Analysis of the day:Rogoff: collapse of #gold has not changed investment case- policymakers: be cautious interpreting it as vote of confidence

collapse of #gold has not changed investment case- policymakers: be cautious interpreting it as vote of confidence http://bit.ly/13GjP3g 

ROGOFF: It's Best Not To Make Too Much About Plunging Gold Prices: CAMBRIDGE – In principl... http://t.co/bfUjBo6rDk #Gold #MasterMetals
— MasterMetals (@MasterMetals) July 8, 2013

Twitter / MasterMetals: collapse of #gold has not changed ...

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#Paulson #gold #fund plunges 65% through June

With roughly $300 million in assets, the gold fund is the smallest portfolio in his New York-based firm's lineup with less than 2 percent of its assets and it invests mostly Paulson's personal money
The fund's assets have fallen from roughly $700 million at the end of the first quarter

John Paulson's gold fund has lost 65% of its value so far this year after it declined 23% last month, says people familiar with the matter.

Paulson gold fund plunges 65% through June

Author: Svea Herbst-Bayliss & Katya Wachtel (Reuters)

Posted: Tuesday , 09 Jul 2013

BOSTON (Reuters) - 

Hedge fund manager John Paulson's gold fund has lost 65 percent of its worth so far this year after the portfolio declined 23 percent last month, two people familiar with the fund said on Monday.
Gold had been one of the billionaire investor's winning bets a few years ago, but not this year. His investments in gold and gold miners have suffered double digit losses for the past three months.
In June, gold tumbled 12 percent in the wake of fears the Federal Reserve might taper its economic stimulus by cutting monthly bond purchases. It is unclear how a 12 percent drop in the price of the precious metal translated into a 23 percent fall in the fund in June, and whether it is the result of the bet having been leveraged up through borrowing and the use of derivatives
A spokesman for Paulson declined to comment.
With roughly $300 million in assets, the gold fund is the smallest portfolio in his New York-based firm's lineup with less than 2 percent of its assets and it invests mostly Paulson's personal money, the people familiar with the fund said.
The fund's assets have fallen from roughly $700 million at the end of the first quarter, according to those people.
They did not want to be identified because the information is private.
The gold fund, which at one point managed almost $1 billion, rose 35 percent in 2010 and contributed to Paulson's estimated $5 billion payday that year.
As the heavy losses made for outsized headlines in recent months, Paulson decided a few weeks ago to report the gold data only to the gold fund investors, not investors in his bigger and better performing funds. In April, Paulson garnered unwanted attention when the gold fund lost 27 percent as the price of the metal plunged 17 per cent over two weeks.
"Paulson's impact on the gold market is dramatic. In particular his size alone, on the way in or way out," said John Brynjolfsson, managing director of global macro hedge fund Armored Wolf LLC. "But one needs to look beyond his size alone because his positions are relatively widely publicized, and representative of how others are thinking, so thereby their impact gets magnified."
The gold fund is one of a handful of funds that make up Paulson's New York-based hedge fund, which at its peak in 2011 managed about $38 billion. The firm now oversees about $19 billion in investor money.
Most of Paulson's bigger funds are in the black this year, but the gold investments have weighed down returns of the Advantage Funds, which lost 3.06 percent last month, shrinking the year's gains to 1.17 percent.
Paulson & Co's largest holding by market value at the end of the first quarter was the SPDR Gold ETF, with 21.8 million shares, according to a regulatory filing. The firm also had large stakes in gold mining companies through March, those filings showed.
Paulson launched his gold fund in 2010, requiring outside investors to commit $10 million each. He hired gold industry experts Victor Flores, HSBC's former senior gold mining analyst, and John Reade, a former senior metals strategist at UBS. The fund is now called the PFR Gold Fund, in a nod to their last names.
Paulson's investments in gold are one reason he rose to prominence on Wall Street.
After earning billions betting against the housing market before the financial crisis, Paulson made roughly $5 billion in 2010 thanks to prescient bets on the economic recovery and gold.
Paulson is not the only brand-name manager hit by the gold rout. David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital Management's offshore gold fund fell 11.8 percent in June, bringing year-to-date losses in the fund to 20 percent, Reuters has reported.


Paulson gold fund plunges 65% through June - GOLD NEWS - Mineweb.com Mineweb

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#Batista to repay #banks in full, #bondholders – forget it: Valor | beyondbrics

Eike will emerge with personal wealth of about $1bn or $2bn – well short of his $30bn peak but still not bad for a few years spent selling dreams.

Batista to repay banks in full, bondholders – forget it: Valor

Jul 4, 2013 5:34pm by Joe Leahy

A report in Valor Econômico on Thursday makes joyous reading for the bankers of struggling tycoon Eike Batista and represents the portents of doom for original holders of his international bonds.

Apparently, Batista and BTG Pactual, the Brazilian investment bank controlled by Andre Esteves, have cooked up a restructuring plan in which the billionaire will reduce his stakes in his more valuable companies to become a minority shareholder.

...

Eike will emerge with personal wealth of about $1bn or $2bn – well short of his $30bn peak but still not bad for a few years spent selling dreams.

Bondholders, on the other hand, will lose their shirts. OGX, his oil flagship, owes about $4bn and has assets worth about $2bn in terms of oil blocks, a gas field and some other bits and pieces. Bondholders will be offered the choice of a buyback at a haircut or a combination of a buyback and an exchange of debt for equity (though equity in what, one must ask?).

Read the article online here: Batista to repay banks in full, bondholders – forget it: Valor | beyondbrics