Man, AQR among funds with trades stung by Ocado's share surge -research

According to Breakout Point, various international hedge funds like AQR Capital Management and Man Group risk losing money on their investments against Ocado, as the online supermarket's stock value skyrocketed on Thursday.

The value of Ocado stocks shot up by more than 40% last Thursday when rumors emerged in The Times newspaper about potential acquisition attention from American suitors, such as Amazon, for the company. Ocado, which has struggled due to a rise in the cost of living in the UK, has become a possible target for interested buyers.

Ocado chose not to make a statement regarding the increase in their stock value or the report made by The Times. Similarly, Amazon also chose not to provide any comment regarding the report.

Ivan Ćosović, the founder of Breakout Point, stated that the short sellers of Ocado were taken aback when they received a delivery of spoiled tomatoes.

According to reports, a data company has made a calculation based on information about short trades that showed about 8 investors could potentially lose a total of 101 million pounds ($128.88 million) on Thursday. This information was gathered from regulatory short disclosures.

Ćosović stated that although there was a sudden rise today, many prominent shorts have been in existence for some time. Thus, they appear to be making considerable progress on a protracted timeline.

There are some famous funds on the list that have to disclose their short positions to regulators. Some of these funds are AHL Partners, which is part of Man Group hedge fund, AQR Capital Management, BlackRock Investment Management, D1 Capital Partners, Gladstone Capital Management, Kintbury Capital, Systematica Investments, Varenne Capital Partners, and Whale Rock Capital Management.

Varenne Capital confirmed that their financial position is still advantageous and has been maintained over several quarters.

According to Giuseppe Perrone, the CEO of Varenne Capital Partners, it's difficult to imagine that Amazon would be purchasing Ocado, especially since Kroger is one of Ocado's main clients and shareholders.

Kroger Co, a company headquartered in the United States, competes with Amazon and is a significant investor in Ocado. Therefore, Kroger needs to give its agreement to any agreement related to the companies.

Blackrock, Man Group, AQR, Gladstone Capital, and Systematica Investments chose not to provide a comment. D1 Capital, Kintbury, and Whale Rock did not respond to comment requests right away.

Occasionally, making brief wagers in anticipation of a decrease in a particular stock's value might only constitute a small aspect of how a hedge fund situates themselves with that stock. Consequently, disclosure requirements enforced by regulating bodies may not furnish a comprehensive representation of their financial gains and losses.

According to Ćosović, the response from retail traders to the change in the stock price was diverse.

The value of Ocado stocks experienced a significant surge, increasing by a large margin of 46.7% and coming close to breaking their all-time record. These stocks continued to rise, ultimately reaching a 35% increase and reducing the decline they had suffered over the previous year by 26%.

Let's rephrase the blog section using alternative vocabulary: (One dollar equals 0.7837 pounds)

Written by Nell Mackenzie and revised by Emelia Sithole-Matarise.