Soros, Bearish On Quick US Recovery, Is Bull On Some Stocks

Hedge-fund legend George Soros might be bearish about a fast recovery for the U.S. economy, but that hasn't stopped him from taking big stakes in a few stocks the past few weeks.

Soros, in reporting stakes of more than 5% in health-care payment processor Emdeon Inc. (EM) and energy companies InterOil Corp. (IOC) and Headwaters Inc. (HW), continues to stay exposed to the equity market despite remarks he made this week in Turkey that a U.S. recovery is a long way off. He especially likes energy stocks.

Soros Fund Management was one of the few hedge-fund firms that saw last year's financial crisis as a buying opportunity. The hedge-fund manager has steadily owned between $3.5 billion and $5 billion in equities since the second quarter of 2008, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In fact, the firm's assets across all types of investments grew by 41% to $24 billion from July 2008 to July 2009, according to a survey by industry publication AR. A Soros spokesman declined to comment.

The stakes in such energy companies as InterOil and Headwaters are the latest in a series of energy bets by Soros. Nearly a third of the firm's equity assets were invested in energy, according to the most recent filings, according to FactSet Research Systems. And that's even after selling some American depositary receipts in Brazilian oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, Soros' biggest equity holding.

Soros' filings report owning 6.8% of the stock of InterOil and 5.3% of Headwaters. He already held smaller stakes in those two companies at the end of the second quarter.

Soros bought 7.1% of Emdeon - which sells payment and claim services to Medicare, Medicaid and private companies - some time after the company's mid-August initial public offering. Looking at Emdeon's IPO filings, it doesn't appear Soros was involved from the beginning. The stock closed at $16.52 on its IPO date, and dropped to $15.66 by Sept. 23, which is when Soros said its ownership exceeded 5% of Emdeon's shares. The stock has been about flat since then.

In its most recent filings, Soros reports more than 200 equity positions, but 5% stakes in only a handful of them.

-By Joseph Checkler; Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2152; [e-mail]