Sky Takeover is a dream business for hedge funds

"Expectations have been above all expectations," said Tyler Tebbs, executive director of event group at broker Olivetree Financial. "It's a big deal for most companies."

"I'm really happy. It was a long fight to get the right price, "said Odey, who originally bought Sky about 15 years ago, in an interview Saturday. He recently increased his stake and said he now owns more than 1% of the company. Sky helped his fund gain 28.8% until September 14th, ranking it among the best performing hedge funds in the world this year.

Elliott, who has accumulated Sky shares during this year, is one of the big winners in this wave of negotiations. It held 4.3% of the company, worth £ 1.29 billion, based on Comcast's winning bid price on September 17th, up from 1.1% in January.

Baupost, meanwhile, has made hundreds of millions of dollars on his position in Sky. It already held 4.58% at the end of January and raised it to 4.75% in August.

Elliott and Baupost declined to comment.

Sky had been the radar of many investors since Fox made an offer in December 2016 to buy the rest of the company that did not already belong to him for £ 10.75 per share. But the shares surpassed that price after Sky retained broadcast rights to the English Premier League football matches at a lower-than-expected cost in February of this year. Comcast then launched the buy-out battle later this month by announcing its intention to bid for £ 12.50 per share for Sky.

Trade has become, a short time ago, an area on which many funds could hardly be lost. The fact that many executives – Elliott for example – had already accumulated significant positions at the beginning of the year meant that, even if no new bids had appeared during the auction, the shares would only have fallen back on the bid. £ 14.75 Comcast. This would still have left most of the funds on big profits.

"It was a good bet on Friday," said Odey. "We could see the disadvantage of 6% and I did not know if it was going to be 10% or 20%".

Other funds to be released include Canyon Capital Advisors LLC by Joshua Friedman and Mitchell Julis, who had announced a position above 1% in January and a 1.2% position as of September 20th. Similarly, Pentwater Capital Management 1% in January, according to deposits. Neither Canyon nor Pentwater responded to a request for comment. D.E. Shaw also revealed a stake of more than 1% in January and held 1.28% at the beginning of this month.

Chris Hohn's TCI Fund Management also made significant gains on Comcast, then 21st Century Fox, Inc., which itself agreed to sell a large portion of its assets, including Sky, to Walt Disney Co.

Its fund began buying Comcast, which became one of its top positions as early as June 2015, at an average price of $ 29, according to the investor papers reviewed by the magazine. By the end of March 2018, he had sold most of his positions and was completely out by the end of June, according to regulatory filings.

But by the end of March this year, he had taken a $ 2.6 billion stake in Fox. The purchase was motivated by his belief that the industry would see more mergers and acquisitions between content providers and infrastructure providers, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Fox's shares jumped in June when Comcast made an offer to buy most of the company, starting a bidding war with Disney.

By the end of June, he had raised this stake to $ 5.7 billion. While Fox's shares lost some ground following Comcast's withdrawal in July, it's still a big benefit for Hohn's fund. Its fund is up about 8% this year, according to people who saw the numbers.

Write to Laurence Fletcher at [email protected] and Ben Dummett at [email protected]