Some updates on Pride International (PDE)

Some interesting news on Pride International, currently the 11th biggest holding in the fund.

Pride is an oil driller which is concentrating its business more and more on the most lucrative market, deep sea drilling. I have concentrated my holdings in this area because its the most insulated from ebb and flow of dayrate fluctuations (vs land drillers, or shallow sea drillers i.e. jackups)

Pride announced a sale of its land drilling assets in South America this week for $1 billion

Also George Soros, one of the most established and respected hedge fund managers (deep pocket investors) announced in a regulatory filing this week that its aquired a 1 million share stake in the company.

This cash infusion makes Pride a more pure play on deep sea ocean drilling, along with allowing it either (a) to develop a larger scale in deep sea drilling and/or (b) making it an even more attractive takeover candidate.

Pride Int'l is currently 2.65% of the fund's holdings.

(as an aside Soros also announced a 407K share position in fund holding Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX)

FCX is currently 2.0% of the fund's holdings.

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