Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Capital Trims Innospec (IOSP) Stake

Jeffrey Gendell's hedge fund firm Tontine Capital recently filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Innospec (IOSP). Due to trading on June 13th, Gendell's firm has disclosed a 10.9% ownership stake in the company with 2,578,651 shares.

This is a slight decrease in their position size as they've trimmed their stake by 14% since March 31st when they owned 3,008,651 shares.

It's been a long time since we've covered this hedge fund firm. Gendell takes large positions in companies he feels are poised to benefit from selective themes. He will also take an activist role if needed.


Tontine's Comeback?

Tontine returned over 100% in 2003 but then came back down to earth. In 2008, their Partners fund returned -91.5% as they were stuck holding concentrated positions in illiquid shares during the financial crisis as forced selling accelerated.

As such, two of their funds closed down and Tontine landed on the top hedge fund manager losers of 2008.

At the time, it seemed ironic that 'Tontine' was named after an older annuity created by Lorenzo de Tonti where investors desire to be 'the last one standing.' In this arrangement, investors pool their money and as they die off the remaining investors split the deceased's stake. The last investor standing then inherits the riches.

By naming his firm as such, Gendell obviously desires to be the last man standing. He almost went by the wayside in 2008 but quietly over the past few years has re-tooled and re-built his hedge fund firm.

Per Google Finance, Innospec "develops, manufactures, blends and markets fuel additives, personal care and fragrance products and other specialty chemicals."

Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Associates Sells Broadwind Energy Shares (BWEN)

Jeffrey Gendell's hedge fund firm Tontine Capital filed an amended 13D and a Form 4 with the SEC in regards to shares of Broadwind Energy (BWEN). Tontine has disclosed a 37.5% ownership stake in BWEN with 39,963,635 shares. This is a decrease from their previous holdings as Tontine sold 6,125,000 shares at a price of $5.4625 per share on January 21st, 2010. After all the sales, Tontine still owns 39,963,635 Broadwind shares. This is not the first time they've sold BWEN shares and we've wrote about their past sales as well.

Digging into the footnotes of the recent SEC filings, we see that the sales were part of an offering whereby Tontine sold shares to underwriters Macquarie Capital and JP Morgan Securities. The underwriters purchased the shares at a price of $5.4625 (as seen above) and offered them to the public at a price of $5.75 per share. This was part of an offering of common stock where Broadwind sold 10,000,000 newly issued shares, Tontine sold the shares referenced above, and Broadwind's CEO (J. Cameron Drecoll) sold 1,125,000 shares.

Tontine specializes in macro investing by taking large, concentrated positions in companies they feel are poised to benefit from select themes and will take an activist role if necessary. While Tontine returned over 100% in 2003, the year of 2008 was one to forget as their Partners fund ended up -91.5% and their 25 LP fund was -63.6%. As such, two of their hedge funds closed down and Tontine found themselves on the top hedge fund manager losers of 2008 list. However, they started off 2009 with a bang. When we checked on their performance in May, their 25 fund was up 72.3% and their Partners fund was up 49.8% for the 2009 as of that time. If anyone has year-end numbers for Tontine, feel free to contact us. For more on the 'rebirth' of Tontine Associates, we previously penned a guest post here.

Taken from Google Finance, Broadwind Energy is "a supplier of value-added products and services to the North American wind energy sector, as well as other energy-related industries. The Company provides range of component and service offerings to wind turbine manufacturers and developers, wind farm operators and service companies."

Hedge Fund Tontine's Rebirth? (Guest Post Over On Zero Hedge)

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that we had a guest post published over at ZeroHedge.com yesterday regarding the latest out of Jeffrey Gendell's hedge fund Tontine Associates. In it, we cover their latest SEC filings and investor letter so click here to check it out.

Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Associates Boosts Willbros Group (WG) Stake: 13G Filing

Jeffrey Gendell's hedge fund firm Tontine Associates recently filed a 13G on Willbros Group (WG) due to activity on August 31st, 2009. In the filing, they've disclosed a 5.36% ownership stake in WG with 2,125,661 shares. This is an increase from their last disclosure when they held 1,744,166 shares as of June 30th, 2009. In the span of 2 months, Tontine has added 381,495 shares of Willbros Group. We haven't yet covered Tontine Associates in our hedge fund portfolio tracking series yet, but be on the lookout when we'll detail all of their long US equities positions. In terms of other notable recent activity, we saw that Tontine sold shares of Broadwind Energy (BWEN).

Tontine specializes in macro investing by taking large, concentrated positions in companies they feel are poised to benefit from select themes. Occasionally, an activist role will be taken if necessary. While Tontine returned over 100% in both 2003 and 2005, the year of 2008 was one to forget as their Partners fund ended up -91.5% and their 25 LP fund was -63.6%. As such, two of their hedge funds closed down and Tontine found themselves on the top hedge fund manager losers of 2008 list. However, they've started off 2009 with a bang. When we last checked their performance in May, their 25 fund was up 72.3% and their Partners fund was up 49.8% for the year as of that time.

Taken from Google Finance, Willbros Group is "an independent international contractor serving the oil, gas and power industries, government entities, and the refinery and petrochemical industries. Willbros operates its business in three segments: Upstream Oil & Gas, Downstream Oil & Gas, and Engineering. These segments operate primarily in the United States, Canada, and Oman. The Company provides engineering; construction; engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), and specialty services to industry and governmental entities worldwide, specializing in pipelines and associated facilities for onshore and coastal locations."