A small Canadian investment firm is riding GameStop Corp.’s Reddit-fueled stock moves, adding nearly US$90 million to the wealth of the father-and-son duo who control it.
Montreal-based Senvest Capital Inc., which does public and private investments, is up 46 per cent this year amid the GameStop trading frenzy. Senvest Capital controls Senvest Management LLC, which is GameStop’s seventh-largest shareholder, according to regulatory filings and data compiled by Bloomberg.
GameStop was halted numerous times Thursday morning after plummeting as much as 67.7 per cent. Senvest fell 9.8 per cent to $254 as of 11:35 a.m. in Toronto.
Senvest Management disclosed in October that it owned 3.6 million shares of GameStop, which has soared in a remarkable rally, ignited by day traders using Reddit and other online forums to encourage others to buy the stock. The retailer’s shares briefly topped US$500 in early U.S. trading Thursday before plunging, as brokers began to clamp down on trading activity in GameStop and other volatile stocks.
Richard Mashaal founded Senvest Management in 1997. The New York-based firm manages more than US$1 billion in assets, according to its website. He and his father, Victor Mashaal, collectively own almost 55 per cent of Senvest Capital, according to the latest filings. That stake is worth $114 million (US$89 million) more than it was at the start of the year. Richard Mashaal declined to comment on the firm’s GameStop investment.
“The whole thing is wild,” said Josh Young, chief investment officer at Houston-based Bison Interests LLC said, who began buying Senvest Capital shares when GameStop’s stock hit US$50. Senvest is thinly-traded and has no analyst coverage.
Bison traditionally invests in oil and gas stocks and became aware of Senvest Management from its previous energy holdings. Senvest is trading at a big discount to its net asset value, Young said, and those at the firm are “very contrarian investors.”
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