market folly

In an amended 13G filing with the SEC, hedge fund Tremblant Capital has disclosed a 0% ownership stake in Pharmanet Development Group (PDGI) due to activity on February 19th, 2009. Back on their latest 13F filing, they owned 1,123,365 shares as of December 31st, 2008 as we noted when we covered Tremblant's portfolio holdings. So, they have now sold entirely out of their position. If you missed the news, private equity firm JLL Partners has issued a tender offer for all PDGI shares.

Tremblant Capital is a $3 billion hedge fund based in New York ran by Bret Barakett, who is a former portfolio manager at Moore Capital Management (the hedge fund run by the great Louis Bacon, whom we also track). If the last name of 'Barakett' sounds familiar, its because his brother, Timothy Barakett, manages fellow hedge fund Atticus Capital, whose portfolio we recently covered. Taken from their site, Tremblant Capital Group's objective is "to achieve superior risk adjust returns for our investors through our focused and disciplined investment process." Barakett has worked with some of the best in the macro game and obviously is quite knowledgeable himself. But, as we noted back in September, Tremblant had a rough year. Over the course of last year, they disclosed a 5.2% stake in Advanced Medical Optics (EYE) and a stake in PharmaNet (PDGI). And, obviously now, they no longer hold that stake in PDGI. But, more recently, they've made a 13G filing on Chipotle, where they have been adding to their large position.

Taken from Google Finance, PDGI is "a global drug development services company providing clinical development services, including consulting, Phase I and bioequivalency clinical studies, and Phase II, III and IV clinical development programs to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, generic drug and medical device companies around the world."