Bridgewater back on top

Bridgewater Associates is back on top of the latest list of the world’s largest hedge funds, stepping ahead of JPMorgan on a ranking published by Institutional Investor magazine. On a Bloomberg News list published earlier this month, Bridgewater ranked second to Man Group of the United Kingdom, which overtook Bridgewater on that ranking after merging with New York City-based GLG Partners.

Westport-based Bridgewater is among the larger employers in Fairfield County; Institutional Investor estimates the company has nearly $59 billion in assets under management, some $4.7 billion ahead of New York City-based JPMorgan.

Late last month, Bridgewater CEO Ray Dalio signed the Giving Pledge to donate at least half his wealth to charity.

Separately, the White House extended Robert Mueller as director of the FBI another two years. Multiple publications had reported Bridgewater Associates”™ general counsel James Comey on the short list of candidates President Obama had considered for the job.

 

Malloy touts new plan for UConn Health Center

Gov. Dannel Malloy proposed an $864 million overhaul of the University of Connecticut Health Center under incoming UConn President Susan Herbst, pledging to increase research and business formation activities with the goal of creating more than 16,000 new jobs over the next quarter century.

Lawmakers have long been flummoxed with UConn Health Center and its affiliated John Dempsey Hospital, which has too few beds to stay in the black on a consistent basis.

Under a new initiative called BioScience Connecticut, Malloy now wants to use a combination of state bonds, private financing and existing resources to add biotechnology researchers at the UConn Health Center while increasing the number of medical school students by 30 percent.

During the first term of former Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Connecticut created a $100 million stem-cell research initiative that helped spawn an incubator for startup businesses at UConn Health Center.

 

GE Capital: CFOs optimistic

Four in five midsized businesses in the U.S. plan to increase their workforce 6 percent on average this year, according to a survey by Norwalk-based GE Capital, with 80 percent of those jobs representing permanent workers.

“It”™s clear that top line growth for middle-market companies is improving,” said Dan Henson, CEO of GE Capital”™s Americas unit, in a prepared statement. “This is consistent with the uptick in demand we”™re seeing across our lending and equipment leasing businesses. Our first-quarter financing volume was up 83 percent versus the same period a year ago, reflecting much improved activity levels.”

In the first quarter, GE Capital surveyed more than 500 CFOs of businesses with between $50 million and $1 billion in revenue. Mining and fabrication companies were the most optimistic, though transportation industry companies indicated the most robust hiring plans. Food, beverage and agriculture companies had the least bullish outlook.

Nearly 60 percent of CFOs polled said they expect their companies to raise prices this year on the products and services they sell.

 

Biodel gets $30M injection

Biodel Inc. raised $30 million from several institutional investors in a sale of common stock, preferred shares and warrants that could obligate it to sell shares in the future at a set price.

The Danbury-based company is developing drugs to treat diabetes and other ailments. It received a setback last year after the Food and Drug Administration did not approve its application for Linjeta, a fast-acting insulin. The company has since initiated a new round of trials to meet the FDA”™s requirements. Biodel lost $5.4 million in its second fiscal quarter ending March 31, with $17.6 million in cash and equivalents on that date.

Greenwich-based Great Point Partners L.L.C. and New York City-based Orbimed Advisors L.L.C. were among the investors buying shares; both companies focus on investments in health and life sciences companies, with Great Point having been an investor in Biodel since 2006.

 

FDA approves BI diabetes drug

The Food and Drug Administration approved Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc.”™s new Tradjenta drug to treat type 2 diabetes, with the Ridgefield-based company planning to market the drug in conjunction with Eli Lilly.

Nearly 25 million Americans suffer from type 2 diabetes.

 

TranSwitch raises $14M

TranSwitch Corp. raised $14 million in an offering of stock, with plans to use the money for general corporate purposes.

The Shelton-based company designs signal circuitry used in telecommunications and networking gear. In the first quarter, TranSwitch lost $2.8 million as revenue dropped more than a third from a year ago to $8.2 million. TranSwitch closed the quarter with nearly $5 million in cash and equivalents, and total assets valued at $42 million.

 

SEC freezes hedge fund assets

The Securities and Exchange Commission froze the assets of Highview Point Partners L.L.C., claiming the Stamford-based hedge fund was part of a $450 million Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Francisco Illarramendi, who pleaded guilty in March.

Highview filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors in March. The SEC said Illarramendi held an ownership stake in the hedge fund between 2005 and 2010.

 

Bayou investors win $13M verdict

Bayou Group L.L.C.”™s estate won a $13 million verdict against several hedge funds, requiring them to return money to investors left in the lurch after the Stamford-based fund”™s collapse.

Bayou founder Samuel Israel III is serving a prison sentence for running a Ponzi scheme and for staging a phony suicide and going on the lam in advance of his incarceration.

Gary Mennitt, an attorney in the New York office of Dechert L.L.P., told Bloomberg News that Bayou”™s estate has now recovered more than $60 million for investors.

“This is first time that a Ponzi scheme estate has been successful at trial in defeating an investor”™s good-faith defense and thus recovering the full principal, or amount paid to the redeeming investor,” Mennitt sold Bloomberg News.

 

Photronics sees rise in semiconductor demand

Photronics Inc. sales of semiconductor equipment reached a record $133 million in the second fiscal quarter ending May 1, but the company still produced a $16.4 million loss due to additional costs from the early extinguishment of debt.

Brookfield-based Photronics makes quartz plates called photomasks on which circuitry is etched, to be reproduced on semiconductor wafers and flat panel displays. Sales were up 27 percent from the prior-year period and revenue from U.S. customers reached its highest level in nearly nine years.