Luminus Management is an investment management firm that was founded back in 2002. It provides offices in New York City, NY, and Houston, Texas. Paul Segal launched this fund aiming to invest in companies belonging to utility and energy-related sectors. He was Luminus Management’s President and Portfolio Manager until 2011 when he became the Chief Executive Officer of LS Power, an investment and development company, which operates in energy infrastructure, power generation, and electric transmission sectors. At the beginning of his career, Paul Segal was employed as a generalist in the Mergers and Acquisitions Investment Banking Group at Smith Barney. He earned a B.S. with the highest honors in Bio-Chemical Engineering from Rutgers College of Engineering.
The current President and Portfolio Manager of Luminus Managament is Jonathan Dan Barrett, who is also Managing Director of LS Power Equity Advisors. He joined the fund back in 2003, prior to which he was a Director of Merger and Acquisitions Group at Salomon Smith Barney. Before he joined Salomon Smith Barney, Jonathan Barret was sharping his investment knowledge working in real estate investment. He graduated with honors in Accounting from the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa).
The fund applies low net, long/short investment strategy, mainly focusing on the public companies related to energy industries. To be more precise, Luminus Management prefers to invest in companies that belong to the following sectors: drilling, engineering and construction, utilities, power, coal/steel, MLPs, refiners, and E&P. Before investing in any company, the fund makes thorough analyses combining external and in-house research. Following its investment philosophy, the fund had a stable, positive performance throughout the last couple of years. Let’s take a look at some of its return figures.
For instance, its Luminus Energy Partners QP, LP delivered 12.36% in 2013, followed by an impressive 22.67% in 2014, and 3.21% in 2015. The next year it brought back 9.32%, and in 2017 it gained 3.39%. In a mostly challenging year for investors, 2018, Luminus Energy Partners QP, LP succeeded to maintain a notable performance, delivering 1.62% through October. The fund’s total return amounted to 578.31%, for a compound annual return of 12.3%. Its worst drawdown was 41.66.
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On December 31, 2108, Luminus Management’s equity portfolio was valued at $4.94 billion. Concentrating on specific sectors, the fund didn’t have among its first 10 positions any of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. However, its portfolio and fourth quarter investment moves were more than interesting. So, let’s take a closer look at them on the next page.
