Some Tiger Management-related hedge funds boast gains in turbulent 2018
05/04/2018 23:28
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
BOSTON, April 5 (Reuters) - Several hedge funds who trace
their ancestry to billionaire investor Julian Robertson's Tiger
Management are boasting positive returns for the year even as
tumbling markets have left many rivals with losses.
In the first three months of 2018, Glen Kacher's Light
Street Capital gained 11.8 percent while Chase Coleman's Tiger
Global rose 6.7 percent and Jonathan Auerbach's Hound Partners
was up nearly 1 percent, investors in the funds said.
Light Street gained 1.9 percent in March, an investor said.
Tiger Global lost 2.4 percent and Hound slipped 1.1 percent last
month, the investors said.
That compares with a loss for the S&P 500 stock index of 2.7
percent for March and a loss of 1.2 percent for the first three
months of the year. The average global hedge fund has lost 1.03
percent since January, data from Hedge Fund Research show.
Representatives for the funds either declined to comment or
could not be reached for comment.
Part of the reason Light Street has been performing well
this year is the firm's ability to successfully bet against
companies whose business models are vulnerable, one investor
said. Tiger Global wrote to investors earlier this year that it
was committed to short selling, adding "there will be a period
when our hard work pays dividends."
Hedge funds have historically billed themselves as being
able to make money in all markets by betting against stocks that
are duds, but investors say many managers have not had to
practice those skills sufficiently as markets raced higher.
Light Street's 2018 gains follow on the heels of a 38.6
percent rise last year, which was generated, in part, through
successful short bets.
Last week the $1.2 billion Menlo Park-based firm stopped
taking in money from new investors as it tries to limit its
size. It has commitments to grow to roughly $1.5 billion, a
person familiar with the firm said.
One of Light Street's biggest winners this year has been
Brazil-based payment services company PagSeguro Digital PAGS.N
which went public earlier this year and has returned 30 percent
since then. German online food delivery service Delivery Hero
DHER.DE and Japanese payment processing company GMO Payment
Gateway Inc 3769.T also contributed gains this year.
All funds trace their professional roots to Julian Robertson
and his Tiger Management, once one of the world's most
successful hedge funds with $22 billion in assets at its peak
before it shut down in 2000.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss
Editing by Chris Reese)
((svea.herbst@thomsonreuters.com; +1-617-856-4331; Reuters
Messaging: svea.herbst.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))