Hayman Capital takes 5.2 percent stake in J.C. Penney

Two hedge fund managers revealed sizable stakes in J.C. Penney Co Inc on Tuesday after Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management sold all its shares in the struggling retailer.

Kyle Bass's Hayman Capital Management reported a 5.2 percent stake of 11.4 million shares in Penney, while Larry Robbins's Glenview Capital Management increased its stake to 9.1 percent, according to a regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hayman said it held the stake as of August 30, just days after Pershing Square sold its entire 18 percent stake in J.C. Penney following a failed effort to push the retailer into a more upscale business line.

Penney's shares rose 1.9 percent to end at $12.72 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Glenview Capital reported it more than doubled its stake in the retailer, to 9.1 percent. Glenview had previously reported a stake of about 3.8 percent in J.C. Penney as of June 30. The hedge fund held the increased stake as of August 22, the filing on Tuesday showed.

Ackman's stake, which had made him J.C. Penney's biggest shareholder, was sold to Citigroup Inc , which began offering the shares to other investors.

Pershing Square lost hundreds of millions of dollars on the bet on Plano, Texas-based J.C. Penney, whose shares have fallen 35 percent so far this year.

Last week, hedge fund manager Richard Perry reported that his fund, Perry Corp, increased its stake in J.C. Penney to 8.6 percent on August 30 after buying another 3 million shares.

Perry, in an earlier regulatory filing, said he wanted Penney's board to replace its interim chief executive, Myron Ullman, with Ken Hicks, the chief executive of Foot Locker Inc .

Perry also said he wanted the company to replace Chairman Thomas Engibous with former Chief Executive Allen Questrom. Perry said the decline in J.C. Penney's stock and bond prices was a sign that investors had "lost confidence" in the company.

Hedge fund manager George Soros's Soros Fund Management ranks as Penney's largest investor with a roughly 9.1 percent stake, or 19.98 million shares, as of the end of the second quarter.

(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by Leslie Adler)