Jacob Gottlieb, the founder of New York-based Visium Asset Management, has won a high-profile divorce settlement with his wife, Alexandra Lumiere. According to the New York Daily News, a judge upheld their prenuptial agreement. As a result, the hedge fund manager will not have to pay alimony and his wife will be required to leave her upscale Central Park West apartment when their two children grow older. The children will get a trust fund, according to the paper and Lumiere will receive a $1.6 million investment fund, but the couple will not divide their assets. Gottlieb said his net worth was $188 million in 2013, according to the report. Last year, the Visium Global Fund gained 10.3 percent and Visium Balanced Offshore was up a little less than 6 percent. If all of his net worth were invested in the two funds, Gottlieb last year probably made between $15 million and $20 million, at a minimum, just from gains on his own capital, according to Alpha’s estimate. This does not include his share of the management fees, which are between 1.5 percent and 2 percent, and the 20 percent performance fee. So, he could have easily earned double that amount last year. His firm managed $6.5 billion at the beginning of 2015.
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Carl Icahn is being hailed for his latest victory after Xerox Corp. agreed to break itself into two separate companies. Shares of Xerox Friday climbed 5.6 percent to $9.75. However, bondholders are are probably less happy with the split. On Friday morning Moody’s Investors Service placed certain ratings of Xerox bonds under review for downgrade following the spin-off announcement. The ratings under review include the Baa2 senior unsecured and P-2 short term ratings. In a report, Moody’s said the planned separation “will result in two smaller companies with less business diversity and profitability than the current combined business.
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Brevan Howard Asset Management co-founder Chris Rokos has raised a total of $3.5 billion for his new London fund managed by Rokos Capital Management and is now closed to additional investors, according to Bloomberg. He had raised the first $1 billion by September when the macro firm was launched. Rokos already has a staff of roughly 60 people, according to the report. The “R” in Brevan, Rokos left the London-based Brevan Howard in September 2012. He twice qualified for the Rich List, most recently in 2011 when he earned $200 million.
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Shares of hedge fund favorite Amazon.com plunged 7.6 percent Friday to close at $587 on an otherwise strong day for stocks after it reported quarterly results that disappointed investors. UBS cut its price target from $750 to $720, but retained its Buy rating, noting that the “long-term drivers [are] intact.” Deutsche Bank told clients in a Friday note that the stock’s slide “should create a nice buying opportunity once the dust settles.” The investment bank “slightly increased” its estimates and retained its Buy recommendation and $800 price target. At the end of the fourth quarter, Amazon.com was the largest long position held by Lone Cypress, the largest long-short fund managed by Stephen Mandel, Jr.’s Greenwich, Connecticut-based Lone Pine Capital and the second-largest position of its largest long-only fund, Lone Cascade.
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Deutsche Bank also trimmed its price target on credit-card giant Visa—another hedge fund favorite—from $91 to $87 citing “macro headwinds” to watch. It also retained its Buy recommendation. The stock Friday surged 7.1 percent to close at $74.26.
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