Soros Joined Och-Ziff Betting on AIG Before Sandy Struck

Billionaire investor George Soros and Och-Ziff Capital Management, the hedge-fund firm with $31.8bn under management, added stakes in American International Group in the third quarter before superstorm Sandy devastated the Eastern U.S.

The family office of Soros, 82, disclosed an investment of 15.2m shares in the New York-based insurer as of September 30th, according to a filing Monday. Och-Ziff tripled its stake to 33.2m shares, it said in a filing.

Bloomberg reports that AIG has fallen 16% from a 20-month closing high of $37.21 on October 18th. The firm hasn’t announced losses from the storm that made landfall October 29th, killing at least 100 people in the U.S. Sandy caused insured losses of $20bn to $25bn, according to Risk Management Solutions Inc.

'With Hurricane Sandy remaining an overhang for the group, primary insurers are now trading at levels well off recent highs', Josh Stirling, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., wrote in a research note. 'This trading is amplified by the fundamental uncertainty around the reasonable range of industry losses'.

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Soros Joined Och-Ziff Betting on AIG Before Sandy Struck

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