market folly

Stephen Mandel's hedge fund Lone Pine Capital has just disclosed a potentially new (more on that below) position in Michael Page International (LON: MPI).

Due to trading on July 16th, Lone Pine breached the UK regulatory disclosure threshold with a 3.21% ownership stake. You can view Lone Pine's latest US equity holdings in the brand new issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter.

Lone Pine has actually owned Michael Page stock before. Back during the tumultuous credit crisis, they increased their stake all the way up to 6.37% of outstanding shares.

However, when the panic was seemingly at its height during March 2009, Lone Pine reduced its stake below the 3% threshold ~ perhaps a reminder that even the best hedge funds were forced into uncharacteristic maneuvers during the crisis.

UK Disclosure Rules

The UK's disclosure rules only require funds to disclose when they go above or below a 3% ownership stake in a company (think of it as a line in the sand.) While we get to see more positions this way (compared to a 5% threshold in the US), the downside is we don't really ever know when a fund completely sells out of a position.

In Lone Pine's case in particular, they could have held a small stake in the company all this time only to recently start buying enough to trigger the filing. Or, they could have exited the name back in 2009 and are starting a new position now. There's no way to tell.

But what we do know is that Lone Pine now has a 3.21% ownership stake in the company.

Company Background

Per Google Finance, Michael Page International plc is a specialist recruitment consultancy. The Company operates in Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and the United Kingdom. Clients ranging from global multi-nationals to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) source permanent, contract, temp and interim talent in accounting, tax and treasury; actuarial, consultancy, strategy and change; design, education, engineering and manufacturing, financial services and banking, health and social care, hospitality and leisure, human resources, information technology, legal, marketing, policy, procurement and supply chain, property and construction, retail, sales and secretarial."

View the rest of Lone Pine's portfolio.