Wall St hedge fund manager tries to force Apple to share out its $137bn cash pile

One of Wall Street’s biggest hedge fund managers is suing Apple in an attempt to force the iPhone maker to give more of its $137.1bn (£88bn) cash pile to investors. Three-fourths of the retail expansion will happen outside the US Photo: AFP By Richard Blackden, New York 9:36PM GMT 07 Feb 2013 David Einhorn, the outspoken head of Green Light Capital, said Apple must “examine all of its options to unlock the growing value of its balance sheet for all shareholders”. Until recently, Apple shares were the hottest on Wall Street as the success of the iPhone and iPad sent them to a record high of $705 in September. Since then, fears that Apple’s growth is slowing and its margins are shrinking have seen the shares lose more than a third of their value. The steep drop has heaped pressure on chief executive Tim Cook to find ways of returning the cash the company has accumulated to shareholders. Mr Einhorn is suing to prevent Apple eliminating preferred shares, something the Silicon Valley company wants to do at its annual shareholder meeting this month. Although preferred shares do not carry voting rights, they do typically carry a greater responsibility to pay dividends. The hedge fund manager instead wants Apple to issue more preferred shares that would offer shareholders dividends.

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