Google and Facebook came to dominate the online ad market, hampering publishers attempts to generate the necessary revenue from digital advertising. Postmedia, where Pecker sat on the board until last August, has posted annual losses for most of the past decade. Currently investing in Vericasts term loan facility due 2026. Anthony Melchiorre, Chatham Asset Management, LLC: Profile and Biography - Bloomberg Markets Bloomberg Terminal Demo Request Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of. Chatham, which manages about $4 billion in assets on behalf of its clients, is expected to become the majority owner in the third quarter of the year, McClatchy said, and the publicly traded newspaper company will go private. Sports coverage has been trimmed. In October 2016, a New Jersey hedge fund assumed ownership of Canadas largest newspaper chain with very little fanfare. If the business is not profitable, theyll do what they need to to right-size it., He added: If they look at the assets they are buying, part of their core purpose is to serve their community. New Jersey, which has generated a more-than 12 percent annualized return on its investment, is entitled to withdraw $355 million from one of Chathams funds at the end of this year. Chatham said at the time that the allegations were baseless and without merit. Revenue has dropped an average of 10 percent a year since 2016. The deal happened so quietly that Postmedias own financial news site described it as a debt restructuring in a report that included a single mention of Chatham as one of the investors.. Products. The private equity fund Fortress Investment Group controls the largest American newspaper chain, Gannett, which publishes USA Today, The Arizona Republic and 250 other dailies. Long-term clients include the state pension fund of Chathams home state, New Jersey. That kind of showing helped the firm attract $300 million from investors this quarter, a person familiar with the matter said. Yet, over the years questions have swirled around Chatham. A Chicago-area kid who studied economics at Northwestern and got an MBA from the University of Chicago, his high-toned education didnt reduce the intensity of the former high-school football star. A Chicago-area kid who studied economics at Northwestern and got an MBA from the University of Chicago, his high-toned education didnt reduce the intensity of the former high-school football star. Anthony Ralph Melchiorre - Chatham Asset Management, LLC This much is sure: Chatham founder Melchiorre, 51, has a formidable reputation. The Ohio pension system did not respond to questions about whether it will seek to divest assets from Chatham. Marian Needham, the executive vice president of the NewsGuild, the union that represents employees at some McClatchy newspapers, said in a statement that McClatchy needed to adopt existing collective bargaining agreements. Sanjay Wadhwa, deputy director of the SEC's enforcement division, said in a statement that Chatham's trading in AMI bonds had the effect of "increasing the prices of those generally illiquid securities in a way that was disconnected from economic reality. The next year, Seaport received internal complaints that brokers there agreed to buy bonds from Chatham with the promise the hedge fund would repurchase them at higher prices, according to people with knowledge of the situation. In recent months it put together the bid that has been declared the winner in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court auction supervised by Judge Michael E. Wiles, a McClatchy spokeswoman said on Sunday. Melchiorre, 55, owned roughly 70 percent of the company during the relevant period and is the managing member of the general partner entity for each of the funds. Chatham was the favorite in the McClatchy auction, but the New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital expressed strong interest last week, when a lawyer representing the firm said at a bankruptcy hearing that Alden was prepared to top any other bid. Despite the losses, Postmedia has managed to shunt most of its cash toward paying off its heavy debt load, which ultimately will benefit Chatham. The number of journalists at its Vancouver papers the Vancouver Sun and The Province has been cut in half, according to Mr. Gibson. Since it was founded in 2001, Seaport Global has been in full compliance with all laws and regulations governing our industry, the company said in a statement. Hedge Fund Chatham Settles SEC Case on Improper Bond Trading (1) This much is sure: Chatham founder Melchiorre, 51, has a formidable reputation. Start Free Trial . Fortress is owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. Best known for its luridEnquirerheadlines (Aliens Are Living in My Toilet), AMI has been beset by a difficult environment for print publications. Just sad. Chatham Asset Management and its founder, Anthony Melchiorre, have agreed to settle charges they violated U.S. laws designed to protect investors when they bought and sold bonds in. STAY CONNECTED In 2013 and 2014, an Ohio pension system partially controlled by Gov. The hedge fund has become a major player in the news industry. Sign up and get the best of News delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. The Christie administrations shift of $500 million into Chatham makes New Jersey retirees a substantial investor in the hedge fund, which manages $3.2 billion in assets, according tostate records. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Another McClatchy creditor, the New York hedge fund Brigade Capital Management, was named in a public filing as a partner of Chatham in the April bid. Vericast recently announced several growth initiatives, including investing in technology and hiring for more than 250 new positions across the organizationits largest investments in innovation and employees since the companys 2020 launch. Californias pension fund also has a $235 million stake in a Chatham fund. Chatham hasnt been accused of wrongdoing by authorities, and the fund had no comment on its interactions with federal inspectors. Gary Pruitt came to the newsroom. It doesnt produce a product or render a significant service to society. Importantly, the trading occurred more than four years ago in funds that have since been closed. Thats because they are losing to him.. National Enquirer owner during Trump payoffs charged with bond price JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC, Theres clarity in the St. Louis Post-Dispatchs futureFor The Star, just a bighaze. Shadowy and scaryThat's the prospective new owner of The Star and the Chatham Asset Management Increases Offer to Acquire R.R. Donnelley to Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management and its founder, Anthony Melchiorre, agreed to pay more than $19 million to settle US allegations that the firm improperly traded bonds in a media company that owned the National Enquirer.. the MV of securities sold, whichever is less, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Now he was working on behalf of Chatham Asset Management, a $4.3 billion hedge fund that owns the National Enquirer. Chathams trading has drawn scrutiny before. Yet its junior bonds offer yields comparable to more senior securities. Its bonds rarely change hands. And as it happened, the hedge fund owned the tabloid, the National Enquirer, that he had just used to try and catch and kill stories about the future president. It was a lucrative move. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Chatham, an investor in the company since 2009, is its largest creditor. The hedge fund also has officials who serve as directors at AMI. Good writing. When completed, an email will be sent to the email address you specify Grimstad claimed Chatham artificially drove down the price of the bonds by almost 30% in a single trade, effectively blocking a debt-restructuring effort so it could capture control of the company. Which is concerning., Under Hedge Fund Set to Own McClatchy, Canadian Newspapers Endured Big Cuts, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/business/media/hedge-fund-chatham-mcclatchy-postmedia-newspapers.html. The information you requested is not available at this time, please check back again soon. Alpes-Maritimes, France Genealogy FamilySearch Serving as the lead backstop investor in Vericasts multibillion dollar refinancing transactions in 2020 and 2021. The regulator declined to comment. It declined to comment further. After sparking federal prosecutors ire for its role in burying Trumps secrets shortly before the 2016 election, the company has drawn international attention for its war with Jeff Bezos over its expos of his extramarital affair. Alpes Maritimes is part of the Provence-Alpes-Cte d'Azur region. Apr 3, 2023. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Chatham had waited patiently for Thursday, and now its in the catbird seat, waiting for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings to play out and then take charge. Cohens assignment: Get Carl Grimstad, the recently fired CEO of payments processor iPayment Holdings, to the table. Donnelley to $10.85 Per Share in Cash. The Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up examinations of various bond funds lately, inquiring about their relationships with brokers and how they value debt. Chatham Asset Management, a New Jersey-based hedge fund, and its founder, Anthony Melchiorre, have agreed to pay a $19.3 million fine for tampering with the sale process for bonds of. Torstar closed all but four of the 17 papers it had received. Chatham and the Enquirer 's publisher, David Pecker, had turned to. After years of declines in revenue and print circulation, the McClatchy Company, one of the largest and most respected news publishers in the country, announced on Sunday that it expected to be bought by Chatham Asset Management, a New Jersey hedge fund, at the conclusion of a bankruptcy auction. Grimstad knows what its like to be under a tabloid-like glare. American Media acquired her story for $150,000 and never published it, a practice known as catch-and-kill. That offer included the debt assumed by the hedge fund and its partners. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Whalewisdom has at least 9 13F filings, 19 13D filings, 29 13G filings, and 127 Form 4 filings. Freelance budgets have shrunk at Postmedia, and travel expenses have been severely curtailed, the people said. That may worry McClatchy journalists, who are wondering how Chatham would run the business at a time when Google and Facebook dominate the online ad market and fewer readers are willing to pay for news, challenges that have been worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. Sad. Those investments amounted to a bet that the companies would acquire competitors and cut costs. In that same period, the editorial ranks at The National Post, its flagship paper, have been reduced by about a third, according to three of the people. Since Chatham Asset Management took over Postmedia, Canadas largest newspaper chain, 1,600 employees have been laid off and more than 30 papers shut down. Grimstad claimed Chatham artificially drove down the price of the bonds by almost 30 percent in a single trade, effectively blocking a debt-restructuring effort so it could capture control of the company. A similar story has unfolded at newspaper publisher McClatchy, which has posted annual losses since 2015. Sort: $5,409,230. The regulator declined to comment. Chatham Asset Management Increases Offer to Acquire R.R. The next year, Seaport received internal complaints that brokers there agreed to buy bonds from Chatham with the promise the hedge fund would repurchase them at higher prices, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Chrome Extension. And as it happened, the hedge fund owned the tabloid, the National Enquirer, that he had just used to try and catch and kill stories about the future president. Despite the companys financial distress, its bonds traded near par until December, and after dropping, have been climbing back. The New York Post put the story on its front page under the headline Frisky Business. (Grimstad has called those allegations false and meritless.). Then theres American Media. I love your lead sentence, Fitz. Chris Christies administrationmoved$300 millionof pension cash into the Chatham Fund, LP, which hasowneda stake in AMI, according to SEC records. In 2018, Canadas Competition Bureau, a law enforcement agency that oversees commerce, opened an investigation into the transaction for possible anticompetitive conduct and has searched the offices of both Postmedia and Torstar. From 2004 to 2019, roughly half of all newspaper jobs in the United States were eliminated, according to a University of North Carolina study. That money was part of a deal the company had struck with Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who said she had an affair with Donald J. Trump. Former FEC commissioner Trevor Potter, the head of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center,last week said the situation presents a serious legal problem for AMI. If those legal troubles end up depressing the market value of AMI, teachers, firefighters, cops and other public employees also could potentially suffer losses at a time when their pension funds are alreadyfacingshortfalls. Traders have privately criticized what they see as lofty valuations of illiquid securities. A New Jersey Treasury Department spokesperson said in an email that its Division of Investment is in regular contact with its investment partners regarding underlying portfolio companies and provides feedback when appropriate. After several stints at elite firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan. We have less boots on the ground, Mr. Gibson said. Solutions. All rights reserved. I would bet, in fact, that not one Star employee not even president-publisher-secretary and head of security Mike Fannin will ever see him. Anthony Melchiorre has an ownership stake in Chatham Asset Management, LLC of between 50% and 75%. or to simply have an email sent to you whenever we receive a new Hedge Fund Chatham, Founder Melchiorre Pay $19M in SEC Case Over Bond And it means that a news company known for winning top journalism prizes is likely to become the property of a firm that owns The National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids. Whalewisdom has at least 9 13F filings, 19 13D filings, 29 13G filings, and 127 Form 4 filings Summary Holdings Ind. While he was wrangling with Chatham, news trucks were parked outside his house for days. New York, NY 10017-4036, Chicago Office Chatham itself has been undergoing its first ever exam by the SECs inspections division, according to people familiar with the 16-year-old firm. You know a little about ledes (leads) yourself. Suite 3200 Terms & Conditions. CHATHAM, NJ Grimstad claimed in filings that Chatham had manipulated iPayment bonds to seize control of the company. Melchiorre and his wife have donated more than $100,000 to Republican candidates and party committees since 2010. Named after the leafy suburb where its based, Chatham has posted average annual returns of about 10%, trouncing many of its competitors. Since 2017, Postmedia has paid out over $6.2 million Canadian, or about $4.5 million, in bonuses to its five top executives, including Mr. MacLeod, the chief executive, and Paul Godfrey, the executive chairman of the board. Since Chatham took a majority stake in Postmedia, the company has cut its work force, shuttered papers across Canada, reduced salaries and benefits, and centralized editorial operations in a way that has made parts of its 106 newspapers into clones of one another. The $1.4 billion pension plan, created 75 years ago, was intended to provide money to more than 24,000 current and future retirees. Thats exactly what happened. The consultant reviewed Chatham's trading annually for compliance with applicable laws and did not alert the firm to any issues.
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