After almost a year of behind-the-scenes work, billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson has formed a coalition with 15 other investors aimed at curbing years of what his fund has called value destruction in the gold sector.
John Hathaway — who is a general partner at Tocqueville Asset Management LP — and activist fund Livermore Partners are among those who have agreed to join the group, according to an e-mailed statement from the newly formed Shareholders’ Gold Council.
Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris’ La Mancha Group is also on the council.
Photo: Reuters
In April, Sawiris told Bloomberg he put half his US$5.7 billion net worth into gold.
The idea for the group was first floated by Paulson & Co during the Denver Gold Forum in September last year.
“Since last year, the gold price has crept lower and shareholder returns have been poor,” Marcelo Kim, a partner at Paulson, said in a separate e-mail. “Interest in the sector has continued to languish, and you have seen capital leave the space and notable fund closures.”
Gold was trading at about US$1,300 an ounce, about US$100 higher than current spot prices, when Paulson announced plans to unite big institutional gold investors around common issues.
Spot gold settled at US$1,200.12 an ounce on Friday, up 0.25 percent from last week’s US$1,197.16.
Since then, there has been no noticeable improvement in behavior, said Kim, who delivered a blistering presentation to investors at last year’s forum.
He had cited almost a decade of mismanagement by gold miners and called for institutional investors to exert more influence on issues such as executive pay, board appointments and merger activity.
The sector had incurred US$85 billion of write-offs since 2010, he said at the time, while continuing to reward executives.
The Shareholders’ Gold Council is to be headed by Christian Godin, a former senior vice president at Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc.
Launching it took longer than expected because of compliance issues and housekeeping challenges dealing with 16 institutions and back-office teams, Godin said by e-mail.
The group intends to ensure the management and boards of mining companies are aligned with shareholder interests, he said.
The group is to meet periodically to address a number of issues and is to be funded by members.
Sprott Inc is not named on the list, which includes four anonymous members.
Rick Rule, chief executive officer of the Sprott US Holdings Inc unit, had previously said he would recommend Sprott join the group.
Paulson is involved in a heated battle with Detour Gold Corp’s management.
That issue is entirely separate from the gold council, which is not involved in any way, Godin said.
Paulson & Co manages about US$8.7 billion.
In January 2010, Paulson, 62, started a fund that invested in mining companies and gold-related derivatives with about US$250 million of his own money.
LITHIUM
China’s top producer of lithium, a metal used in electric vehicle batteries, said it has agreed a deal with Tesla Inc to supply one-fifth of its production to the electric carmaker, highlighting the push for supply pacts.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”