Paulson's position in Mallinckrodt under pressure

It has not been a good year for former Bear trader "right person at the right time" with his subprime short, John Paulson who after getting slammed on Valeant, if not quite as badly as Ackman, moments ago saw a quarter of his investment in Mallinckrodt - where he is a top 3 holder - wiped out, when Citron tweeted that "MNK has significantly more downside than Valeant" and is a far worse offender of the reimbursement system. 

At these prices $MNK has signif more downside than $VRX-- far worse offender of the reimb sys - more to follow. VRX can't live in a vacuum

— Citron Research (@CitronResearch) November 9, 2015

Anglo Gold and Nova Gold owned by John Paulson

Anglo Gold Ashanti Limited has performed well throughout 2015 and is up 9.9% over the past month and 7.4% year-to-date. Over the past month, the gold mining and exploration company has climbed 28.8%. The stock has been in Paulson's portfolio for years, and as of his latest 13F filing, he owns 26.2 million shares worth $244.8 million.

Nova Gold Resources (NG) has been another gold-related bright spot for Paulson, who as of the end of the second quarter owns 35.6 million shares worth $104.9 million. 

The stock, which the billionaire hedge fund manager has owned since early 2010, is up 28.8% year-to-date and 1.6% over the past month alone.

Paulson's stake in Whiting Petroleum doing better recently

Oil and gas company Whiting Petroleum has been hit hard by falling oil prices, and its price has fallen 38.9% year-to-date through market close Thursday. However, things have been going better for the stock as of late, and it has gained 18.4% over the past 30 days. Whiting Petroleum ticked higher last week, getting a boost from positive import data from China and a subsequent jump in oil.

Paulson has had a stake in Whiting Petroleum since 2013. This year, he has reduced his position slightly, but as of his latest 13F filing, he still owns 12.4 million shares worth $417.3 million.

John Paulson funds down 6 percent in August 2015

John Paulson’s event-driven hedge funds, which invest in potential takeover targets, fell in value last month, and its “enhanced” merger arbitrage fund, which uses leverage to juice returns, ended August down around 6 per cent, according to investors familiar with its performance. 

It had been up 20 per cent for the year until the start of August 2015.

John Paulson continuing buying spree in Puerto Rico

Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson is expected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in the Puerto Rican debt crisis, but it hasn’t stopped the big spender from living the high life with real estate mogul Fahad Ghaffar in San Juan.

A source says Paulson and Ghaffar, who’s also managing director of Paulson & Co., have gone on a “buying spree,” scooping up properties including luxury hotels St. Regis, La Concha Resort and the Vanderbilt.

“They see Puerto Rico as an incredible buying opportunity with high returns,” says the source.

The duo even convinced Vittorio Assaf and Fabio Granato, owners of Italian eatery Serafina, to move there and shell out millions to open their 25th location at La Concha. The restaurateurs “are getting Puerto Rican residency. It will be their base while they travel around the world managing other locations,” says our spy.


via http://pagesix.com/2015/08/20/hedge-funder-john-paulson-goes-on-puerto-rico-spending-spree/

What college and case studies taught John Paulson

When I look back on the experience [of case studies in college], it taught me how to analyze situations quickly and how to articulate myself to other people. It showed me how to try and convince people to my way of seeing things. 

Paulson had shares in Greek company - Piraeus Bank

A number of hedge funds and asset managers have Greek holdings, according to latest data from Thomson Reuters. U.S. billionaire John Paulson’s firm Paulson & Co. Inc. held just over 133 million shares in Piraeus Bank, while Lyxor Asset Management held 22.6 million shares in Piraeus and 19.2 million in National Bank of Greece. 

John Paulson on Long term investing and compounding

Investors that do the best, and have done the best, are those that stay and compound at above-average rates over the long term. 

Lake Las Vegas thriving due to John Paulson

Lake Las Vegas, the water-filled, 3,592-acre development in northeastern Henderson, hit the bottom of the Great Recession hard, perhaps more spectacularly than any other Southern Nevada development.

Its swift, downward cascade was especially rough because of its tony beginnings — it holds some of the ritziest homes in the region stretching back in the 1990s. Marquee residents such as Celine Dion have lived there. However, once its keystone casino, MonteLago, shuttered and an outlandishly watered golf course failed, it became proverbially “out of sight, out of mind” for many homebuyers in Las Vegas and beyond.

The economic winds over Lake Las Vegas, a man-made reservoir, have been shifting recently, though … even favorably.

“We are certainly on the upper side of the curve,” said Sharla Scharpnick of Windermere Prestige Properties at Lake Las Vegas.

Scharpnick credits much of Lake Las Vegas’ resurgence as a viable real estate development to New York hedge fund manager John Paulson and his management arm, Raintree Investment Corp., which purchased a large portion of the resortlike development in 2012. They have done just outstanding work in the past several years,” she said. 

Scharpnick points out a central development in the resurrection of Lake Las Vegas: golf. “Key to that was bringing back Reflection Bay golf course,” she said. Scharpnick applauds the club for also embracing activities beyond the links, too. “They’ve now expanded far outside of just golf,” she said. “They have a beach, they gave all kind of waters ports and rentals for boats. They’ve started up happy hours. They’re really working toward making it more of a community center.”

Greek crisis could affect John Paulson

For investors around the world looking at Greece, there are worries right now. 

Those worries are more acute for the hedge fund investors - including Dave Einhorn and John Paulson - who have collectively poured more than euro 10 billion into Greek government bonds, bank stocks and a slew of other investments.

This weekend, Nicholas L Papapolitis, a corporate lawyer here, was working around the clock comforting and cajoling his frantic hedge fund clients.

"People are freaking out," said the 32-year-old Papapolitis, his eyes red and his voice hoarse. "They have made some really big bets on Greece.

But there is no getting around the truth of the matter, he said. Without a deal with its European creditors, the country will default and Greek stocks and bonds will tank. Panicky depositors spent the weekend pulling an estimated euro 1 billion from the banking system, stashing the cash in their houses or exchanging them for bulging bags of gold coins.

A number of hedge funds have also made big bets on Greek banks, despite their thin levels of capital and non-performing loans of around 50 per cent of assets. They include Einhorn at Greenlight Capital and Paulson, both of whom have invested and lost considerable sums in Piraeus Bank. Fairfax Financial Holdings and the distressed investor Wilbur Ross own a large stake in Eurobank, one Greece's four main banks.