Two hedge funds interested in helping J.C. Penney regain its ground boosted the retailer's shares Wednesday.
According to The New York Times, Glenview Capital Management and Hayman Capital Management have offered to assist the retailer in getting back on its feet after Bill Ackman resigned from the company's board and sold his 18 percent stake in the company for a loss of $500 million.
Glenview now has 9.1 percent of shares in the retail chain and is currently the company's largest shareholder. Hayman Capital Managment comes in at 5.2 percent according to information from the Securities and Exchange Commission The Times reported.
The two companies are just a few of the hedge funds who have invested their time and efforts in the company. Others include an investment fund founded by George Soros, Soros Fund Management and Perry Capital.
Hayman Capital hedge fund manager Kyle Bass told The Times J.C. Penney needs to return to serving its customers.
"(They) needed to get back to their knitting," he said. "(Ron Johnson) had lost sight of who the true customer is. The board needs to find a chief executive that can really get in touch with these customers, and rebrand and attract them."
Former J.C. Penney board member Ackman, who became involved with the company as a large investor three years ago, was not happy with the way the company was going and had therefore been requesting changes in top leadership positions The Times reported.
In 2011, Apple executive Johnson was then selected as chief executive to help the company develop its retail strategy. The installment did not work out however, as Johnson's strategy of eliminating discount sales did not prove to be effective. Myron Ullman then took over his duties temporarily.
Ackman resigned from his position Aug. 13 after a conflict with other board members where he wanted board chairman Thomas Engibous replaced, and didn't feel the views of other board members were equally heard.
Ackman sold his shares two weeks later which resulted in a loss of $473 million.
Soros has 9 percent of shares in J.C. Penney. Perry Capital, which originally had 7.3 percent over the summer increased this number to 8.6 percent.
J.C. Penney shares dropped 35 percent this year, but increased 1.9 percent Tuesday or 24 cents to $12.72 The Times reported.
