Tremblant Capital Group Discloses 9% Stake in PharmaNet Development Group

In a 13G filing with the SEC, on September 17, the Tremblant Capital Group disclosed that it owns 1,758,311 shares of PharmaNet Development Group (PDGI) (formerly SFBC International). This represents a 9.0% ownership stake in the company.

A 13G filing indicates passive ownership. This is a brand new position, as it was nowhere to be found in its most recent 13F filing where the company disclosed its complete equity portfolio holdings as of June 30, 2008. In addition, if you missed it, you can check out the rest of Tremblant's holdings from that most recent 13F which I analyzed in full here.

Bret Barakett manages Tremblant Capital Group. If his last name sounds familiar, it’s because his brother, Timothy Barakett, manages fellow macro fund Atticus Capital, whom I also track. According to its site, Tremblant Capital Group's objective is "to achieve superior risk adjust returns for our investors through our focused and disciplined investment process." Tremblant is a $4.1 billion hedge fund based in New York and is run by Bret Barakett, who is a former portfolio manager at Moore Capital Management (the hedge fund run by the great Louis Bacon, whom I've also tracked here).

So, as you can see, despite having a great mind of his own, Barakett has worked with some of the best in the macro game. And, that's why he's worth tracking. However, this year has proven difficult for Bret Barakett (and many other fund managers for that matter). As I noted in one of my hedge fund performance updates, Tremblant was down 8.96% as of the beginning of August.

The following information is taken from Google Finance:

PharmaNet Development Group Inc. (PDGI), formerly SFBC International, Inc. is a global drug development services company providing clinical development services, including consulting, Phase I and bioequivalency clinical studies, and Phase II, III and IV clinical development programs to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, generic drug and medical device companies around the world. The Company conducts its operations in two segments: early stage and late stage clinical development.

Comments

[User 273772:]

They disclose about 900,000 shares of PDGI in June and a value of around $15 per share. So, this is not a new position but one that they got into at, if I am to guess, about twice the current price.

Will be interesting to see if they dumped it recently or not.

2008 Oct 02 01:14 PM