George Soros doubled his investment in the world’s largest gold fund – just weeks before claiming investing in the precious metal is now the “ultimate bubble”.
James Quinn
Telegraph [UK]
17 Feb 2010
Mr Soros – a legend in investing circles for his $10bn (£6.37bn) bet against the pound in 1992 which forced sterling out of the European exchange rate mechanism – increased his stake in the SPDR Gold Trust in the last quarter of 2009.
Regulatory filings show that his $8.8bn investment vehicle, Soros Fund Management, raised its stake in exchange-traded fund SPDR by 3.7m shares to 6.2m shares in the three months ending December 31, 2009.
The new shares were bought at a price of $421m, taking his total holding in the fund to $663m at the end of December.
In addition, Mr Soros’s investment vehicle owns 11,000 call options that will permit it to buy an extra 1.1m shares should gold prices move higher.
Soros Fund Management also increased its stake in Canadian-based gold producer Yamana Gold, buying 60,880 shares to take its total position to 85,880 shares, worth $973,314 at the end of December.
However, the actions of the Mr Soros’s investment fund however seem to be at odds with his own viewpoint. During the World Economic Forum in Davos in late January, Mr Soros said: “When interest rates are low we have conditions for asset bubbles to develop, and they are developing at the moment. The ultimate asset bubble is gold.”
The article continues at the Telegraph.
