Industry Hedge Fund Products The Amvona Fund, LP Headquarters United States of America Founded 2012 | Area served Worldwide Website lemelsoncapital.com Founder Emmanuel Lemelson Type Limited liability company | |
Key people Emmanuel Lemelson, Chief Investment Officer | ||
Rev emmanuel lemelson cio of lemelson capital management premarket prep for june 5 2015
Lemelson Capital Management is a United States-based global investment management company founded in 2012 by Emmanuel Lemelson who is also a Greek Orthodox priest. The company is the general partner of The Amvona Fund, LP, a hedge fund that as of late 2015 managed around $20 million.
Contents
- Rev emmanuel lemelson cio of lemelson capital management premarket prep for june 5 2015
- Rev emmanuel lemelson cio of lemelson capital management premarket prep for august 13 2014
- Management
- Hedge fund performance
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- Kulicke Soffa Industries
- Ligand Pharmaceuticals
- References
The company has focused on deep value and special situation investments. Within three years of its launch it had reported a net gain of 150%.
Rev emmanuel lemelson cio of lemelson capital management premarket prep for august 13 2014
Management
Since its inception, Lemelson Capital has been managed by its chief investment officer Father Emmanuel Lemelson, who is also a Greek Orthodox priest. Since 2014 Lemelson has publicised the hedge fund by means of press releases and interviews under the provisions of the JOBS Act, one of a minority of hedge fund managers who had chosen to do so.
Hedge fund performance
The Amvona Fund, LP, is a hedge fund that was launched in September 2012, and as of late 2015 manages around $20 million. In July 2013 and October 2013, Barron's named the it the best performing hedge fund in the world for those months. Barron's listed it again, as the world's second best performing hedge fund for April 2014. By mid 2015 the company reported a net return since its launch of 150 percent.
In October 2014, the firm announced that The Amvona Fund had been named the world's top "long bias" fund for August 2014 by the investment research firm BarclayHedge. A year later, the Amvona Fund had ceased reporting its performance to BarclayHedge, which Forbes writer Antoine Gara characterized as a "concerning development".
World Wrestling Entertainment
In Mar 2014 Lemelson Capital Management (LCM) announced that it was short World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE:WWE) (then trading at new highs of over $30/share). Lemelson issued reports explaining why he thought the company was overvalued and placed fair value of WWE shares between $8.25 and $11.88. By May 2014 the WWE share price had fallen to around $11 and LCM announced that it had covered its short position and bought shares at the low price. In Feb 2015, LCM announced that it had sold its stake in WWE at $16.50.
Kulicke & Soffa Industries
On April 22, 2014, Lemelson Capital announced that it had been acquiring the stock of Kulicke & Soffa Industries (NASDAQ:KLIC) and issued an open letter to the company's Chief Executive Officer calling on the company to initiate a tender offer for its shares, which Lemelson said were substantially undervalued. The stock rose ten percent on the announcement of Lemelson Capital's involvement. Four months later, on August 27, 2014, Kulicke & Soffa announced that its Board of Directors had authorized a share purchase of up to $100 million.
Ligand Pharmaceuticals
On June 16, 2014, Lemelson released a 25-page research report on Ligand Ligand Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded company, that concluded there were severe competitive threats to Ligand's key royalty programs, as well as going concern risks, and other challenges so significant that the stock had no intrinsic value. On July 3, 2014, Lemelson announced that it had further increased its short position in Ligand and released an appended 12-page research report questioning the commercial viability of Ligand's products. On August 7, 2014, the financial media outlet Benzinga reported, "Shares have sold off more than 25 percent since Lemelson Capital published its bearish thesis on the stock in mid-June." On November 18, 2014, Benzinga reported that the firm had covered its short position at an approximately 40 percent return.