Inside $30 billion Hedge Fund Lone Pine’s Stellar 2020 — and the Bets Driving One of the Tiger Cub’s Funds to Deliver More than 38% Returns (Business Insider)
Lone Pine – the $30 billion Tiger Cub headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut – has soared in 2020. The equity manager has returned more than 23% in its flagship long-short fund after gaining roughly 1.6% last month, sources say. Its long-only fund though has been the real star of its offerings – the fund is up more than 38% for the year after returning nearly 11% in November.
Citadel Hires Morgan Stanley’s Former Head of Commodities (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citadel, the Chicago-based hedge fund giant, has hired former Morgan Stanley commodities trading chief Jay Rubenstein, a Citadel spokeswoman said on Monday. Rubenstein is expected to join the firm next year and will report to Sebastian Barrack, Citadel’s head of commodities, who leads the investment teams trading energy, agriculture and other commodity products, spokeswoman Megan Ingersoll said.
Inside the Retreat of Jamie Dinan’s York, a One-Time Star Hedge Fund (LiveMint)
York Capital Management’s hedge funds were flailing. Its credit hedge fund, which lost $700 million on energy bets gone wrong, was down about 50% since 2018. Other York hedge funds were also in the red. Longtime partners were leaving the firm and weren’t being replaced. Resentment simmered among some inside the firm that the head of York’s Asia hedge fund, a bright spot the last several years, wanted more money for his team and had threatened to leave, according to current and former employees. The end came in a half-hour Zoom town hall late last month where 61-year-old York founder Jamie Dinan, nearing tears at times, broke the news to his roughly 180 employees that York was essentially getting out of the hedge-fund game, some of the employees said.
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Fears as US Giant Elliott Management Snaps Up Funding Circle Debts (The Times)
The City regulator is coming under pressure to review a sale by Funding Circle of hundreds of small business owners’ personal guarantees to a firm owned by one of the world’s largest hedge funds. Funding Circle, the listed online lender, sold 300 personal guarantees – a business owner’s personal promise to repay outstanding company debt – to Azzurro Associates, a debt buyer which is ultimately owned by Elliott Management, a New York investment fund.
Singapore Hedge Fund to Offset Carbon From Commodity Shipments (Bloomberg)
A Singapore hedge fund that specializes in slow and steady returns from financing commodity trades will begin offsetting carbon emissions from its shipments. Tradeflow Capital Management Pte will purchase carbon offsets through partners such as Carbonfund.org Foundation and AirCarbon Exchange, the company said in a press release. It’s starting by tackling shipping emissions, with plans to expand to potentially cover millions of tons of commodity life-cycle emissions.
Some Small Hedge Funds Reap Big Gains in Tough Times (The Wall Street Journal)
Hedge funds are trailing the U.S. stock market this year. Some of the smallest funds are emerging as some of the best performers, driving greater demand for these types of managers. Funds with less than $1 billion in assets are benefiting from their more manageable portfolios. They can dart in and out of holdings to protect gains or minimize losses amid the market volatility that has characterized this year. They also get more bang for their buck – making investments that require less firepower to affect their overall performance.
Exxon Faces Proxy Fight Launched by New Activist Firm Engine No. 1 (Reuters)
(Reuters) – Engine No. 1 LLC, an investment firm newly launched by hedge fund industry veteran Chris James, on Monday asked Exxon Mobil Corp to focus more on investments in clean energy and plans to nominate four directors to the oil major’s board. Engine No. 1 said it has the backing of pension investor California State Teachers’ Retirement System (Calsters), which has a stake valued over $300 million in the Irving, Texas-based Exxon.
A Golden Age for Hedge Funds (Hedge Week)
Optima Asset Management: Best Multi-Manager Hedge Fund (Equity Strategies) – Dixon Boardman founded New York-based Optima Fund Management* in 1988. Since inception, Optima has been at the vanguard of hedge fund investing, navigating across diverse market environments while providing its clients access to differentiated opportunities. In Optima’s June edition of its investor newsletter, Boardman pointed out that the whipsaw action of the markets in 2020 has been a challenge not just for hedge funds but for all asset managers.
