Hedge fund Lone Pine Capital LLC, Esprit Holdings Ltd’s largest shareholder, increased its stake as the shares plunged 22 percent after the apparel company’s chief executive officer quit last week.Lone Pine bought 1.39 million Esprit shares
at an average HK$10.56 apiece on June 13, as the stock slumped on Chief Executive Officer Ronald Van der Vis’s resignation, according to Hong Kong Stock Exchange data.Bloomberg
reported how the purchases by Greenwich, Connecticut-based Lone Pine, run by Stephen F. Mandel Jr., brings its holdings in the clothing firm to 13.08 percent from 12.97 percent.“I don’t think Lone Pine is increasing its stake for the sake of gaining control in the company,” said to Bloomberg Gabriel Chan, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG. “As a hedge fund, they are more likely to bargain hunt.”
