market folly

James Pallotta's hedge fund firm Raptor Capital Management just filed a 13G with the SEC in regards to shares of Primus Telecommunications Group (PMUG). Per the filing, Raptor has disclosed a 8.08% ownership stake in Primus with 787,600 shares due to portfolio activity on July 7th, 2010. Since this is an over the counter (OTC) traded security, we can't be sure if this is a brand new position for Raptor because they aren't required to disclose these positions in quarterly 13F filings. In their prior portfolio disclosure, Pallotta's hedge fund did not show a stake in PMUG. There is a chance this could be a brand new position for his firm, but there's no way to know for sure without Raptor directly confirming.

This stake becomes even more puzzling when you consider that Pallotta wound down Raptor back in June 2009. Even though he folded the firm to take time off to reformulate his investment strategy, his firm continued to report positions to the SEC (although the assets under management reported decreased significantly). This latest filing seems to imply Raptor has come back to life or is at least somewhat still active.

Pallotta originally founded Raptor as a spin-off from hedge fund Tudor Investment Corp where he previously managed the equities portfolio there. While at Tudor, Pallotta's Raptor investment vehicle saw 14% annualized returns since 1993. We'll continue to monitor the SEC filings to see if further signs of life at Raptor arise.

Taken from Google Finance, Primus Telecommunications Group is "an integrated facilities-based communications services provider offering a portfolio of international and domestic voice, wireless, Internet, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), data and data center services to customers located primarily in the United States Australia, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom and western Europe."

For more on Pallotta and his hedge fund, head to our previous coverage of Raptor Capital.