One of the largest global asset management firms focused on credit, GoldenTree Asset Management, was founded back in 2000 by Steven Tananbaum, and it currently manages around $28 billion in assets. The fund has offices in New York, London, Sydney, and Singapore. Aside from being the founder of the fund, a CFA charterholder, Steven Tananbaum, is also its Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner, in charge of supervising all fund’s investments, while also being a portfolio manager in charge of GlodenTree Loan Management. Before launching his own fund, Steven Tananbaum sharpened his investment knowledge at MacKay Shields, where he was at the top of the company’s high yield group. He managed to attract good returns, and MacKay Shields’ high yield funds were regarded among the best. Prior to MacKay Shields, Steven Tananbaum was working at Kidder, Peabody & Co. He earned his B.A. in Economics from Vassar College.
GoldenTree Asset Management’s specialties are investments belonging to the credit market, covering all from distressed debt, through high yield bonds and emerging markets, to private equity. The fund is managing investments for all kinds of institutional investors, such as insurance companies, corporate pensions, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and foundations. It offers two types of strategies – Alternative and Long Only. Under Alternative, the fund proposes several options, such as Master, Credit Opportunities, Distressed, and Opportunistic Structured Product, while under Long Only it provides choices of Multi-Sector, Value, Loan, Structured Product, and Emerging Markets. The fund looks carefully for the companies with the potential to invest in, and searches for catalysts that could bring satisfying profits, always trying to provide an investment with the least risk possible. The fund’s investment strategy turned out to be very bright, bringing positive returns throughout the years.
In 2011 its GoldenTree Credit Opportunities fund gained 0.7%, which was followed by a much higher return in 2012 through October when it delivered 15.3%. Its GoldenTree Master fund lost 0.3% in 2011, but came back the next year, delivering 10.5% through October 2012. In 2013 it had a much better return of 13.04%, in 2014 it was up by 8.15%, and in 2015 it delivered 0.70%. It continued to have a positive performance in the following years, bringing back 7.56% in 2016, 7.07% in 2017, and in 2018 through October it had a return of 5.42%, Its total return amounted to 427.50%, for a compound annual return of 9.54%, and its worst drawdown was 40.65.
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On December 31, 2018, the fund’s equity portfolio was valued around $634.03 million, and being concentrated it counted 23 positions, out of which nine were new. The fund’s investment philosophy proved to be somewhat unique as its portfolio didn’t have a single stock of those most popular stocks among hedge funds. The largest stake, after the fund had raised it by 55%, was in Bausch Health Companies Inc (NYSE:BHC), and it counted 4.17 million shares, which were valued $77.06 million. This position accounted for 12.15% of the fund’s equity portfolio. Bausch Health, previously known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals, is a specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in Canada, with a market cap of $8.20 billion. Over the last 12 months, the company’s stock gained 23.74%, and on February 25th it had a closing price of $23.35. In its financial report for the fourth quarter of 2018, Bausch Health disclosed a net loss of $344 million, compared to net income of $513 million for the same period in 2017, and GAAP loss per share diluted for Q4 2018 of $0.98, versus GAAP earnings per share of $1.45 for the corresponding quarter of 2017. There were 30 investors from Insider Monkey’s table long Bausch Health at the end of the third quarter of 2018, up by 7 from one quarter earlier.
Continue reading on the next page in order to find out about other GoldenTree Asset Management’s investment moves and portfolio changes.
