High-profile hedge funds make bet on little-known oil company

  • Date: 23-May-2021
  • Source: Financial Times
  • Sector:Oil & Gas
  • Country:Gulf
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High-profile hedge funds make bet on little-known oil company

A cluster of high-profile hedge funds are hoping to turn round the fortunes of a beaten-down North Sea oil and gas firm in which they have built sizeable positions as energy prices soar.

Taconic Capital, CQS and Kite Lake Capital are among funds that own positions in Norwegian Energy Company (Noreco), the second-largest oil and gas producer in Denmark, whose shares have collapsed by more than 99 per cent since their pre-financial crisis high.

Taconic and Kite Lake between them own more than 50 per cent of the company. CQS, one of London’s biggest funds, in March disclosed a stake of just under 13 per cent, with some of the position held in the fund personally run by billionaire founder Michael Hintze.

Caius Capital and Astaris Capital, a hedge fund launched last year by Martin Beck, former co-founder of Sothic Capital, also have positions, while York Capital has also been a shareholder.

Noreco has a market capitalisation of just 3.14bn Norwegian krone (£270m), and is unusual for having such a high concentration of hedge funds on its shareholder register. 

Last week, the funds further tightened their grip on the firm, as Peter Coleman of Taconic and Jan Lernout of Kite Lake were voted on to