prunes Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Which professional investors would you say are the best at special situations investing of the type espoused by Greenblatt in his first book: merger securities, spin-offs, restructurings, etc.? I know that Klarman would probably the first pick on most everyone's list. Who else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Leucadia would be my first pick hands down. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Not that it's the answer you are looking for, but nobody has done better than John Malone in creating and profiting from these types of special situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExpectedValue Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Elliott Associates. By a wide margin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Management_Corporation "NEWS CLIPPINGS ABOUT Elliott Associates suggest that it is a super-aggressive vulture investor. It picks fights with major corporations (Procter & Gamble), US federal court judges (in a high-profile asbestos case), and even entire nations (Peru). Anne Krueger, the first deputy managing director of the IMF, has denounced the fund, alleging that it has undermined the entire structure of sovereign finance. Ask its investors about Elliott, though, and you'll get a very different story. Over the course of its 27 years of managing money, Elliott has never returned more than 25% in any given year; its compound annual return is a respectable 14.1%. The fund is so cautious that some investors left during the stock market bubble, seeking higher returns from more aggressive managers. They generally returned, chastened, after the bubble burst." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 He certainly sounds British, but he started in business in Canada. I think he lives in Hong Kong or Vienna most of the time. I highly recommend the conference calls! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbitisrich Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Bill Ackman is developing a warranted reputation as a value adding activist. GGP, Target, Fortune, Sears Canada, and Wendy's shareholders benefited from his activism. This is also a list of distressed debt investors: http://www.distressed-debt-investing.com/2010/12/distressed-debt-hedge-funds.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indirect Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 The problem with John Malone is that you never realize if he is your side or across the table from you ( in which case you will be the loser). LUK, FFH and BRK, their interest and yours are aligned. Malone will split the stock and merge later and cut you out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 The problem with John Malone is that you never realize if he is your side or across the table from you ( in which case you will be the loser). LUK, FFH and BRK, their interest and yours are aligned. Malone will split the stock and merge later and cut you out. That's true - but it's fairly straightforward to watch where his money goes and try to figure out why. In my experience, it pays to pay very close attention to what he does with HIS capital. case in point, from last year: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/937797/000120919110018107/xslF345X03/c98135_4x0.xml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 An interesting character I came across - Michael Smith of Terra Nova Royalty (TTT). TTT receives royalties from investment in mines, commodities trading (commissions, financing). But, hard to get details on Michael Smith. He is a Canadian (?) with business involvement all over the world. Do you know more about him? Smith ran MFC Bancorp, which was a merchant bank with offices in various locations, including Vancouver. I was a shareholder about 10 years ago, but couldn't figure out exactly what they were doing back then, so I sold. I thought they might have been fraudulent. ;D Eventually, it became KHD Humboldt, which Mohnish was a large shareholder of. And now Terra Nova Royalty. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mevsemt Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 If you want to learn more about M. Smith here's a good article by Zeke Ashton - http://www.sumzero.com/postings/2985/guest_view I've also written several posts on my blog about the company, if interested here are the links: http://mevsemt.blogspot.com/2010/09/transaction-alert-bought-ttt.html http://mevsemt.blogspot.com/2010/10/some-more-thoughts-on-tttmcfaf.html http://mevsemt.blogspot.com/2010/11/adding-to-ttt.html http://mevsemt.blogspot.com/2010/11/adding-to-ttt-again.html http://mevsemt.blogspot.com/2011/02/sold-khdhf.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcollon Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 I think Seth Klarman is probably the best I have seen, but I'm sure there are plenty of individuals that are managing smaller pools of capital that are doing very well. I just don't read about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest misterstockwell Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 An interesting character I came across - Michael Smith of Terra Nova Royalty (TTT). TTT receives royalties from investment in mines, commodities trading (commissions, financing). But, hard to get details on Michael Smith. He is a Canadian (?) with business involvement all over the world. Do you know more about him? Smith ran MFC Bancorp, which was a merchant bank with offices in various locations, including Vancouver. I was a shareholder about 10 years ago, but couldn't figure out exactly what they were doing back then, so I sold. I thought they might have been fraudulent. ;D Eventually, it became KHD Humboldt, which Mohnish was a large shareholder of. And now Terra Nova Royalty. Cheers! If you read the latest 20-F, it's like a poster child for potential fraud. The board is a complete joke, the CFO resigned, I think the CEO as well, and now Michael Smith is all of the above. From your comment, it must have been the same in 2000. Probably always has been the same. You have to be very trusting to own TTT! Even with all the cloudy activity, he has delivered to shareholders over the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merkhet Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Didn't M. Smith screw over the MFC shareholders when TTT folded MFC into itself? (Or was it the other way around?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogermunibond Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Mild screw over. He wrote up the value of TTT's Wabush iron ore royalty and undervalued MFC for the exchange. But if you used the sell off opportunity prior to the acquistion to buy MFC cheap, you did okay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpauls Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 This is also a list of distressed debt investors: http://www.distressed-debt-investing.com/2010/12/distressed-debt-hedge-funds.html They missed one of note, "Spring Street Capital". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Sanjeev, The TTT annual meeting is going to be in Vanouver. Are you or any other board members planning on attending? I will not be able to make it to Vancouver. Packer I thought it was two days before Christmas in Hong Kong. Are they having another meeting before next December? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king888 Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 Clement Scholl (My most favorite SA contributor) also follow TTT and KHD http://seekingalpha.com/article/252655-terra-nova-s-royalty-a-strong-income-stream http://seekingalpha.com/article/244371-terra-nova-royalty-still-owns-3-of-khd-humboldt-wedag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Packer16 Posted April 16, 2011 Share Posted April 16, 2011 You are right I must have messed up the meeting time and place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbitisrich Posted April 18, 2011 Share Posted April 18, 2011 Clement Scholl (My most favorite SA contributor) also follow TTT and KHD http://seekingalpha.com/article/252655-terra-nova-s-royalty-a-strong-income-stream http://seekingalpha.com/article/244371-terra-nova-royalty-still-owns-3-of-khd-humboldt-wedag Nice recommendation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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