Time for our updates on short positions that are revealed from time to time in European equities. Some shorts from Odey Asset Management’s Absolute Return Fund we reported recently. The hedge fund has a 0.60 percent short position in Kemira Oyj (HEL:KRA1V)’s shares outstanding, a chemicals company that focuses on water treatment and quality management. While discussing the position, Odey believes that the headwinds for the company include, reduced demand of print media and its high pricing of Scandinavian pulp customers. Further disclosures in Finland reveal a short equal to 1.61 percent of Talvivaara Mining Company Plc (HEL:TLV1V) by Sothic Capital Management. Marshall Wace LLP also initiated a 0.50 percent position in Nokian Renkaat Oyj (HEL:NRE1V), other holders of the same stock include AKO Capital, Eton Park and AQR Capital.
New short sellers of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) include TPG-AXON Management and Soroban Capital Partners. Viking Global continues to increase their position in Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V), the bet is now equal to 2.64 percent as of Dec 18. On the other hand, FEST N.V reduced their previously reported 2.97 percent stake to 1.99 percent in the first week of December. BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)’s Investment Management division initiated a short in Cargotec Oyj (HEL:CGCBV), a cargo and land services company.
In Germany, Sothic Capital sliced their bet in Praktiker AG (ETR:PRA) (FRA:PRA) from 4.94 percent to 2.52 percent on Dec 17. Citadel Advisors have been progressively covering their short in AIXTRON SE (NASDAQ:AIXG) since the position was disclosed in November. The holding was reduced from 4.13 percent to 1.9 percent. As mentioned in a previous update, several others are also shorting the same stock with the addition of Barrington Wilshire’s 1.70 percent stake. Maverick Capital continues to hold the largest bet.
TAG Immobilien AG (ETR:TEG) (FRA:TEG) is a short bet of Linden Advisors, Highbridge Capital Management, CQS UK, Polygon Global Investors and Barrington Wilshire. Citadel Advisors have progressively increased their short position in SolarWorld AG (ETR:SWV) (FRA:SWV) from 1.82 percent in November to 2.54 percent. Marble Arch Investments and Crestwood Capital are also shorting SolarWorld AG (ETR:SWV) (FRA:SWV).
TUI AG (ETR:TUI1) (FRA:TUI1) is a short position of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM), Pennant Capital, Pine River, Davidson Kempner and Polygon Global Investors. Och-Ziff Capital holds the largest short bet at 3.78 percent of TUI.
John Burbank’s Passport Capital has a short position in 0.6 percent of Nordex SE (ETR:NDX1), Barrington Wilshire is also shorting 1.82 percent of Nordex, a supplier of wind energy systems.
In Italy, Egerton Capital placed a new short bet equal to 1.41 percent of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA (BIT:BMPS) outstanding shares. Other funds who are bearish on this bank include Odey Asset Management, Marshall Wace and Wellington Management. AKO Capital, Marshall Wace and Highbridge Capital initiated negative positions in Pirelli & C. SpA (BIT:PC) in late November.
