market folly

Just yesterday, the London Stock Market announced through the Regulatory News Service that Timothy Barakett's hedge fund Atticus Capital had reduced its stake in Unite Group from 4.1% to 3.8%. Unite Group Plc (UTG) is a developer and manager of student accomodation and is Atticus' only disclosed holding in a British company. Unite Group's share price fell significantly during the last couple of years from a high of 549P in February 2007 to a low of 39P in March of this year; that's quite some fall! If Atticus were clever enough to start accumulating Unite Group stock in February or March of 2009, it is likely that they will have turned a good profit on the small amount of shares they have just sold. However, we are unable to know for sure at what price Atticus paid for the first part of their position. This is due to the rules of UK disclosures, as funds are not required to disclose a position until they have acquired 3% or more of any given company.

In terms of U.S. positions, we also disclosed yesterday that Atticus Capital had amended two separate 13G filings. In the filings, we saw that Timothy Barakett's hedge fund was selling shares of Sotheby's (BID) and Transatlantic Holdings (TRH).

This article is a new edition to Market Folly's expanding hedge fund coverage. Typically, we've covered U.S. equity positions as disclosed to the SEC. Now, thanks to a reader's help, we are also detailing the changes prominent hedge funds make to their portfolios in the UK market. We kicked off our coverage in this regard yesterday by detailing the UK positions of Stephen Mandel's hedge fund Lone Pine Capital. And the post above regarding Atticus marks our second article in this new coverage. Stay tuned as we continue to cover both the U.S. and UK holdings of top hedge fund managers.

Below you will find the breakdown of Atticus' transaction. Lastly, for background information on Barakett & Atticus, head to our post here.

Unite Group Plc