SMART MONEY: Top Hedge Funds Betting on Plastics
Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 03:11PM From Reuters...A wave of top fund managers including James Dinan and David Einhorn snapped up shares of LyondellBasell Industries.
The popularity of plastics and raw materials signal that hedge funds are diversifying commodity bets beyond gold, the darling of 2010, returning 30 percent, as inflationary pressures seep into food and energy.
Top hedge funds' bets on LyondellBasell and other raw materials producers like Penn West Petroleum and Repsol YPF SA suggest investors are seeking out commodity-related plays as the global economy wiggles out of a bruising recession.
LyondellBasell -- the third-largest chemical maker in the United States -- was certainly hurt by the downturn, declaring bankruptcy in early 2009.
But after LyondellBasell emerged back onto the public markets in October, Dinan's York Capital Management and Einhorn's Greenlight Capital, along with Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global Investors and Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital Management disclosed their stakes in LyondellBasell.
Commodities 