Hedge fund Elliott Management buys stake in UK pay-TV group Sky

(Reuters) - Hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, founded by Paul Singer, has built a stake in Sky Plc , according to a regulatory filing published on Friday.

The fund's subsidiary, Elliott Capital Advisors, announced a 1.09 percent interest in Sky through a derivatives stake, following the European pay-TV group reporting a 10 percent rise in its first-half earnings.

Elliott did not say whether the Sky position was an active or passive one, when contacted by Reuters.

The investment comes ahead of Walt Disney Co buying Twenty-first Century Fox's 39 percent Sky stake in its $52.4 billion purchase of Fox assets, a deal that faces its own lengthy regulatory process in the United States.

Earlier this month, Elliott disclosed a 1.7 percent stake in British engineering company GKN Plc and a short position in GKN's suitor Melrose Industries Plc .

Sky, whose customer base rose by 365,000 in first-half earnings to 22.9 million, reported revenue of 6.7 billion pounds ($9.6 billion) for the six months to the end of December.

(Reporting by Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru, editing by David Evans)