Saba Lured by Biggest Fund Discounts Since ’09: Credit Markets

Hedge-fund firms Saba Capital Management LP and Pine River Capital Management are piling into closed-end debt funds with share prices that plunged below the value of their assets by the most since the credit crisis.

Saba, the $3.9 billion manager run by Boaz Weinstein, has amassed at least $847.3 million in the publicly traded funds after it started buying them last year, moving into an area traditionally dominated by individual investors, regulatory filings show. Pine River purchased $159.6 million of shares that on average fell as much as 9.1 percent below their holdings in December, the biggest gap since 2009 as measured by Thomas J. Herzfeld Advisors Inc.