Einhorn's Greenlight Fund Surges 19% This Year With April Gain

(Bloomberg) -- Greenlight Capital, the hedge fund firm led by David Einhorn, returned 6.6 percent in April, rebounding from its loss in March.

Greenlight’s main fund, which suffered its worst year on record in 2018 with a 34 percent drop, is now up almost 19 percent in 2019, according to an investor letter seen by Bloomberg. The fund’s long positions in AerCap Holdings NV, Brighthouse Financial Inc., General Motors Co., Green Brick Partners Inc. and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG supported first-quarter gains, according to an earlier letter to shareholders obtained by Bloomberg.

Einhorn’s value-investing strategy is beating peers and the S&P 500 Index, which has returned about 18 percent in 2019 with reinvested dividends. The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, gained 3.3 percent this year through April 29.

Last year’s losses at Greenlight coupled with client withdrawals caused assets to shrink by about 60 percent to $2.5 billion, prompting Einhorn to take fewer, more concentrated bets. The firm managed $12 billion at its peak, and hadn’t taken in new capital since 2014. But in January, Einhorn told investors he’d be open once again to outside money -- saying “we no longer believe there is risk of our assets growing too quickly.”

A representative for the New York-based firm didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexandra Stratton in New York at astratton4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Josh Friedman, Dan Reichl

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