Secretive Mayfair hedgie Lansdowne snaps up big stake in a Polish miner
Lansdowne Partners, headquartered in Mayfair, is one of London's oldest hedge funds (Source: Getty)
One of London oldest and most secretive hedge funds has snapped up a big stake in a Polish coal miner.
Lansdowne Partners became a substantial shareholder in London-listed Prairie Mining on Friday, according to a filing released today, and now owns more than five per cent of the firm.
Also listed in Australia, Prairie operates the Karski Mine in the Lublin Coal Basin and the Debiensko Hard Coking Coal Project in Upper Silesia.
With around $20bn of assets under management, Mayfair-based Lansdowne Partners was last year one of the sector's top performers. The firm's investment portfolio and specific performance is generally tightly-guarded. It was, however, revealed last February Lansdowne had taken a big hit backing telecoms duo of BT and Inmarsat.
More recently, Lansdowne has taken on one Britain's best-loved retail fund managers. The hedge fund has one of the biggest short positions in troubled doorstep lender Provident Financial. The firm put its £30m bet against the lender in April 2016, pitting itself against Woodford and Invesco Perpetual, which together own around 50 per cent of the Bradford-based firm.
Prairie Mining, meanwhile, announced narrowed losses earlier this month from $5.34m to $5.28m. In February it announced preliminary discussions with Indian steel giant JSW regarding a co-operation agreement.
PDZ Price at posting:
85.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
