Some morsels to chew on while dreaming of the looming turkey feast ahead and debating whether the Lions should still be allowed to play on Thanksgiving.

New York Mag Article: Paulson Used to be Fun

From this week’s New York magazine, Hugo Lindgren citing Gregory Zuckerman’s book The Greatest Trade Ever: “Once upon on a time, when few on Wall Street knew his name, John Paulson was something of a carouser.” Now Paulson’s a miserable curmudgeon, the piece summarizes.

PRNewswire: Paulson Has a Heart of Gold

Paulson will be donating $5 million to Southampton Hospital to rebuild the Emergency Room. It will be called the Jenny and John Paulson Emergency Department.

For anyone keeping score, Steve Cohen and his wife Alex gave away $50 million to New York Presbyterian last year.

Hedge Funds Really Are the New Banks; Citadel Nabs Underwriting Gig

Ken Griffin you’ve done it: Citadel Securities division will be co-managing a $500 million note offering with JP Morgan for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

A capital infusion from a hedge fund comes at an interesting time for the chip maker.

Speaking of Raj….

Down to the Wire

The world’s (for now) best-known insider trading defendant is hitting back. In a response to the SEC civil complaint that accompanies the criminal charges for insider trading, Raj Rajaratnam and his lawyers at Akin Gump are disputing the government’s legal authority for listening in on his phone calls.

According to Rajaratnam’s lawyers, the Feds sought authorization for wiretaps after interviewing The Pride of Sri Lanka as a key witness on an another, unrelated hedge fund investigation.

However, no one decided to tell the court that, possibly a violation of Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. Meanwhile, the lead staff attorney on that other unrelated S.E.C. investigation is now a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney on the Rajaratnam criminal case.

Man Down

Credit Suisse downgraded hedge fund manager Man Group from outperform to neutral. Man’s flagship AHL fund is still below its high water mark and looks to be headed for a down year.

Ackman, Up $800M, Auctions Off Guest Apartment

According to the FT, Bill Ackman’s fund, Pershing Square, has produced paper profits of roughly $800 million on bankrupt shopping mall owner General Growth Properties.

Ackman started buying GGP equity at the depths of the credit crisis last year at around $1 a share. It now trades over the counter for $7, and the fund is up over $500 million on the trade. His investment in $100 million of GGP’s unsecured notes is now worth $400 million, according to someone familiar with the fund. The debt, which once traded for less than 10 cents on the dollar, is now trading at 95 cents.

Real estate is Ackman’s thing lately. He’s entered into contract to sell his apartment at The Majestic at 115 Central Park West, and will be moving nine blocks up the street to The Beresford, where his neighbors will include fellow distressed guru Paul Singer of Elliott Associates and Citi CEO Vikram Pandit.

According to Majestic rules, Ackman must also sell his guest suite, a 322-square-foot studio. He has sent a letter to his residents announcing the sale, and will be conducting the auction himself with an asking price of $950,000, or roughly $3,000 per square foot. And people say the real estate market in is the tank!

As this my initial public Reuters HedgeWorld offering is being typed, in a fourth floor Upper East Side walkup the size of a bodega, let’s take a moment to give thanks for what he have, and not think envious thoughts about other people’s lavish guest digs. And, if someone happens to be looking for a sweet Manhattan crash pad, Ackman has you covered.

Until tomorrow, be well, do well and remember: T Minus 1 is for Turkey.

- Rich Blake

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 6:34 pm and is filed under The Offering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.