$5.6B Hedge Fund Sells Real Estate Investment Trusts
The $5.6 billion hedge-fund unit within Switzerland’s biggest bank UBS O’Connor LLC, had sold off more than $900 million of shares in American real estate investment trusts during the second quarter 2014 after the companies delivered some of the highest stock-market returns in the 2013.
O’Connor
cut its holdings by more than $900 million, selling almost every type
of REIT, including those backed by apartments, offices, mortgage bonds,
campgrounds, cell-phone towers and hotels, according to a filing last
week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The biggest
reductions were in Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc., AvalonBay
Communities Inc. and Equity Lifestyle Properties Inc.
The
selling took place from the firm’s $4.8 billion global multi-strategy
fund as the firm switched into other industries, according to a person
with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the
information is private. O’Connor increased investments in information
technology and consumer staples, including Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.
and Mondelez International Inc., the filing shows.
Source: Bloomberg
