Leon Cooperman’s Omega Overseas fund, managed by his New York-based firm Omega Advisors, lost nearly 3 percent in December. As a result, the hedge fund finished the year in the red, dropping more than 2 percent. This also means Cooperman won’t qualify for Alpha’s annual Rich List ranking of top-earning hedge fund managers this year. In last year’s ranking, the one-time Goldman Sachs partner made $825 million, finishing No. 7, after posting a roughly 29 percent gain in 2013.
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Most discretionary macro funds — whose trading decisions are made by humans rather than computers — finished their disappointing 2014 with a whimper. In fact, Andrew Law’s Caxton Global Investment, managed by New York-based Caxton Associates, lost 1.36 percent for the year. That makes 2014 Law’s worst year since he officially took over the New York firm founded by Bruce Kovner in 2012. On the other hand, Paul Tudor Jones II’s Tudor BVI Global Fund gained 0.75 percent in December, enabling it to post a 3.5 percent gain for the year. It is managed by Greenwich, Connecticut-based Tudor Investment Corp. Louis Bacon’s Moore Global Investments, managed by New York-based Moore Capital Management, was up 1.65 percent through December 24.
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Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group more than doubled its position in Cheniere Energy to 24.8 million shares, or 10 percent of the total outstanding. Last year, shares of the company, which hopes to liquefy and export natural gas from Sabine Pass, Louisiana, jumped 58 percent. On the other hand, the Boston-based hedge fund firm disclosed that it liquidated its entire stake of Aveo Pharmaceuticals. At the end of the third quarter, Baupost had a small position worth $4.25 million.
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Barry Rosenstein’s Jana Partners cut its stake in supermarket chain operator Super Valu by more than 5 million shares, to roughly 25.6 million shares. All of the sales took place between January 7 and 9 for between $9.12 and $9.50 per share. Jana, a New York-based activist hedge fund firm, now owns about 9.8 percent of the total outstanding.
