Marshall Wace has picked up a 3% stake in British Airways-owner IAG, a Spanish regulatory filing from the hedge fund showed on Wednesday.
IAG last month raised €2.7-billion ($3.2-billion) to reduce debt and ride out the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hammered the global aviation industry as air travel has grounded to a halt.
The hedge fund’s bet on IAG is a sign that the fund “believes there is value in U.K. stocks”, the Financial Times earlier reported, citing a person familiar with its thinking.
London-listed IAG’s shares, which have lost more than three quarters of their value this year, closed about 1% higher at 98.26 pence on Wednesday.
The disclosure of the stake, as at Oct. 8, also comes days after the Anglo-Spanish airline group promoted Aer Lingus boss Sean Doyle to lead British Airways.
London-based Marshall Wace was founded in 1997, with U.S.-based private-equity firm KKR & Co owning a near 40% stake in the company as of Nov. 2019, according to the hedge fund’s website.
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