DE Shaw Is Waxing Traditional

Most people know DE Shaw as a hedge fund, though for the past five years it has been nurturing a traditional asset management unit, DE Shaw Investment Management, an arm that it hopes to propel it into the stratosphere of institutional investments.

Most people know DE Shaw as a hedge fund, though for the past five years it has been nurturing a traditional asset management unit, DE Shaw Investment Management, an arm that it hopes to propel it into the stratosphere of institutional investments. The New York-based firm currently has about $23 billion in hedge fund assets under management, compared with just $300 million in traditional investments, but that’s changing as DE Shaw reportedly will launch a new traditional asst product targeting institutional investors who are looking for something a little more conservative, but that will off them to sell it short at some point. Trey Beck, the man heading DE Shaw’s institutional business push, told the Financial Times, “I can envisage a time when DE Shaw will have traditional asset management funds in excess of the hedge fund business.” That may sound scary, but he predicts that in a decade, “it will be less important whether you a re hedge fund or a traditional manager, but whether you can generate alpha.”