Renaissance Technologies Rebounds Across Hedge Funds in March (Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) — Renaissance Technologies, the $58 billion quantitative investment firm founded by former military code-breaker Jim Simons, gained at three of its hedge funds last month, erasing declines posted when markets slumped in February. The $23 billion Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund rose about 2.6 percent in March after falling 3 percent in February, bringing returns for the first quarter to 1.6 percent, according to investor documents seen by Bloomberg News. That fund, known as RIEF, trades only U.S.-listed equities and is biased toward those that Renaissance’s models expect to rise. It’s designed to outperform the S&P 500 Index, which lost 0.8 percent last quarter including dividends, by 4 to 6 percentage points.
Tiger Global Joins Snoop Dogg in Betting on Cannabis Start-up Green Bits (CNBC)
Tiger Global, the investment firm that poured money into Facebook, Warby Parker and Flipkart, is now betting on cannabis alongside rapper Snoop Dogg. Green Bits, a developer of compliance software for marijuana businesses, said on Wednesday that New York-based Tiger Global led a $17 million investment round in the start-up. Tiger Global was joined by investors including Snoop Dogg’s venture firm, Casa Verde Capital, which first backed Green Bits last year.
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Steve Cohen Heads East to ‘Swing Big’ With Venture Investments (Bloomberg)
Hedge fund manager Steve Cohen is bringing his passion for tech startups to Asia, along with his checkbook. Point72 Ventures, which invests mostly the billionaire’s money in early-stage companies, is starting to evaluate prospects on the continent after putting millions of dollars into startups in the Americas and Europe. Asia presents a chance to “swing big” because it’s unburdened by technological infrastructure, particularly in financial services, said Matthew Granade, who oversees investments at the venture-capital arm of Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.
CFO Moves: Och-Ziff Capital Management, Sanofi (The Wall Street Journal)
Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, the New York hedge fund, appointed Thomas Sipp Chief Financial Officer, effective no later than June 1, 2018. Mr. Sipp will succeed Alesia J. Haas, the company’s current CFO, who resigned from her post and will remain with the company through June 1, 2018. Mr. Sipp joins from Magis Partners Ltd., where he served as managing partner for wealth management products. Prior to his time at Magis Partners, he held several senior executive positions at Credit Suisse Group AG, including CFO and chief operating officer for the bank’s asset management division.
Kevin Warsh and Stan Druckenmiller Just Invested In a Cryptocurrency That’s Designed to Be Boring (Bloomberg)
Basis said Wednesday that it sold $133 million in a pre-sale coin offering to the venture capital arms of Alphabet Inc. and Bain Capital, as well as Andreessen Horowitz, Foundation Capital and Lightspeed. Stanley Druckenmiller, a billionaire hedge fund manager, and Kevin Warsh, a former governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve, also bought in.
