13F filings continue to trickle in ahead of next Tuesday’s deadline. Third Point filed last night and its portfolio continues to be top-heavy, with the fund’s top three positions accounting for over 40% of its portfolio. The fund upped its stake in its second-largest position, Alibaba Group Holding [NYSE:BABA], by 46%. Its third-largest position is now a 15m share stake in DowDuPont [NYSE:DWDP] after Dow and DuPont closed their merger of equals in early September. In May, Third Point called for a six-way split of the merged company. Possibly anticipating trouble in merger land, Third Point skimmed its stakes in Time Warner [NYSE:TWX], which now may or may not have to sell its entire Turner division (or just CNN, depending on who you ask) in order to close its merger with AT&T [NYSE:T], by 26%; it also reduced its stake in T-Mobile [NASDAQ:TMUS], which recently called off talks with Sprint [NYSE:S], again by 26%. Third Point reduced its stake in Alexion Pharmaceuticals [NASDAQ:ALXN] by 20%, leading us to believe the fund is unlikely to go active despite recent board changes and rumblings the biopharmaceutical company could be up for sale. Third Point took a new 1.73m share position in Macerich [NYSE:MAC] during the quarter, good for a 1.2% stake in the REIT. Third Point has subsequently built its stake up to near 5% this quarter and is expected to go active and call for a sale at the mall operator, according to Bloomberg News. Another new position for Third Point is a 2.75m share position in Vantiv [NYSE:VNTV], which is currently in a merger with Worldpay [LON:WPG]. VNTV could be a target of bumpitrage by Third Point, as this news service has reported that a large investor felt WPG’s offer was too low.
(MergerMArket)