In light of all the human and economic tragedies that the Corona epidemic has caused since the outbreak in the world during the past three months, there were those who were able to take advantage of the epidemic to achieve interests and profits.
One of the most prominent examples of this was the American investor, Bill Akman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, the investment company specialized in managing hedge funds.
According to a report recently published by the American Wall Street Journal, Akman has made good use of Corona and the total collapse that has caused it in the global markets, raising the market value of his company and converting it from millions to billions.
The value of the company until two months ago did not exceed 27 million dollars, but Akman jumped to 2.6 billion dollars.
The report pointed out that all that Akman simply made was that he wagered on the losses of the markets due to Corona, and established the feeling among investors of the exacerbation of these losses, which is what actually happened.
The report stated that the validity of Akman’s expectations raised the value of Pershing Square share over the current month from its inception until the end of trading last Thursday by 7.9%, at a time when we find giant indices of shares, their value has declined dramatically during the same period. Including, for example, the S&P 500 index, which includes the largest 500 American companies listed on all stock exchanges by market value, as it lost 17% of its value since the beginning of March until now.
Akman made this massive profit for his company using the available credit protection for high-yield bonds. While all the world markets retreated as a result of the “Corona” outbreak, this led to the decline in the value of the bonds to a very low level that made them within the company’s reach, and bought many of them without fear of the risk of loss at all.
Akman appeared in economic programs broadcast by prominent television networks such as “CNBC”, warning of chaos in the American markets, unless the White House made a sovereign decision to close the national economy for at least 30 days to prevent the further spread of “Corona”, as promoted The same idea is on social media platforms, especially Twitter, until US President Donald Trump actually made the decision to close earlier this month.
In response to accusations by commentators that he promoted fear and intentionally contributed to market losses, Akman simply replied: “I was confident that the president would do the right thing.”
As soon as the US Federal Reserve and the US Treasury announced last week a massive fiscal stimulus package of nearly $ 2 trillion in total to support the US economy in the face of the effects of Corona, Akman sold the bonds he bought just a month ago taking advantage of the recovery in bond markets after investors sensed a measure Of reassurance on the background of the announcement of stimuli.
Akman exploited the profits made by his company to boost its investments in a number of prestigious companies, the most important of which are “Berkshire Hathaway”, owned by the famous American billionaire Warren Buffett, “Hilton” and “Louise” specialized in home renovation.
