Money Stuff
Celator.
Back when it was a hedge fund, one thing that SAC Capital did was learn some negative results of a clinical trial of a drug about two weeks before those results were publicly announced, and then sell its stock in the drug company before the announcement. In a narrow sense this was a good trade, and SAC avoided several hundred million dollars of losses by getting out of the stock before the announcement. In a broader sense, this trade led to the end of SAC, which had to pay $600 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, plead guilty to insider trading, and stop being a hedge fund because of it. Also the analyst responsible for the trade went to prison for nine years .
But a chastened SAC lived on, as Point72 Capital Management, Steve Cohen’s family office. Things are different now: A monitor was appointed , former FBI agents stalk the halls, instant messages are restricted , compliance tips are rewarded , and the amount of insider trading allowed at Point72 appears to be, roughly, none. That, anyway, is my impression; I have said that "You can interpret Cohen’s last few years in the wilderness as a carefully proctored test of his ability to make money without cheating."
But he still wants to make money. Yesterday Point72 announced that it had, as of the close of business on Monday, accumulated about 8.3 percent of the stock of a little drug company called Celator Pharmaceuticals. Also after the close of business on Monday, Celator announced positive results in a Phase 3 trial of a leukemia drug. The stock closed up 432 percent yesterday. It remains fairly small — Point72 is up about $20 million on its stake — but, still, nice trade.
Suspiciously nice? The timing is […]
