Renaissance’s Equity Fund Sinks 7% in Rout: Hedge Fund Update

(Bloomberg) -- Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies saw its quantitative equity hedge fund tumble 7% last month as stock markets sunk.

The Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund, which only trades U.S.-listed stocks, is down a similar amount so far this year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The strategy is biased toward stocks that its computer-driven models expect to rise.

Renaissance’s loss comes as other fund strategies have fared a bit better. Jeff Altman’s Owl Creek Asset Management dropped 0.4% in February, a separate person said. The $3 billion hedge fund, which focuses on distressed credit and special situations, is up 4.7% for the year.

Tudor Investment Corp.’s Riverbend Crossing Partners fund was about flat last month. That left the event-driven fund up 0.7% for the year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Representatives for the firms declined to comment.

Tiger Global, Coatue Stock Funds Jump in Rout (1:32 p.m. NY)

Tech-heavy hedge funds including Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management jumped in February, trouncing technology stocks that got clobbered in the market rout.

Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global gained 2.1% last month in its stock-picking hedge fund, while its long-only fund fell 0.1%, according to people familiar with the matter. Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management gained 0.4% in its Qualified Partners hedge fund, according to one of the people. Its long-only fund fell 2%.

The Nasdaq 100 Index dropped almost 6% as stocks plunged around the world in late February in a coronavirus-fueled selloff. The S&P 500 Index declined 11% in five days and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its lowest since June.

David Meyer’s Contour Asset Management, a $1.4 billion stock hedge fund focused on technology, media and telecommunications sectors, rose about 4% in the month, bringing the year-to-date return to 6%, according to an investor. The 10-year-old firm is backed by Swedish asset manager Brummer & Partners.

By contrast, firms that tend to concentrate their portfolios around fewer names suffered in the market swoon. Soroban Capital Partners, the hedge fund firm co-founded by Eric Mandelblatt, plunged 7.7%, bringing 2020 losses to 6%, people familiar with the firm said. Soroban, which managed $8 billion as of January, soared 45% last year.

Representatives for the firms declined to comment.

Viking’s Global Equities Hedge Fund Gains (11:36 a.m. NY)

Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global Investors made money in its main hedge fund last month, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The Viking Global Equities fund gained 1.1%, bringing year-to-date returns to 3.1%, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. That fund oversaw $17.8 billion as of January. Viking’s long-only fund tumbled 4.7% in the period, bringing losses for the year to 3.4%.

Suvretta Capital Management, the $3.5 billion firm run by Aaron Cowen, lost money in both its hedge fund and long-only fund, people familiar said. It fell 0.4% in its long-short equity fund last month, paring year-to-date gains to 3.8%. Its long-only fund plunged 7.7%, bringing losses for the year to 5.3%, the people said.

Representatives for the firms declined to comment.

Loeb, Ackman See February Losses Amid Rout (10:35 a.m. NY)

Hedge funds run by Dan Loeb and Bill Ackman sunk in February amid the worst equity rout in more than a decade.

Loeb’s flagship Third Point Partners fund fell 6.5% last month, bringing its loss this year to 5.4%, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Ackman’s publicly traded Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. dropped 5.8% last month, and is down 7% for the year, according to a document on its website.

Representatives for Third Point LLC and Pershing Square Capital Management declined to comment.

Ackman’s 2020 is a turnaround from last year. His $5.2 billion fund posted its best performance on record in 2019, climbing 58% and benefiting from concentrated wagers as markets soared. Third Point’s fund was up 18.5% in the period.

Multistrategy Funds Including Citadel Gain (9:21 a.m. NY)

Wall Street’s biggest multistrategy hedge funds managed to stay in the black last month, riding out a market rout.

Ken Griffin’s Citadel, Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management all gained in the month, according to people with knowledge of the returns.

Citadel, which manages $30 billion, saw its flagship Wellington fund rise about 1% in February, as did Balyasny’s Atlas Enhanced fund after a flat January. Citadel’s fund is up 4.5% for the year through February.

Millennium, which has $40 billion in assets, gained 0.4%, while Point72, which manages $16.1 billion, posted a 0.6% return for the month.

Not all mulitstrategy hedge funds made money. Sculptor Capital Management, the hedge fund firm formerly known as Och-Ziff, fell 0.05% in February in its master fund, paring year-to-date returns to 2.5%, according to a regulatory filing.

Representatives for the firms declined to comment.

Some long-short equity managers eked out positive returns.

• Cinctive Capital Management, which was started by Citadel alum Rich Schimel in September with $1 billion in pledged capital, gained less than half a percentage point in the month.
• Brahman Capital’s long-short equity fund, Brahman Partners II, jumped 4.9%, a person familiar said. That brings its year-to-date performance as of month-end to 5.9%.
• SoMa Equity Partners, a $2.2 billion long-short equity fund, gained 0.9% in February in its master fund, according to an investor document seen by Bloomberg. The TMT-focused fund is up about 3% this year.

--With assistance from Melissa Karsh, Michael McDonald and Katherine Burton.

To contact the reporters on this story: Hema Parmar in New York at hparmar6@bloomberg.net;Katia Porzecanski in New York at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Melissa Karsh, Alan Mirabella

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