Shares were around 17.00 on Thursday post close and touched 17.20 today in pre-market but closed at 16.17 down by .03 cents. Soros buy puts shine on Lehman shares By Greg Morcroft, MarketWatch Last update: 10:36 a.m. EDT Aug. 15, 2008Comments: 1NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. rose more than 6% at one point Friday as news that famed investor George Soros' hedge fund boosted its stake in the company brought out buyers. An analyst report from David Trone at Fox-Pitt Kelton also lent support to the shares. He said that Lehman's upcoming losses should be smaller than the second quarter's as hedges in place at the firm appear to be working. Soros Fund Management has raised its stake in Lehman Brothers (LEH:Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc News, chart, profile, more Last: 16.25+0.05+0.31% 4:00pm 08/15/2008 Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolio Analyst Create alertInsider Discuss Financials Sponsored by: LEH 16.25, +0.05, +0.3%) to 9.47 million common shares at the end of June 30, up from 10,000 shares at the end of March 31. The fair market value of the stake is estimated at $187.7 million, according to a regulatory filing by the fund Thursday. Billionaire George Soros is the chairman of the fund. Lehman shares traded up 3%, at $16.70 in recent action. For his part, Trone said that he expects Lehman's Lehman's hedges to revert to providing gains, "albeit not of the magnitude of the first quarter 2007 through first quarter 2008 period." Trone said he believes the firm has quietly but effectively been selling assets in recent months, getting better than fire sale prices for them. He still expects the firm to post write-downs of about $1.8 billion, including about $800 million of hedging gains, in its fiscal third quarter, which closes at the end of this month. By comparison, he said the firm wrote down $4.1 billion in its second quarter and had no hedging gains in that period. "On balance, Lehman should lose $1.8 billion or $2.62 a share in the third quarter, about half its second quarter loss," Trone said. "This is not meaningful enough, in our view, to necessitate an additional capital raise, thanks to the re-emergence of hedging gains," he concluded. Greg Morcroft is MarketWatch's financial editor in New York. E-mail Print
Lehman considering selling its Investment Management business - Gasparino. Stock is down almost 5% AH. http://www.cnbc.com/id/26291011
So....Will Soros also be placed on suicide watch? http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=134438
He was also long russian govt bonds in late 1990's believing they would never default or that US will bail them out. The russians said: sorry we spent all the money and there's no new coming in. And everybody said: but... but these are legal obligations. And the russians said: oops, sorry, all of this is so new for us, coming out of communism and all that - we thought they were just receipts for the money you gave us.
I don't know why everybody thinks Soros is such a great trader. He was making your average run of the mill low double digit returns until his fund grew big enough to have buying power to move currencies - and then he became famous for classic stock parlor tricks a la old Joe Kennedy (back in 20's) in currencies. Nothing spectacular, if you ask me.