Stevie Cohen (may be) a sell-out. Yes, the man who has made his money through a combination of massive, rapid trading in US securities and “If you tell anyone about this, I’ll end you” secrecy is considering selling upwards of 20% of SAC Capital, his $14 billion hedge fund. The Financial Times reports that the fund has been shopping stakes in its management company to a number of Asian state funds like Temasek. Or maybe it's the other way, and the Asians are asking to buy a piece of Cohen. It is unclear at the time whether SAC will sell one or two large stakes or a couple of baby stakes adding up to 20. Word is that Lehman is helping put together the deal.
SAC declined to comment. And the FT story contains all the usual verbal parachutes that it can rely on if the story turns out to be wrong. But we’ve been hearing similar rumors for the past several weeks. One source tells us that the fund may be planning an equity sale for September/October, but would likely step up its timeline if the news becomes public (i.e…now).
We'd also heard that Cohen's donation of the Damien Hirst shark tank to the Met was part of an image remake in advance of an equity offering of some sort. We dismissed this and privately decided that he just wanted to show Citadel founder Kenneth Griffin that he isn't the only one rich enough to donate small fortunes to the local art museum. Boy do we have egg on our face now.
Speaking of hedge funds and formaldehyde, the International Herald Tribune this morning anoints Hirst as a hedge fund manager: "Hirst...has gone from being an artist to being what you might call the manager of the hedge fund of Damien Hirst's art."
SAC Capital considers sale of stakes [FT]
Posted by anon, Jul 25, 2007 12:17PM
This is the ultimate arbitrage. They just take preserved biological specimens and manipulate the market, through exhibitions and rambling nonsensical lectures at museums, until rich people with poor taste are convinced that it's a contemporary masterpiece.