May 6th, 2010, it says it was filed due to activity on December 31st, 2009. So, it's unclear if they simply forgot to file it months ago or marked the wrong date on the document. Either way, it's a newly disclosed position.

In terms of other recent investment activity from the hedge fund, we saw that Eton Park acquired Sable Mining shares (SBLM) and we detailed a portfolio update on Mindich's firm as well. For more of our coverage on Mindich, we recommend checking out some of his thoughts from a hedge fund panel regarding whether or not there is alpha in asset allocation. He started the firm in 2004 with $3 billion and today manages well in excess of $10 billion. Before founding Eton Park, Mindich was Goldman Sachs' youngest partner in history at the age of 27 and focused on merger arbitrage.

Taken from Yahoo Finance, "Cohen & Company, an investment company, engages in the credit related fixed income investments business. It operates in two divisions, Asset Management and Capital Markets."

You can view all our previous coverage of Eric Mindich's hedge fund here.

Eric Mindich's Eton Park Acquires Sable Mining (SBLM) Shares

We've just learned that Eric Mindich's hedge fund firm Eton Park Capital have acquired 42,000,000 shares of Sable Mining (LON:SBLM) due to a placing held on April 16th, 2010. Eton Park's stake is representative of a 4.53% stake in the company. Keep in mind that another prominent hedge fund, Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital, also recently boosted their stake in Sable Mining. As we detailed previously, Harbinger owned a 23.35% stake in SBLM as of March 23rd, 2010.

In terms of other activity out of Mindich's hedge fund, we recently detailed a portfolio update on Eton Park. For more of our coverage on Mindich, we recommend checking out some of his thoughts from a hedge fund panel regarding whether or not there is alpha in asset allocation. Lastly, we've also covered how Eton Park has expanded their UK positions recently as well. Their addition of a Sable Mining stake of course bolsters these actions even further.

Sable Mining Africa Ltd is small company listed on the AIM market in London. It was re-named in November 2009 and used to be called BioEnergy Africa. Sable changed in 2009 with a move away from bio-ethanol related assets into mining related energy assets. Sable Mining is now focused on the acquisition or investment in early stage coal and uranium with a particular emphasis on Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Sable Mining intends to be an active investor in an attempt to add value both operationally and strategically to the businesses it acquires or invests in. The company’s objective is to own entire or majority interests in suitable businesses or assets rather than holding minority investments. To facilitate the new strategy, the company undertook a fundraising via a placing of new ordinary shares in December 2009. It is likely that Harbinger bought shares in the placement at a price below the quoted market share price. Sable’s Chairman is ex-England cricketer and slow left arm bowler, Phil Edmonds.

Head here for a recent portfolio update on Eton Park to see what else they've been up to.