market folly

Chase Coleman's hedge fund Tiger Global has not yet filed their 13F filing as of the time of writing. However, what they have filed is a slew of amended 13G filings with the SEC due to activity on December 31st, 2009. This means we get a glimpse as to the updated sizes of some of their portfolio positions and we'll of course detail the rest of the changes when their 13F is released. We've covered Chase Coleman extensively on the site before and in January noted that Tiger started an Apollo Group (APOL) stake. Additionally, Tiger was mentioned in our recent post about how hedge funds have been bullish on tower stocks. Now, it's time to see what else they've been up to.

Firstly, Coleman's hedge fund firm is showing a 7.6% ownership stake in MercadoLibre (MELI) with 3,366,343 shares. Tiger has increased their stake by 125,000 shares (a 3.8% boost) over the past 4.5 months. This is because as of their last 13F filing (which detailed positions as of September 30th, 2009) Tiger previously owned 3,241,343 shares.

Secondly, we see that Tiger Global filed a 13G on ChinaEdu Corporation (CEDU) and shows a 0% ownership stake with 0 shares. This filing is a bit peculiar as they did not show ownership of shares in their last 13F filing either from back on September 30th, 2009. So, we're not really sure why this was filed.

Thirdly, they have disclosed a 2.0% ownership stake in Gushan Environmental Energy (GU) with 3,409,923 shares. This is an increase of 434,817 shares (a 14.6% boost in position size). Back on September 30th, 2009, they owned 2,975,106 shares.

Fourthly, Tiger Global is also showing a 6.4% ownership stake in TransDigm Group (TDG) with 3,157,329 shares. They've boosted their holdings in this position by 360,732 shares since September 30th, 2009 (a 12.9% increase).

Lastly, we round out this update with the fact that they have disclosed a 0% ownership stake in WNS Holdings Limited (WNS) with 0 shares. This is another one of those weird filings that doesn't make much sense to us since they did not hold a position in WNS in their last 13F disclosure either. If anyone has an idea as to what is going on, feel free to comment below. Regardless, we're just here to update you on what was filed.

In addition to those disclosures, we also recently got a glimpse into one of Tiger's short positions. In July of 2009, Tiger Global was short 0.9% of Banco Popular's shares (BPOP). Then, as of January 2010 (and right before Popular announced their earnings), we learned that Tiger had reduced their short position to only 0.22% of shares. Back when we detailed a previous Tiger investor letter, we made note that their short positions were causing them some pain, as was the case in the vast majority of hedge fund land.

Chase Coleman is a 'Tiger Cub' because he previously plied his trade under mentor Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. Coleman is also considered a 'Tiger Seed' because he is one of the few managers that Robertson actually seeded himself in an effort to recognize talented up and coming managers. Coleman's hedge fund is one of the many included in the Tiger Cub Portfolio created with Alphaclone where you can piggyback the investment portfolios of some of the top investors out there.