Airbus Gain Is Dalio Loss After Billionaire Makes Bearish Bets

(Bloomberg) -- Airbus SE’s positive outlook for 2018 was a relief for investors, coming days after new issues with its A320neo jet were revealed. But it isn’t such good news for Ray Dalio.

Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates, the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, last week started a bearish bet on the aircraft maker, investing about $381 million against the company. The short position was one of several in European stocks disclosed over the past week.

Airbus shares soared as much as 9.8 percent Thursday, the most since March 2012, after the company gave a target for earnings growth of 20 percent in 2018 and ended 2017 with a record order backlog. Analysts said fourth-quarter free cash flow was also a big beat, while the difficulties around its A400M military-transport model are well contained.

Investors and market watchers have been trying to figure out the logic behind Dalio’s increasing bets against European companies. As well as Airbus, the hedge fund has disclosed bets against Total SA, ING Groep NV, Unilever, Adidas AG and Siemens AG.

Some analysts see buying opportunities in the names Dalio is betting against. Goldman Sachs on Feb. 12 released a list of 22 European stocks to buy after the recent selloff, which included two of Dalio’s short positions: BNP Paribas SA and ASML Holding NV. The following day, Natixis upgraded BNP Paribas to buy, saying that consensus is “underestimating the solid operating momentum of the different business lines.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Beth Mellor in London at bmellor@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Paul Jarvis

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.