Einhorn’s Greenlight Slips in March After Strong 2019 Start

(Bloomberg) -- Greenlight Capital, the hedge fund led by David Einhorn, lost 2 percent in March, trimming gains from the first two months of 2019.

Greenlight’s main fund, which suffered its worst year on record in 2018 with a 34 percent loss, is still up more than 11 percent in 2019, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.

Einhorn’s value-investing strategy is beating peers but trailing the S&P 500 Index, which has rallied almost 14 percent in 2019 with reinvested dividends included. The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, gained 2.8 percent this year through March 28.

Last year’s losses coupled with client withdrawals caused assets to shrink by about 60 percent to $2.5 billion, prompting Einhorn to take fewer, more concentrated bets. Greenlight 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 declined to comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alexandra Stratton in New York at astratton4@bloomberg.net;Simone Foxman in New York at sfoxman4@bloomberg.net

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

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