By Maria Armental
Paulson & Co. has taken new positions in Covidien PLC (COV)
and DirecTV and sold off holdings in American Airlines Group Inc.
(AAL), General Motors Co. (GM) and Hess Corp. (HES) in the second
quarter, according to a securities filing Thursday.
The largest change in the period was in Cobalt.
The hedge fund, which historically specialized in merger
arbitrage, also initiated a 5,295,300-share stake in Telecom Italia
SpA's (TIT.MI) TIM Participacoes SA (TIMP3.BR) worth $153.7
million. On Wednesday, the Italian company confirmed it is
considering merging its Brazilian telecom unit with Vivendi SA's
(VIV.FR) GTV SA unit to counter a bid for GVT from Spain's
Telefonica SA (TEF.MC).
The firm, founded by billionaire investor John Paulson, also
reported a 5,602,000-share stake in Allergan Inc. (AGN), worth
$947.97 million. Meanwhile, Paulson--which supports Valeant
Pharmaceuticals International Inc.'s (VRX) hostile takeover for the
Botox maker--cut its stake in Valeant to 500,300 shares.
The hedge fund also increased its holdings in rival discount
chains Family Dollar Stores Inc. (FDO) and Dollar General Corp.
(DG). Family Dollar agreed last month to sell itself to Dollar Tree
for about $8.5 billion. Paulson, which had sent a letter to Family
Dollar in January urging the company to sell itself, bought an
additional 1,550,000 shares, bringing its stake to 8,020,000 or
$530.4 million. It also more than doubled its holdings in Dollar
General, buying an additional 2,090,000 for a total stake worth
$234.6 million.
While in the previous quarter Paulson had cut its stake in
Mallinckrodt PLC (MNK), the hedge fund reported an increase of
1,088,000 shares for a total state in the specialty pharmaceuticals
company worth $538.1 million.
Paulson also increased its holdings in Shire PLC to 3,366,539
shares, or $792.8 million, and Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VNDA) to
3,200,000 or $51.8 million, and opened a position in Questcor
Pharmaceuticals Inc. (QCOR) of 2,248,913 shares worth $208
million.
The firm also opened a position in Covidien--which has struck a
deal to sell itself to Medtronic Inc. (MDT)-- and in DirecTV, which
has agreed to be bought by AT&T Inc. (T). It bought 7,000,000
worth $631.3 million in Covidien and 10,000,000, worth $850.1
million, in DirecTV.
Paulson has been one of the most bullish investors in gold, but
his firm made no change in the size of its holdings in the gold
exchange-traded fund SPDR Gold Trust (GLD). Its value grew 3.6% in
the quarter to $1.31 billion.
The positions were revealed in a 13F filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, a quarterly requirement for investors
managing more than $100 million. The report indicates the number of
shares held and the value of each stake at the end of the
quarter.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
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