Paulson Maintains Gold Position; Soros Cuts Barrick Holdings

By Kitco News

Tuesday August 16, 2016 08:56

(Kitco News) - Well-known hedge fund manager John Paulson maintained his holdings in the world’s largest gold exchange-traded fund in the second quarter, while Soros Fund Management LLC sold most of its stake in Barrick Gold Corp., according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Institutional investment managers must file a Form 13F, showing their major holdings, with the SEC within 45 days of the end of the quarter.

As of June 30, Paulson held 4.8 million shares in SPDR Gold Shares, the same as the end of the first quarter, the filings showed. This is the world’s largest gold exchange-trade fund, which trades like a stock but tracks the price of the commodity, with metal put into storage to back the shares.

Meanwhile, filings showed that filing showed Soros Fund Management sold more than 18 million shares of Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold producer. The fund held 1.07 million shares at the end of the second quarter, compared to 19.4 million at the end of the first quarter.

It is impossible to determine exactly when in the first quarter Soros bought shares of ABX or when he then sold them in the second quarter; however the average closing price per share of Barrick stock was $17.80 up almost 53% from the average closing price of $11.64 per share seen in the first quarter.

Using these rough estimates, Soros could have seen a profit of more than $100 million after selling off the majority of his position in the world’s largest precious-metals miner.

Meanwhile, as of June 30, the fund held 240,000 shares of SPDR Gold Trust. At the end of the first quarter, the fund had held 1.05 million call options on the ETF.