Soros Fund Reports Higher Stakes In Delta Air, Google
14 Febrero 2012 - 6:17PM
Noticias Dow Jones
Billionaire investor George Soros's Soros Fund Management LLC
reported sharply higher positions in Google Inc. (GOOG), Delta Air
Lines Inc. (DAL) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) in the fourth
quarter, but no stake in e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc.
(AMZN).
The fund boosted its stake in Google by 258,774 shares to
259,900. The position is valued at $168 million and is now one of
the largest in the portfolio.
The period marked a dramatic change for Soros, whose portfolio
dropped to 145 holdings, down roughly two-thirds from the 473
positions held at the end of the third quarter. Overall, the value
of Soros's holdings fell to $4.6 billion as of Dec. 31, down from
$5.8 billion as of Sept. 30, according to a quarterly filing with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Soros disclosed owning 1.8 million shares of Delta Air Lines, up
from 28,200 the prior period. The position was valued at $14.3
million on Dec. 31. The Soros fund also reported its holding in
Wells Fargo had risen tenfold to 1.2 million shares. It was worth
$33 million.
Among new positions, Soros reported 210,300 shares of
building-materials maker Owens Corning Inc. (OC), valued at roughly
$6 million.
Soros didn't report a stake in Amazon, a company the fund had
owned in the previous quarter.
Soros, who once dubbed gold "the ultimate asset bubble," again
juggled his positions in the precious metal, raising his stake in
the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), a gold-backed exchanged-traded fund, to
85,450 shares, up from 48,350 shares in the period period. The
position was worth $13 million.
Soros, who had disclosed call and put options on the gold fund
in the prior period, reported no such investments in the fourth
quarter.
In December, the Wall Street Journal reported that Soros's
family fund purchased $2 billion of European bonds that were once
owned by MF Global Holdings Ltd., the same debt that helped force
the securities firm into bankruptcy protection.
Last July, Soros said he would turn his hedge-fund firm into a
"family office," a move that allows it to avoid a new level of
regulatory oversight facing many hedge funds.
Many investors that manage more than $100 million are required
to file with the SEC Form 13-Fs disclosing their stock holdings
within 45 days of the end of a given quarter, giving the public its
freshest possible glimpse into the portfolios of well-known money
managers. The fourth-quarter deadline was Tuesday.
-By Brett Philbin, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2173;
brett.philbin@dowjones.com