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Third Point Investors Ltd move addresses persistent

discount

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Discount persisted even after steps taken to mitigate

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TPIL expected to deliver mid-teens returns by end of 2027

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Daniel

Loeb is transforming his London-listed investment company into

an insurance holding company following years of criticism about

its valuation discount to his New York-based hedge fund Third

Point.

Third Point Investors Limited (TPIL), which listed

on the London Stock Exchange in 2007, said on Wednesday that it

will acquire Malibu Life Reinsurance SPC, a life annuity

reinsurer which Loeb launched last year.

The stock-for-stock deal will be voted on by shareholders.

Given Loeb's high ownership stake, it is likely to be approved

at the vote, which is expected to occur in the third quarter.

TPIL is considering a tender offer that would allow

investors to get a better price for their shares than on the

open market.

Like other UK-listed investment companies, TPIL is known as

a feeder fund and was originally designed to give retail

shareholders a taste of hedge funds that had long been off

limits to all but the wealthiest and largest financiers.

TPIL, which has roughly $500 million invested in Third

Point's flagship Offshore hedge fund, will invest principally in

Third Point's various credit strategies.

By the end of 2027, the new reinsurance operating company

expects to deliver mid-teens returns, the company said in a

statement.

Last year TPIL gained 25.5% after fees. This year it is

roughly flat.

The merger is designed to end years of complaints about a

persistent gap between where the fund's shares trade and their

underlying net asset value.

Criticism about the double-digit discount even turned Loeb,

who has waged activist campaigns at companies including Nestle

, Walt Disney ( DIS ) and Campbell's, into a

target for other activist investors.

Four years ago TPIL shareholder Asset Value Investors took

public aim at the TPIL discount, and TPIL took steps, including

share buybacks, to address it.

But the discount, which persists at many such companies,

continues to annoy certain investors. Earlier this year, U.S.

activist investor Boaz Weinstein, who waged war against certain

BlackRock ( BLK ) investment products, turned his attention to

the UK where he targeted several local investment trusts with

the aim of overhauling their boards.

Last year, without direct pressure from outsiders, TPIL

appointed two independent directors -- activist investors

Dimitri Goulandris and Liad Meidar -- to its board to lead a

months-long strategy review, which led to this move.

The board, which is independent of Loeb and Third Point,

earlier this week unanimously approved the planned transaction.

TPIL will own an interest in the Third Point hedge fund and

in Malibu after the transaction is finalized. It said it would

likely meet Malibu's ongoing capital needs by periodically

redeeming capital from the hedge fund. Ultimately, TPIL will

become a pure-play operating company within the next 18 months

to 36 months.

Late last year, Third Point purchased hedge fund manager AS

Birch Grove to help build out its credit platform.

Third Point's move echoes recent steps by other investors,

including Pershing Square Capital Management's Bill Ackman, who

earlier this month took a listed real estate development

company, in which he already owned a stake, and transformed it

into a diversified holding company that will buy stakes in other

companies.