--Robert Murray
Amsterdam-based Antaurus Capital Management has lifted the lid on some of the recent short plays undertaken by its Antaurus Europe Fund—including some that cost the firm money.
One holding that hurt the fund in the first half of the year was a short position in Swiss private equity firm Partners Group. Despite private company valuations dropping significantly, the group’s revenues have “remained stable”, according to an Antaurus investor letter. As a result, Partners Group has seen its share price rebound following a dip in the second half of 2008. The stock is up 37% since Jan. 1. Marc Langeveld, one of Antaurus’ co-founders, told AIN his fund exited its position during the first half having held it since 2008, adding that overall the fund did not make a loss on Partners Group.
The Antaurus fund has also taken a hit on its short holding of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Belgian brewer of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck’s, among other brands. The share price benefited from a declining short-term interest environment and a recovery in the corporate bond market. This enabled the company to issue new bonds and partly refinance the bridge loan used by InBev to acquire Anheuser-Busch last year, the letter explains. Antaurus will continue to short the stock, which has risen by 30% since it bought it in Q1, because “family shareholders are regularly selling stock and the bridge refinancing is still not completed, so we continue to feel comfortable with our investment case.”
Other shorts made money for Antaurus Europe. Among these were positions in Swiss bank EFG International and Swedish property company Kungsleden. EFG has grown quickly following several acquisitions, but its share price has dropped by 38% since Jan. 1 following “disappointing earnings […] and a sizeable writedown on an investment in a life settlement portfolio that put pressure on its solvency,” according to the letter. Kungsleden’s share price is 34% lower than at the start of the year and it has seen writedowns on the value of its properties, the letter says.
Langeveld said the normal time horizon for holding a position is around two years, and most positions constitute 3-5% of the portfolio. He declined to elaborate further on the letter.
Antaurus Europe manages EUR26 million. It returned 35 basis points in June and is up 25.53% year-to-date. Last month it held 17 long positions and 11 shorts. Antaurus was set up in 2006 by Langeveld and three other ex-Petercam Bank staffers.
This article was originally published in Alternative Investment News.
