Unstructured Finance

By Matthew Goldstein

SAC Capital industrials trader Charles Simonian is getting a new job–one that’s very close to Steve Cohen.

The SAC Capital founder is moving Simonian onto his own small team of traders and analysts at the $14 billion firm, say sources. Simonian will work with Chandler Blockage in overseeing trading in industrial sector stocks for the so-called Cohen Account–a portfolio that manages between $2 billion and $3 billion in gross exposure to the market. (Gross exposure includes the value of long and short positions).

The move comes as SAC Capital ended 2011 posting an 8 percent gain.

As previously reported on Reuters’ Unstructured Finance,  the top performer at Cohen’s fund was consumer products portfolio manager Gabriel Plotkin. His team of half-dozen traders and analysts manages about $1.2 billion of the firm’s money and has generated between $150 million and $200 million in trading profits.

People familiar with SAC Capital say the other 90 some odd portfolio teams, including the Cohen account, produced smaller trading profits in 2011.

In bringing Simonian onto his team–sometimes referred to as simply “COHE” within the firm, it appears Cohen is trying to add some trading muscle to his squad.

By Matthew Goldstein

You can add the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to the long list of creditors and customers looking to get their money back from MF Global, the failed futures brokerage firm.

The IRS slapped a lien on what’s left of MF Global, seeking to recoup some $395,000 in unpaid taxes stemming from 2006 and 2007. The tax lien was filed with New York State’s division of corporations on Nov. 16, about three weeks after MF Global filed for bankruptcy.

The unpaid tax bill predates the period during which former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine took over the helm of MF Global.

By Matthew Goldstein

The full year numbers aren’t in, but it appears Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital had a pretty good year–especially compared to most other long/short equity hedge funds which lost money. But how does this year’s 8% gain stack-up against other strong years posted by the Stamford, Conn. hedge fund?

As we reported previously on UF, a good chunk of SAC Capital’s trading prowess in 2011 is being credited by sources to a single team led by Gabe Plotkin. His $1.2 billion book is one of the largest at SAC Capital and has generated between $150 million and $200 million in profits.

Indeed, only Cohen’s own 2 billion book–called the “big book,” the “Cohen account,” or simply “COHE”–is believed to manage more money at the $14 billion fund.

By Katya Wachtel

This year has been cruel to many money managers, and one stock-picker giving John Paulson a run for his money as the worst performing manager of 2011, is Fairholme Capital Management’s Bruce Berkowitz.

Berkowitz’s flagship Fairholme Fund has suffered huge losses on AIG, The St. Joe Company, Bank of America and Regions Financial. His bet on Sears can now be added to that laundry list of losers.

Today the struggling retailer announced plans to close up to 120 stores, the share-price tanked, and as one of Sears’ largest shareholders, Berkowitz is likely nursing some ugly wounds.

By Matthew Goldstein

Move over Steve Cohen. The trader who is killing it at Cohen’s $14 billion SAC Capital Advisors this year is Gabriel Plotkin.

The portfolio manager, who specializes in consumer products and the gaming and lodging industry, is one of the top producers this year at Cohen’s hedge fund, say several people familiar with the Stamford, Conn. hedge fund. Plotkin, who joined SAC Capital in late 2006 from North Sound Capital, is emerging as on Cohen’s most reliable money men.

At SAC Capital, where most portfolio managers run books that range from as little as $250 million to $500 million, Plotkin manages one of the largest. His team of half-dozen traders and analysts manages about $1.2 billion of the firm’s money, say sources.

By Katya Wachtel

John Thaler’s hedge fund, JAT Capital, had a meteoric rise through much of 2011, generating a 38 percent return at its peak in early September.  Since then, Shumway Capital alum has ebbed, though he’s still beating a ton of his competitors.

Through December 16, JAT fell 1.2 percent, according to an investor.

The fund remains up 14 percent year-to-date though, and given the average hedge fund was down about 4.4 percent through November, JAT investors have something to smile about. Though they have less to smile about than they did a few months ago.

Others are grimacing, since many of the industry’s heavy-hitters have taken a beating this year. It’s no secret that stars like John Paulson,  Mark Kingdon and Lee Ainsle are sustaining double-digit losses. Through December 16,  Paulson’s Advantage Plus fund is down 52 percent year-to-date; Kingdon’s Offshore fund is down about 19 percent; and Ainslie’s Maverick Fund is off about 15 percent.

By Matthew Goldstein

It’s no secret that LightSquared and Phil Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners long have been joined at the hip–especially since the $5 billion hedge fund is the wireless telecom’s biggest equity investor. And a recent financial statement for the Falcone-backed start-up makes it clearer than ever just how closely linked are the fortunes of LightSquared and Harbinger.

As we reported, the LightSquared document reveals that on July 1 the company got $263.8 million in new financing, of which $183.8 million came from hedge funds controlled by Harbinger and Falcone. The hedge fund is getting 2.9 million in warrants to purchase additional shares in LightSquared, which is facing the prospect of running-out of cash during the second-quarter of 2012.

On July 5, LightSquared issued a press release trumpeting that it had just secured $265 million in additional financing. The press release said the “capital was drawn from both existing investors as well as new investors in the company.” But it made no mention that more than 60 percent of the new source of funds was coming from Harbinger-controlled hedge funds. (The other unnamed “lenders” also got 1.3 million warrants to buy LightSquared shares).

By Jennifer Ablan and Matthew Goldstein

Class warfare has been the topic du jour this year and is likely to be a major theme of the 2012 election. In a speech two weeks ago, President Barack Obama blasted his Republican foes and Wall Street as he portrayed himself as a champion of the middle class.

In a speech meant to echo a historic address given by former President Theodore Roosevelt in the same Kansas town more than 100 years ago, Obama railed against “gaping” economic inequality and pressed the case for policies he insisted would help ordinary Americans get through hard times.

Not surprisingly, some hedge fund managers were none too pleased.

In fact, hedge-fund industry titan Leon Cooperman “front-ran” Obama’s populist speech by widely circulating an “open letter” to Obama, arguing that “the divisive, polarizing tone of your rhetoric is cleaving a widening gulf, at this point as much visceral as philosophical, between the downtrodden and those best positioned to help them.”

By Jennifer Ablan and Matthew Goldstein

It appears that Bill Gross’s PIMCO Total Return Fund is losing ground with investors — just not as fast as we originally thought.

Morningstar, the mutual-fund tracker, initially told us that PIMCO’s flagship fund had suffered $17 billion in net outflows over the last 12 months. It turns out Morningstar discovered this morning that it miscalculated and the figure actually is $10.3 billion.

That’s slightly better news for Gross but the trend still holds that the fund is seeing  a steady stream of outflows. Morningstar estimates that in October and November of this year, PIMCO Total Return fund has seen $1.69 billion in customer redemptions.

By Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan

In the end, one of the more memorable takeaways from the Steve Cohen deposition we unearthed is the feud between the lawyers over what to call the billionaire hedge fund manager: “Stevey” or “Mr. Cohen.”

Bess Levin at Dealbreaker.com used a her unique wit to deconstruct the verbal dispute between Cohen attorney Marty Klotz and Fairfax Financial lawyer Mike Bowe.  And now CNBC’s David Faber weighs in with his own retelling of the verbal jousting. (see video clip here).

And yes, we agree with Squawk on the Street host Melissa Lee that we need to see a visual reenactment as well–since it’s unlikely anyone is going to get the videotaped version of the deposition anytime soon. But we’ll try.