Seth Klarman Buys AIG, News Corp, and Vivendi

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Seth Klarman Buys AIG, News Corp, and Vivendi

We are yet to find out about Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group performance in last quarter of 2012 and its overall returns last year. Meanwhile, Baupost has filed 13f related to its portfolio changes in the fourth quarter. Note that the public long portfolio in the U.S. is only worth $3.15 billion, however, this is just a small percentage of the firm wide assets that amount to $25 billion.

Closed Positions

Headwinds in the PC sector have probably deterred the mangers, Baupost exited its positions in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ). The firm also sold out its stake in Sycamore Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMR). Baupost’s Jim Mooney said its position in Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) was a major setback for the fund and the firm incurred a loss in the position. While Baupost exited its position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s common stock, the firm bought 2 million Call options of MSFT.

Top Positions

Accroding to Baupost’s Q4 commentary, the firm made profits in News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) (NASDAQ:NWS), Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) and Vivendi SA (EPA:VIV). Lets look at the activity in these positions first. Oracle Corporation(NASDAQ:ORCL) and News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA) (NASDAQ:NWS) are Baupost’s top five  positions, according to the 13f filing. During Q4, Baupost sold more than 3 million shares of Oracle Corp, whereas 3.3 million more shares of NWS were bought by the firm and 4 million shares of NWSA were sold in Q4. Both classes of News Corp’s shares make more than 16 percent of the portfolio.

Like we reported earlier, Baupost increased its holding in Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDIX) to 18.48 percent of the outstanding shares. The position is now 3.2 percent of the portfolio. Baupost initiated a large position in American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG) with 7 million shares. Other top positions are in BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP), ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) and Theravance Inc (NASDAQ:THRX), no major activity was seen in these holdings.

Gold

Baupost cut its stake in Allied Nevada Gold Corp. (NYSEAMEX:ANV) by 43 percent in Q4, while buying another 688k shares of  NovaGold Resources Inc. (USA) (NYSEAMEX:NG). Note that Gold was also one of the losers for Baupost in Q4.

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