(Bloomberg) --
Activist investor Christopher Hohn led his fund to a 41% gain in 2019, defying the industry’s mediocre returns and surging outflows.
The return marks The Children’s Investment Fund’s best annual performance in six years after gaining just 0.9% in 2018, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
A spokesman for the London-based investment firm, which manages more than $30 billion, declined to comment.
Hohn specializes in taking large stakes in companies and agitating for change to boost their share prices. His fund has made money every year since 2008, when it lost more than 40%.
The returns contrast with hedge funds betting on the rise and fall of stocks. Many have struggled to keep pace with the longest running bull market in equities, sparking an exodus of capital. The Bloomberg Equity Hedge Fund Index gained 12.3% last year, lagging a 31.5% rise in the S&P 500 Index.
Hohn missed out on a bumper payday for his latest activist bet on London Stock Exchange Group Plc last year because he sold a majority of his stake before the company’s shares surged. However, his investments in companies such as Charter Communications Inc. and Moody’s Corp. paid off handsomely.
Hohn runs a concentrated long-biased portfolio, meaning he mostly bets on rising share prices. That approach has seen consistent returns and soaring asset s amid industrywide outflows. Investors have pulled about $120 billion from hedge funds since the start of 2018.
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