David Einhorn Gave A Perfect Example Of How To Be Classy In The Hedge Fund World Yesterday
Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn was the last speaker at the conference and presented his long thesis on Oil States International Inc. (OIS), the stock is up 3.2% today.
That's great. It was a great presentation. But what really stuck out to us is that Einhorn took pains to give credit where credit was due. Barry Rosenstein's Jana Partners disclosed a 9% stake in the company a week before Einhorn's presentation, and Einhorn made it very clear that he knew it, and was not trying to rain on Jana's parade.
Now, obviously Einhorn and everyone else at Greenlight had been working on their OIS thesis for a long time before the Sohn Conference. Maybe they hadn't pulled the trigger yet, or announced that they were bullish on the company, but who really knows whether Jana or Greenlight came up with the idea first?
Doesn't matter. On the Street, appearances matter, so Einhorn made it very clear that he wasn't trying to steal an idea, that he respected Rosenstein's work and that Jana had beaten him to the public punch.
He even admitted that the situation made Greenlight nervous saying, “Someone in our office said, ‘Please tell me Barry Rosenstein isn’t speaking at Ira Sohn.’”
That's exactly the kind of transparency you need to have when your fund is in a situation where it looks even remotely like you might jumping on someone's gravy train.
Einhorn even discussed part of Jana's thesis that he admitted would definitely add even more value to the company than he had considered.
Well done.