market folly

Due to activity on April 19th, 2010, John Paulson's hedge fund firm Paulson & Co has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of American Capital (ACAS). John Paulson's fund has disclosed a 15.5% ownership stake in American Capital (ACAS) with 43,725,000 shares. The vast majority of shares are held in the firm's Recovery Fund and Advantage Plus Fund. Regular readers of Market Folly will already be aware of this position because we previously reported that Paulson would be acquiring a new ACAS stake. This is not new information, but it does confirm what we already knew.

Paulson added shares of ACAS via a $295 milion stock offering from the company where he paid $5.06 per share. ACAS now is trading and Paulson & Co appears to be the largest investor in American Capital. ACAS will use this much needed capital infusion to help restructure debt.

In other news relating to Paulson & Co, you of course know that they've been put in the spotlight as of late due to the accusations surrounding Goldman Sachs and the subprime mortgage trade. John Paulson set out to clear the air in his recent letter to investors. In terms of his hedge fund's recent execution, you can also view Paulson & Co's recent performance numbers here.

Taken from Google Finance, American Capital is "an equity firm and a global asset manager. The Company invests in private equity, private debt, private real estate investments, early and late-stage technology investments, special situation investments, alternative asset funds managed by the Company and structured finance investments."

For more on John Paulson's hedge fund, head to Paulson & Co's portfolio.