Intelsat Is Hurting These Hedge Funds

Spectrum player Intelsat was a hedge fund hotel this year, which is bad news for several of those who took big stakes — particularly Robert Citrone’s Discovery Capital.

Intelsat shares have fallen almost 70 percent this year, with most of the decline happening in November, after the Federal Communications Commission came out with a surprise announcement that it would publicly auction a top asset, called C-band spectrum, for 5G telecommunications development.

拥有包括Intelsat的C波段谱的卫星运营商希望向Verizon，AT＆T和T-Mobile / Sprint出售频谱频率，但公共拍卖收益将转向政府。直到宣布，卫星运营商面临着对私人销售的计划的小声音反对 - 除了一个特朗普忠诚者，参议员，投资者认为受到行政管理会影响心脏突然变化的共和党人约翰肯尼迪。

Sen. Kennedy has acknowledged contacting Trump about the issue, according toBloomberg. On October 30, Trump called the FCC Chairman to discuss the matter but, according to a report in Bloomberg quoting an anonymous FCC official, did not “direct the agency on what to do.”

对冲基金在第三季度末的智障职位包括不仅可以发现 - 这是一个超出局势 - 但PENT水资源管理，派斯特资本，克里斯代尔首都，峡谷合作伙伴，枞树合作伙伴，汽油资本管理，Balyasny资产管理，和其他几个，根据公共文件。

The regulatory shift is particularly bad news for Discovery, which was the third-biggest shareholder of Intelsat at the end of September, according to the 13F the hedge fund filed at that time, when Discovery’s Intelsat position was worth $146 million.

Intelsat是股权持有的股权持有，占季度的公共股票投资组合的24.2％，而在上一期结束时的两倍多。对冲基金一直在增加其Intelsat地位，而股票上涨期望FCC授权私营销售。

If the fund had not sold or bought any shares, it would have lost about $100 million in the downdraft. Discovery declined to comment.

PENTWATER CAPITICE成为季度恰尔斯坦伊斯塔特的第九大股东，几乎将其股权加倍，达到340万股价值7700万美元。尽管如此，它仍然占其股票投资组合的1％以上。PENTWATER没有回应截止日期的评论请求。

与此同时，Sahm Adrangi的Kerrisdale顾问一直在销售其Intelsat股权，但仍然是截至本季度末的第二大长，申请表演。Kerrisale在本季度倾倒了一半以上的股份，但Intelsat在9月底仍占其股权长书的13.68％。

Adrangi said the fund was still selling shares in October, when it was hitting year-to-date highs. By November Intelsat made up just two to three percent of the firm’s overall assets, according to Adrangi. And through November, according to an individual familiar with the performance, Kerrisdale Partners was up 21 percent.

Kerrisdale, which is well-known for its short bets against spectrum players, surprised the market by goinglongon Intelsat in 2018 and releasing a report on its prospects. At the time, Kerrisdale suggested Intelsat could end up with a stock market value of $151 per share. It is now trading under $7.

Still, last year Intelsat shares skyrocketed on the spectrum hopes, helping give Kerrisdale a 35 percent gain for the year.

[IIDeep Dive:Kerrisdale Capital Continues Its Winning Streak]

Earlier this year, as Intelsat shares were flagging, Adrangi reiterated his view that the FCC would allow Intelsat, and others, to sell spectrum frequencies to Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile/Sprint that would be worth tens of billions of dollars.

Another big Intelsat loser appears to be PointState, the hedge fund run by proteges of Stanley Druckenmiller who worked at his Duquesne Capital Management before it was shuttered. PointState had decreased its stake by 37 percent during the quarter but still owned 2.5 million shares going into October, according to public filings.

TheWall Street Journalreported last week that the fund had $1 billion in redemptions as of the end of the September, given that it was facing its second losing year in a row.

TheJournal还reportedthat shorts on Intelsat bonds helped cushion the blow at PointState. The fund, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

Intelsat bondholders — believed to include hedge funds — have also been crushed. Intelsat had almost $15 billion in debt, most of it in bonds. Several of the stockholders, like Fir Tree, Canyon, and Stonehill, are known primarily as credit funds, although it is not known if they also owned the bonds.

枞树和峡谷拒绝评论。无法达成巨石艇的评论。

While Intelsat investors were hurting, another group was making out bigtime. Intelsat emerged as the most profitable short in the market in November, according to S3Partners.

The shorts were up 137 percent in November, with a profit of more than $300 million.