Hedge Funds and Alternatives Alternatives
July 21, 2010
Tough Year for Tiger Cubs
Julian Robertson is mulling a "seeding" fund or a fund of hedge funds for outside investors, but his timing may not be that great. Many of his Tiger cubs — former fund managers — are struggling and are among the worst-performing hedge funds.
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A report in The Wall Street Journal that Julian Robertson is mulling a "seeding" fund or a fund of hedge funds for outside investors is intriguing. After all, there are clearly more Tiger Management alums — also known as cubs — than descendents of any other hedge fund firm. And for the past decade, Robertson has seeded several dozen up and coming managers, taking a piece of the action in exchange for providing rthe managers with some of his own capital and access to his friends and firm’s infrastructure.
Having the word Tiger at the beginning of your fund’s name is not too bad either.
Robertson’s timing, however, may not be that great. Ironically, this year many of the Tiger cubs — especially many of the most famous and largest — are struggling and are among the worst-performing hedge funds in what has been a volatile year for investors in general. They include long-short equity funds such as Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Capital, which was down about 4.7 percent through June 30 and Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital, off 3.3 percent through July 2. ....