Third Point Offshore (1389.89 and 4.0 of JIC): I have bought a holding in Third point, the hedge fund managed out of New York by Dan Loeb but with a listing on the London Stock Exchange. Regular readers of JohnsInvestmentChronicle will remember that I have mentioned him before as Third Point has a 20% stake in Dolphin Capital Investors, which he bought at rather a better price than I did!
The approach of Third Point is described as Event-driven, Value Investing. It tends to look for opportunities that are being overlooked by the rest of the market and where there is good value, such as Dolphin. It also likes to build up stakes in undervalued situations before stirring things up; it recently called for Sony Corporation to re-structure itself and has just increased pressure on the Company by upping its stake to 6.9%.
It has performed well since launch in December 2006 and has proved less volatile than the S&P 500 Index. In addition it's correlation to the S&P 500 is low which I am hoping will provide me with some protection should markets undergo a correction following the strong run of the last year. Hopefully Dan Loeb's brand of activism and skill at seeking out value situations will continue to lead to excellent performance from this fund. I have bought a 4% holding. (See transactions)
For more information see www.thirdpointpublic.com
