CNNMoney.com- Hedge funds hate to see their names in the headlines, but lately, they’ve been the ones breaking the news about companies they invest in.
Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC disclosed in a Monday regulatory filing that Maguire Properties Inc. (MPG) had received a buyout offer for about $20 a share, a level the stock hasn’t traded at since March. Third Point’s disclosure sent shares of Maguire, a real-estate investment trust, up more than 15% early in the day to above $14, before it fell back with the rest of the market. The bid turned out to be for $20.25 a share by a private company, Pacific Office Properties, The Wall Street Journal reported later Monday.
The filing by Third Point, which owns 8.8% of Maguire shares, wasn’t the first of its kind. In late May, 24% Calpine Corp. (CPN) holder Harbinger Capital Partners disclosed in an open letter that NRG Energy Group Inc. (NRG) had made an $11 billion offer to Calpine, an offer that Calpine later rejected. At a time when activist investors are trudging through a bear market along with the rest of the investment community, hedge-fund activists are getting more involved in trying to fetch buyout offers, and in many cases they appear to be communicating with the would-be buyers.
