$70 million paid for parcels on beachfront

Bruce Kovner, a billionaire hedge fund manager, reportedly paid about $70 million for a group of oceanfront properties in Santa Barbara County.

Trusts and partnerships affiliated with Kovner, chairman of $16-billion hedge fund Caxton Associates, purchased 12 adjacent acres in Carpinteria during February and March.

The purchases in February include $35 million for a three- acre lot with an 8,000-square-foot, six-bedroom, Tuscan farmhouse-style home and $20 million for a four-bedroom house situated on three acres, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. A month later, the Kovner-linked entities paid $15 million for six more acres of land.

Local brokers told the Journal that the last two properties weren’t on the market, indicating that Kovner may have privately persuaded the owners to sell, the Journal reported.