Richard Perry, Perry Capital: J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) has recently been decreased in the equity portfolio of Richard Perry’s Perry Capital, which is one of the hedge funds we track. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Perry Capital disclosed holding 10 million shares, after reporting increasing the position to 19 million shares at the end of August. In this way, the stake currently held by Perry in JCP represents 3.28% of its outstanding shares, and has a value of $88.1 million.
Perry Capital increased initially increased its position in J.C. Penney to 16 million, after reporting a 12 million share stake in the latest round of 13F filings. At the same time, Perry Capital sent a letter to the company’s board of directors. “Shareholders and creditors have increasingly lost confidence in the company, as evidenced by the recent significant decline in the company’s stock and bond prices. This market reaction is particularly alarming given the company’s meaningful improvement in liquidity following its $2.25 billion term loan financing. We strongly urge the Board to take immediate and proactive steps to improve the financial and operational management of the company,” the letter stated.
Perry Capital also urged the board to return Allen Questrom and Ken Hicks in the roles of Chairman of the Board and CEO respectively. Earlier in August, Bill Ackman, the manager of Pershing Square, the largest shareholder with an 18% stake in J.C. Penney, resigned from the company’s Board.
Some other hedge funds that hold significant stakes in J.C. Penney are Soros Fund Management, managed by George Soros, which owns almost 20 million shares, followed by Larry Robbins’s Glenview Capital with 8.4 million shares and Patrick Mccormack’s Tiger Consumer Management, which disclosed 5.4 million shares in the latest round of 13F filings.
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