Tontine Associates

Tontine Partners & Jeffrey Gendell

Quick Link: Tontine Capital Partners - 13F Hedge Fund Holdings

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Resource #1: (11.12.08) Tontine Associates, an $11 billion hedge fund firm run by billionaire manager Jeffrey Gendell, will close two funds, sources close to the situation told FOX Business on Tuesday.

The Greenwich, Conn.-based firm will close the Tontine Partners and Tontine Capital funds after both funds got clobbered by an ugly economy and turmoil in the financial markets.

Sources said Gendell is closing both funds because of their performance -- each is down more than 50% year to date -- rather than because of investor redemption.

Gendell, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

But sources said Tontine plans to wind down the two funds in an orderly manner in order to maximize shareholder return.

Gendell’s Tontine 25 and Tontine Financial funds will remain open.

Problems with Gendell’s funds became public in early October after a letter signed by Gendell was leaked to the public. In the letter, Gendell told investors that all of his funds have taken huge hits this year, citing the example of U.S. Steel (X: 28.87, -3.51, -10.84%).Tontine owns a 2.62% stake in the steel company, which has seen its shares fall from $200 in July to just over $30 a share.

Gendell wrote that because of the “rapid declines in our steel stocks and engineering and construction stocks, we were forced to scale down our positions.” Source

Resource #2: In a Reglatory filing with the SEC, multibillion-dollar hedge fund, Tontine Associates, has bought 5% of trucking giant YRC, equaling 2.97 million shares of YRC common stock, for more than $48 million.

Jeffrey Gendell, founder of Tontine Associates, has made big investments recently in other struggling companies in the region. Earlier this year, he spent more than $11 million to acquire an 8.6 percent stake in Thermadyne Holdings Corp., a struggling producer of metal-cutting and welding equipment based in Chesterfield, Mo.

Gendell also bought more than 400,000 shares of TierOne Corp., a Lincoln, Neb., bank that has lost nearly $100 million in the past four quarters. Stockpickr.com reports “Gendell’s specialty is picking a macro-styled theme, buying very large positions in companies that benefit from that theme, and then working with or pressuring management to improve shareholder returns”.
Gendell, among other things, is a donor to Duke University and a part-owner of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. Read more here...

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Tags: Tontine Associates, Tontine Associates Fund, Tontine Associates Fund LLP, Tontine Associates Hedge Fund, Jeffrey Gindell, Jeffrey Gindell Hedge Fund Manager, Tontine Investment Group

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