•  
• Tweet
•  
•        Print
•  
•         Track Keywords
•  
• 

Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia:

The Comcast deal has been a bonanza for some hedge funds, as Sky shares more than doubled over the year.

U.S. cable giant Comcast scored has emerged as the winner in the battle for European broadcaster Sky with an eye-watering $40 billion bid by beating Rupert Murdoch, and his backer Disney.

According to a report in This Is Money, a cluster of powerful hedge funds stand to make a profit of more than $1.31bn from the sale of broadcasting giant after a bidding war sent the shares soaring.

"The bidding war for Sky had already provided hedge funds with one of their best trades of the year. Saturday's dramatic auction made it even better," said a report in WSJ.

The report said that Paul Singer's Elliott Management Corp., Seth Klarman's Baupost Group and Crispin Odey's Odey Asset Management are among funds to have reaped huge profits from their positions this year.

According to stock market disclosures the three hedge funds have built a combined stake of almost 10% in Sky.

WSJ estimated that Elliott is one of the biggest winners in this wave of deal-making held 4.3% of the company, now worth $1.7bn based on Comcast's winning auction price, as at Sept. 17, up from 1.1% in January.

Meanwhile Boston-based Baupost was already holding 4.58% in late January, and had lifted this to 4.75% by August.

However, the number of shares held by hedge funds could be as much as 20 % because some will have been controlled secretively th......................

To view our full article Click here